180 HAL 
eminent teachers Duvernoi and Camerarius ; and con- 
tinned there for the fpace of two years, when the great 
reputation'of the jpftly-celebrated Boerhaave drew him 
to Leyden. Nor was this diftinguifhed teacher the only v 
man from whofe fuperior abilities he had then an oppor¬ 
tunity of profiting. Ruyfch was (till alive, and Albi¬ 
nos was rifing into fame. Animated by’ fiich exam¬ 
ples, he fpent all the day, and the greatefl part of the 
night, in the mod intenfe ftudy ; and the proficiency 
he made gained him univerfal efteem both from his 
teachers and fellow.ftudents. From Holland, in 1727, 
lie came to England. Here, however, his ftay was but 
fiiort; and it was rather his intention to vifit the ilhif- 
rious men of that period, than to profecute his (Indies. 
He formed connexions with fome of the mod: eminent of 
them. He was honoured with the friendfhip of Douglas 
and Chefelden; and'he met with a reception propor¬ 
tioned to his merit from fir Hans Sloane, prefident of the 
Royal Society. After his vifit to England, he went to 
France; and there, under thofe eminent matters, Win¬ 
dow and Le Drany with the latter of whom he redded 
during his (tay in Paris, he had opportunities of p'rofe- 
cuting anatomy, which he had not before enjoyed. But 
the zeal of the young anatomift was greater than the 
prejudices of the people at that period, even in the en¬ 
lightened city of Paris, could admit of. An information 
being lodged againft him to the police for diffeXing dead 
bodies, he was obliged to cut (hort his anatomical in- 
vertigations by a precipitate retreat. Still, however, 
intent on the farther profecption of his (ludies, he went 
to Bafil, where he firft imbibed a tade for botany, and 
fiudied the mathematics under the celebrated Bernouilli. 
Thus improved and infiruXed by the leXures of the 
mod diftinguifhed teachers of that period, by. uncom¬ 
mon natural abilities,- and by unremitting induftry, he 
returned to the place of his nativity in the twenty-fixth 
year of his age. Not long after this, he offered himfelf 
a candidate, firft for the office of phyfician-to an hofpi- 
tal, and. afterwards for a profeflbrffiip. But neither the 
charaXer which he had before he left his ilative coun¬ 
try, nor the fame which he had acquired and fupported 
while abroad, were fufficient to combat the intereft op- 
pofed to him. He was difappointed in both ; and it 
was even with difficulty that he obtained, in the follow¬ 
ing year, the appointment of keeper of a public library 
at Berne. The exercife of this office was indeed by no 
means fuited to his great abilities : but it was agreea¬ 
ble to him, as it aftorded him an opportunity for that 
cxtenfive reading by which he has been To juftly ,diftin¬ 
guifhed. The negleX of his merit which marked his 
firft outfet, neither diminiffied his ardour for medical 
purfuits, nor detraXed from his reputation either at 
home or abroad. He had the honour of being nomi¬ 
nated a profeffor in the univerfity of Gottingen, by our 
king George II. The duties of this important office he 
difcharged, with no lefs reputation to himfelf than ad¬ 
vantage to'the public, for the fpace of feventeen years ; 
and it afforded him an ample field for the exertion of 
thofe great talents which he polleffed. Extenfively ac¬ 
quainted with the fentiments of others refpeXing the 
economy of the human body, ftruck with the diverfity 
of opinions which they held, and fenfible that the only 
means of inveftigating truth was by careful and candid 
experiment, he undertook the arduous talk of exploring 
the phenbmena of human nature from the original fourcesl 
In thefe purfuits he was no lefs induftrious than fuc- 
cefstul, and there was hardly any funXion of the body 
on which his experiments did not refleX either a new 
or a ftronger light. Nor was it long neceffary for him, 
in this arduous undertaking, to labour alone. The ex¬ 
ample of the preceptor infpired his pupils with the fpirit 
of induftrious exertion. Zinn, Zimmermann, Caldani, 
and many others, animated by a generous emulation, 
laboured with indefatigable induftry to profecute and 
to perfeX the difcoveries of their great mailer. And 
L E R. 
the mutual exertion of the teacher and his ftudents’ 
not only tended to forward the progrefs of medical fci- 
ence, but placed the philofophy of the human body on 
a more fure, and an almoft entirely new, bafis. But 
the labours of Dr. Haller, during hisrelidence at Got¬ 
tingen, were by no means confined to any one depart¬ 
ment of fcience. He was not moreanxious to be an im¬ 
prover himfelf, than to inftigate others to fimilar pur¬ 
fuits. To him, the Anatomical Theatre, the School of 
Parturition, the Chirurgjcal Society, and the Royal 
Academy of,Sciences it Gottingen, owe their origin. 
Such diftinguifhed merit could not fail to meet with a 
fuitable reward from the fovereign under whofe protec¬ 
tion he then taught. The king of England not only 
honoured him with every mark of attention which he 
himfelf could beftow, but procured him alfo letters of 
nobility from the emperor. On the death of Dillenius, 
he had alfo an offer of the profefforfhip of botany at Ox¬ 
ford ; the dates of Holland invited him to the chair of 
the younger Albinus ; the king of Pmffia was anxious 
that he fhould be the fucceflor of Maupertuis at Ber¬ 
lin. Marfhal Keith wrote to him in the name of his fo¬ 
vereign, offering him the chancellorffiip of the univer¬ 
fity of Halle, vacant by the death of the celebrated 
Wolff". Count Orlow invited him to Ruffia, in the name 
of his miftrefs the emprefs, offering him a di-ftinguiffied 
place at St. Peterlburgh. The king of Sweden con¬ 
ferred on him an unfolicited honour, by raifing him to 
the rank of knighthood of the order of the polar ftar ; 
,and the emperor of Germany did him the honour of a 
perfonal vifit ; during which lie thought it no degrada¬ 
tion of his charaXer to pals fome time with him in the 
rrtoft familiar converfation. 
Honoured by fovereigns, revered by men of literature, 
and efteemed by all Europe, he had it in his power to 
have held the higheft,-rank in the republic of letters. 
Yet, declining all the tempting offers which were made 
to him, he continued at Gottingen, anxioufty endea¬ 
vouring to extend the rifing fame of that medical fchoel. 
But after feventeen years refidence in that univerfity, 
an ill ftate of health rendering him lefs fit for the duties 
of the important office which he held, he folicited and 
obtained permiffion from the regency of Hanover to re¬ 
turn to his native city of Berne. His fellow-citizens, 
who might at firft have fixed him among themfelves, 
with no lefs honour than advantage to their city, were 
now as fenfible as others of his fuperior merit. A pen- 
lion was fettled upon him for life, and lie was nomi- 
i\ated at different times to fill the moft important offices 
in the ftate. Thefe occupations, however, did not di- 
miniffi his ardour for ufeful improvements. He was the 
firft prefident, as well as the greatefl promoter, of the 
Oeconomical Society at Beme ; and he, may be confi- 
dered as the father and founder of the Orphan Ilofpital 
of that city. Declining health, however; reftrained his 
exertions in the more aXive fcenes of life, and for many 
years he was confined entirely to his own houfe. Even 
this, however, could not put a period to his utility : 
for, with indefatigable induftry, he continued his favou¬ 
rite employment of writing till within a few days of his 
death ; which happened in the 70th year of his age, on 
the 12th of December,)-1777. 
The writings of baron Haller defervedly rank high in 
the annals of literature. In 1742 appeared the firft edi¬ 
tion of his great work on the botany of Swifferland, en¬ 
titled, Enumeratio Plantarum indigenarum Helvetia., folio ; 
which at one railed him to the firft clafs among the pro¬ 
ficients in that fcience. It received feveral fucceffive 
correXions and augmentations in feparate publications; 
and at length, in 1768, was given in its perfeX form, 
under the title of, Hijloria Stirpium Helvetia indigenarum, 
3 tom. in 2 vols. folio, with many plates. He alfo gave 
a Catalogue of the plants growing in the botanical gar¬ 
den, and in the diftriX of Gottingen, .in 1742, and 1753, 
8vo. and he publillied a number of botanical papers, 
