mentioning the fubject curforily to a few relations, he immediately refolved to follow the practice of phyfic. The extraordinary fame of Haller, who had recently been promoted by King George the Second to a profefforship in the univerfity of Gottingen, refounded at this time throughout Europe; and Zimmerman determined to profecute his ftudies in phyfic under the aufpices of this great and celebrated mafter. He was admitted into the univerfity on the 12th of September, 1747, and obtained his degree on the 14th of Auguft, 1751. The promifing genius of the young pupil induced the profeffor to receive him with every token of esteem. He ordered an apartment to be provided for him under his own roof; affifted him by his advice; fuperintended his ftudies; and behaved to him throughout his future life as a parent, a preceptor, a patron, and a friend. Zinn, Caldani, and feveral other eminent men, were at this time ftudying under Haller. The example of the teacher infpired his pupils with the fpirit of induftrious exertion; and, by their indefatigable in industry, and mutual endeavours to profecute and perfect his discoveries, they not only forwarded the progrefs of medical science, but placed the philosophy of the human body on a more fure and an almost entirely new bafis. The genius of Zimmerman, however, was too powerful and expanfive to be confined exclufively to the study of medicine; the frame and temper of the human mind, natural philofophy, and particularly mathematics, engaged a confiderable portion of his attention, and, by the affiftance of M. Segner, rewarded his toils with a large fund of valuable information. Politics, alfo, both as they relate to the municipal government of nations, and as they embrace that more important fubject which has of late years been fo well known in Europe under the denomination of ftatistics, did not escape his investigation. To relax his mind from these feverer ftudies, he cultivated a complete knowledge of the English language, and became fo great a proficient in the polite and elegant literature of this country, that the British Poets, particularly Shakespear, Pope, and Thomson, were as familiar to him as his favourite authors Homer and Virgil. Every moment, in fhort, of the four years he paffed at Gottingen, was employed in the useful and ornamental improvement of his capacious mind, which appears to have been ftimulated by a fecret prefage of his future greatnefs: for, in a letter written during this period, to his friend Dr. Tillot, of Berne, he fays, "I pass every hour of my life "here like a man who is determined "not to be forgot by pofterity;" and even fo early as as the year 1751, he produced a work in which he difcovered the dawnings of that extraordinary genius which afterwards fpread abroad with fo much effulgence.* But the ardour of his mind impofed upon his corporeal frame a task too laborious to be continually fuftained; and at length his unceafing affiduities, and close application, af * Differtatio Phyfiologica de irritabilitate quam publicè defendet. JOH, GEORGIUS ZIMMERMAN, Goet. 4to. 1741. b fected his health, and produced many alarming fymptoms of that grievous malady the hypochondria. For knowledge is as food, and needs no less To divert his mind, and diffipate the baneful effects of this diforder, he quitted the univerfity, and travelled for a few months through Holland, where he formed an acquaintance with the celebrated Gaubius; and afterwards vifited Paris, where his great abilities, as a scholar and a physician, foon rendered him a confpicuous character. The amufements of Paris, however, and perhaps the envy which his fuperior merits raised against him in the minds of certain profeffional competitors, made his refidence in this vitiated and tumultuous metropolis irkfome and difagreeable to him; and towards the year 1752 he returned to Berne, where he enjoyed the double fatisfaction of acquiring a confiderable degree of practice, an and of being received by all his former friends with open arms and unfeigned cordiality. During the early part of his refidence at Berne, he published many excellent effays on various fubjects in the Helvetic Journal; particularly a work on the talents and erudition of Haller. This grateful tribute to the just merits of his friend and benefactor, he afterwards enlarged into a complete hiftory of his life and writings, as a fcholar, a philofopher, a phyfician, and a man. It was published in 1755, at Zurich, in one large volume octayo, and received, as in the opinion of Tiffot it highly deferved, with uncommon teftimonies of applaufe. The health of Haller, which had fuffered greatly by the feverity of study, feemed to decline in proportion as his fame increased; and, obtaining permiffion to leave Gottingen, he repaired to Berne, to vifit his friends, and to try, by the advice and affiftance of Zimmerman, to restore, if poffible, his decayed conftitution. The benefits he experienced in a fhort time were fo great, that he determined to relinquifh his profefforfhip, and |