Albrecht von Haller: an encyclopaedic cosmopolite in the history of Swiss medicine.

Albrecht von Haller was born in Bern on October 16, 1708 and studied medicine in Tubingen and Leiden. From the middles thirties on, and for seventeen years, he taught botany, anatomy and surgery at the University of Gottingen, where he founded the botanical garden, the institute of anatomy and the Royal Society of Science. His research included the study of Swiss flora, experimentation in human physiology and the investigation of vascular anatomy. One of his main scientific interests was how the human body functions, and he believed that it worked as an active organism characterized by its capacity for reaction to stimuli and impulses. In his work Icones anatomicae (1743-1756), von Haller minutely described the human arterial circulation. This scientist also investigated the properties of the nervous and muscular systems, in particular in terms of sensibility and irritability, and the development of embryos. Albrecht von Haller died in Bern on December 12, 1777.