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Albrecht von Haller Biography

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HALLER, häl’lēr, Albrecht von (1708–77). An eminent physiologist, anatomist, botanist, and poet, born at Bern, Switzerland. Two years after the death of his father, an able lawyer, he went, in 1723, to the University of Tübingen, where he became the pupil of the anatomist Duvernoy. In 1725 he removed to Leyden, where he obtained the degree of M.D. in 1727. He then visited London, whence he proceeded to Oxford and afterward to Paris, where for six months he studied anatomy and botany; later he became the pupil of Johann Bernoulli, the celebrated mathematician, at Basel. He returned in his twenty-second year to his native city and commenced practice as a physician. The professor of anatomy, Meig, having fallen ill, Haller undertook the duties of his class; he likewise devoted much of his time about this period to the botany of the Alps and also published a descriptive poem, Die Alpen. In 1735 he was appointed physician to the hospital, and shortly afterward principal librarian and curator of the cabinet of medals; but in 1736 he left Bern to become professor of medicine, anatomy, botany, and surgery in the new university at Göttingen. For the next 18 years he devoted himself wholly to teaching and to original research. He took an active part in the formation of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Göttingen, and the memoirs of the society contain many of his papers. During the period from 1736 to 1753 he published 86 works on medical subjects. He was appointed physician to the King of England in 1739. In 1753 he returned to Bern. Among his most important writings are his Elementa Physiologæ Corporis Humani (1757–66)—by far the most important of his works—and his four Bibliothecæ, or critical catalogues of works on botany, surgery, anatomy, and medicine. Haller's eminence as a man of science was duly recognized, in his own lifetime. He was ennobled by the Emperor of Germany in 1748, and the universities of Oxford and Utrecht in vain endeavored to obtain him as their professor. His name is especially connected with the doctrine of muscular irritability. (See Muscle.) While his name is indelibly recorded in the annals of science, it should also be remembered that by his work as a poet Haller greatly contributed to the movement which towards the end of the eighteenth century brought new life to German poetry. Others of his works were: Icones Anatomicæ (1743–50); Opuscula Pathologica (1755); Opuscula Botanica (1749). For his Life, consult Frey (Leipzig, 1879).