Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/28

24 anatomy in an amphitheatre which the republic had established for that purpose; he was also physician to an hospital, and entrusted with the care of the public library, and cabinet of medals. In the first year that he undertook the latter office he formed a regular catalogue of all the books, and arranged and described in chronological order more than 5000 antique medals. King George the Second being desirous of promoting the reputation of the University of Gottingen, invited Haller to accept of an anatomical, surgical, and botanical professorship, which he established for him; and Haller accepted this invitation. The opportunities of information at the school of Berne were too small for the mind of Haller, and he there met with the usual difficulty of procuring bodies for dissection.

Haller resided in Gottingen seventeen years, and made physiology his principal study. He found the knowledge of this subject encumbered and perplexed with false and absurd assertions and doctrines, which he removed, and endeavoured to make physiology as much like science as possible. He saw the necessity for an exact