Haller, Albrecht background

Albrecht von Galler was born in 1708 in Bern , in a patrician family. Already in the 15th year he wrote tragedies and comedies and composed an epic poem in 4000 verses about the beginning of the Swiss Union .

In 1723 he entered the University of Tübingen , from where he moved to Leiden to listen to the famous Burgava . At the age of 19, he received a doctorate in medicine, after which he traveled to England and France and in Basel listened to higher mathematics with Johann Bernoulli . In 1728, he and Gesner made an excursion into the mountains, during which he collected material for a large work on botany and pondered his famous descriptive poem, "The Alps." After a second stay in Basel, where, incidentally, he lectured on anatomy, Haller returned to Bern in 1729 and soon became a famous doctor ^[1] .

Published in 1732, without Haller's signature, the book of his poems (Versuch schweiz. Gedichte) drew the attention of a few lovers of German poetry at that time. His didactic poem "On the Origin of Evil" was translated into many languages ​​and, by the way, into Russian twice ( Karamzin in prose in 1786 and in poetry by Pyotr Bogdanov in 1798). In 1736, he took a professorship in the departments of medicine and botany at the newly opened University of Gottingen and founded the Anatomical Theater and the Botanical Garden there. In 1742, his long-standing work Enumeratio methodica stirpium Helvetiae indigenarum was published, and 9 years later he opened the Royal Society of Sciences (Socieät der Wissenschaftea), which elected him his permanent president.

In Göttingen, Haller enjoyed the respect and love of his listeners, and everywhere - the fame of one of the first scientists in the world; Emperor Franz I gave him the nobility; the English king made him state adviser and his life physician ; his name was in Utrecht , Oxford , Berlin , Halle and St. Petersburg ; but when Bern elected him a member of the great council, his love of his homeland made him renounce all honors and the pulpit and return to the fatherland. In Bern, he founded salt crafts, organized medical police, promoted the development of agriculture, etc. From his scientific works during this time, observations were made on the development of the embryo in the egg, on the growth of bones, and especially his 8-volume “Elementa physiologiae corporis humani” ( Lausanne , 1755-66). In addition, he published a number of compendiums (Bibliotheca botanica, Zurich , 1771-2; Bibliotheca anatomica, ibid., 1774–77; Bibl. Chirurgica, Basel, 1774–75, and the unfinished Bibl. Medicinae practicae ”, Ibid., 1776–87), very useful in his time; of great importance in the history of science is his extensive physiological monograph De functionibus corporis humani praecipuarum partium. In the Göttingen-based Gelehrten Anzeigen he founded, he posted up to 2,000 reviews. Haller wrote three moral-political-historical novels (Usong, 1771; Alfred, 1773, and Fabius und Cato, 1774; Alfred translated into Russian by E. Runich in 1788; Fabius and Caton) - P. Polonsky in 1793), in which he expresses his views on different forms of government. By old age, Haller became very gloomy and hostile to French "educational" literature.

He died in 1777 .

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  Ex libris from Albrecht von Haller. Da fondazione beic

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  Ex libris from Albrecht von Haller. Da fondazione beic

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  Manuscript notes from Albrecht von Haller. Da fondazione beic

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  Copper engraving ex libris from Albrecht von Haller. Fondazione beic

Haller did not possess outstanding poetic talent, but the historical and literary significance of his work, however, is extremely great. There is a lot of sincerity in his verses and there is not a single superfluous word; in “Alps” he describes what he saw with such accuracy that even then German prose did not reach. True, these descriptions are sometimes too thorough and scientific, and in his purely lyrical works, at least flowing from a sincere feeling, cold reason often manifests itself too vividly; but on the other hand, courageous energy is heard in them, especially pleasing after the vagueness and sweetness of the German poets of the previous generation. Haller’s merit is that he pointed out a higher task for poetry than pleasing the ear with loud rhymes. A critical edition of his poems, with an extensive biography, is made by L. Hirzel (Frauenfeld, 1882). Monograph about him: "Haller und seine Bedeutung für die deutsche Kultur", Lissauer (Berlin, 1873).

Haller's achievements in anatomy and physiology are very important. He first published numerous corrections and additions on the issues of anatomy in the form of small articles, and then collected them in his two main works on anatomy: “Opuscula anatomica minora” ( Lausanne , 1765) and the aforementioned “Icones anatomicae”. He studied pathological anatomy in his Opuscula pathological (ibid., 1755); he paved the way for zootomies with his anatomical work on animals; embryology - observations of the development of the embryo in the egg. In physiology, he filled up the gaps in Harvey ’s teaching on blood circulation and, in relation to the flow of blood in the thinnest vessels, established views that preserved the essence of the price even now. On the mechanical and chemical side of breathing, he also established more correct views in the work “De respiratione experimenta anatomica” ( Göttingen , 1746 and 1749), in “Mémoires sur la respiration” and the second volume of “Opera minora”. Especially important to Haller is his experimental research on the activity of nerves and muscles. He was the first to correctly distinguish three properties of muscle fibers: elasticity, the ability to respond to nerve irritations, and the ability to independently respond to mechanical and chemical irritations. He called the last property irritability; on this concept, after it was generalized and transferred to the nerves, mucous membranes , glands, etc., whole pathological systems were later built.

Haller quite sharply (and not too well-reasoned) criticized the genital system of plant classification of Karl Linnaeus , published in 1735 ^[2] . In the botanical essay De metodico studio botanices absque praeceptore (Göttingen, 1736), Haller gave the foundations of a natural system built both on the appearance of plants and their natural relationship, as well as on the relations of the fertilization organs, but met with little approval, this system was not recognized ^[3] . Galler later criticized Carl Linnaeus on behalf of his 15-year-old son Gottlieb Emanuel: Dubia ex Linnei fundamentis hausta (Göttingen, 1751).

Josef Schultes, an Austrian science historian, wrote about Haller in 1817 that he was "the greatest man of his time and still not condoned by anyone who lived after him." Schultes, in connection with criticism by Haller Linnaeus, wrote that "Haller was in every area of ​​human knowledge what Linnaeus was only in the field of natural history." Schultes particularly highly appreciated the work of Haller "Flora of Switzerland", calling it immortal work ^[2] .

Haller is a foreign honorary member (since 1776) of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences . ^[four]

• Haller Albrecht // Gazlift - Gogolevo. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1971. - (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. Ed. A. M. Prokhorov ; 1969-1978, vol. 6).
• Kirpichnikov A.I. Galler, Albrecht // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Lebedev D.V. Essays on Botanical Historiography (XIX - early XX centuries) / Otv. ed. M. E. Kirpichnikov . - L .: Nauka, 1986 .-- 165 p. - 1600 copies.
• Merkulov V.L. Albrecht Galler - L .: Nauka, 1981. - 183 p.