human body, without previously investigating the analogous function in the bodies of animals by dissection or experiment; and he tells us that he often found that questions to which no sufficient answers could be obtained by observations on the human body, were at once solved by his examinations on the various classes of animals. Deeply read in all the works of those who preceded him, and in all those of his contemporaries in every nation, he did not attempt to decide anything till he had considered all their statements, and compared them with his own investigations, and hence each of his works contains so perfect an epitome of the labours of all former writers on the same subject, and a mass of evidence so extensive, that whatever errors the conclusions he sometimes arrived at may contain, they can never fail to be records of the highest value. At the same time, the elegant and lucid style in which they are written, the result of the combination, almost unique, of the poet and the anatomist, has rendered them attractive, notwithstanding their great extent, to his successors in every country.

"It would be difficult to determine how large a portion of the facts of medical science, now most familiarly known, we owe to the extraordinary labours of Haller. Some idea of the extent of his works may be formed from the fact that the titles of nearly two hundred treatises, published by him from 1727 to 1777, are givien by Senebier in his 'Eloge' of Haller, and that this list does not profess to be complete. He is unanimously received as the father of modern physiology, whose history commences with his writings. He was the first to investigate independently the laws of the animal economy, which had before been studied only in connection with the prevailing mechanical and chemical, or metaphysical theories of the day. Commencing with a sound knowledge of anatomy, and of the structure of the organs in the dead body; he sought experimentally and systematically to discover the laws which governed their actions during life, proceeding from the most simple to the most complex phenomena."

Haller lived twenty-four years after his retirement from the active studies of his profession, honoured by the friendship of the most eminent men of the time, and rewarded by substantial marks of favour from the various monarchs whose inclinations induced them to foster the efforts of admitted genius. His works are most voluminous, but consist principally of compilations written in a style of great beauty.

Haller died at Berne, in October, 1777, aged seventy-one years.

THE CURATE ARSOTTO.

(Painted by Giovanni di San Giovrani.)

THE Curate Arlotto is a humorous character, only familiar to the Italians. His jests have been collected under the title of "Facezie del piovano Arlotto." To this book, but little known in this country, and almost forgotten in Italy, we have had recourse for the explanation of the subject of the picture before us. Some country squires, after a hunting party, having taken up their residence with the ingenious Arlotto, put his cellar and his table for several days under contribution, without making him the offer of a single head of game. Compelled to return to Florence, they promised the curate they would soon pay him a second visit, and left their hounds under his care, to the number of sixteen. Arlotto conceived the idea of avenging himself for their want of liberality he presented food to the pack of hounds under his management,