HALLER, Albrecht von, arbast fact hailer, Swiss anatomist, botanist and poet: b. Bern, 16 Oct. 1708; d. there, 17 Dec. 1777. Hav ing chosen the medical profession, he went to the University of Tubingen, where he studied comparative anatomy under Duvernoy; and in 1725 removed to Leyden, then the first medical school in Europe. After extensive travels in England and France, he went to Basel in 1728 to study mathematics under Bernoulli. ; Here he first imbibed a taste for botany and composed his poem Die Alpen,' followed by various ethi cal epistles and other pieces, which gav• him a reputation in Germany. In 1729 he returned to his native city, became in 1736 professor of anatomy, surgery and botany, in the newly founded of Gottingen, and through his influence the university was enriched with a botanical garden, an anatomical theatre, a school for midwifery and a college of surgery. In 1747 appeared the first edition of his Prim Line Physiologim,' which was long used as a textbook in schools of medicine. In 1752 he first advanced his opinions on the properties of sensibility and irritability as existing in the nervous and muscular fibres of animal bodies — doctrines which attracted much attention, and excited great controversies in the medical world. Disagreements with his colleagues in
duced him to return, in 1753, to Bern where he was elected a member of the sovereign coun cil, and soon obtained by lot one of its magis tracies. In 1758 he became director of the public salt-works at Bex and Aisle, and in the course of his superintendence introduced many im provements in the manufacture of •salt. His later published works include Phy siologim Corp.oris Humani' (1757-66) ; otheca Botanica> (1771) ; Anatom ice (1774) ; Chirurgice (1774) ; Medicinm (1776-88). Haller is considered one•of the greatest Ger man poets of the 18th century. His philo sophical and descriptive poems display depth of thought and richness of imagination. His Poems' (Die elegischen Gedichte) are still frequently republished in Germany. He wrote in prose three philosophico-political romances— (Alfred the Great,' and (Fabius and Cato —designed to exhibit the respective advantages of different forms of government. Consult the 'Life' by Frey (1879).