In looking over the list of medical men who attained distinction during the first half of the eighteenth century, one can scarcely fail to note two important facts, viz., that they hailed from widely separated localities in Western Europe,—for example, from England, Holland, Northern Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy,—and also that the advances which they effected in medical knowledge were not confined to one or two departments of this science but included very nearly all the fundamental branches. Hence it could not rightly be claimed by a citizen of any one of these countries that his own nation was entitled to be considered the leader in this advance. It would be a waste of time, and would require more space than can be spared for such a purpose, to furnish here even an incomplete list of the anatomists, biologists, chemists, pharmacologists, diagnosticians, therapeutists and surgeons who during the period named took a very active part in the work. Probably Boerhaave of the University of Leyden, Holland, of whose career I have given some account in the preceding volume, deserves to be reckoned one of the first physicians who exerted a strong stimulating influence upon the movement as a whole. From a superficial examination of his writings the modern physician finds it difficult to understand why Boerhaave attained so great a degree of popularity as he indisputably did,—a popularity, too, which was of the best sort; for during the period of his professorship both students and practicing physicians flocked to Leyden from all parts of Europe, and they never tired of speaking about the great benefit which they derived from Boerhaave’s teaching. Many of them attributed this popularity more especially to his practice—which at that time was a novelty—of laying great stress upon bedside teaching and upon the importance of studying disease from direct observation of its manifestations in the living subject. Then, in addition, there is evidence that, as a teacher, Boerhaave undoubtedly possessed the gift of exerting a personal charm upon his auditors.[3] Not a few of those who were privileged to receive instruction from this celebrated physician became themselves distinguished afterward as teachers or authors, and thus Boerhaave’s method of teaching was perpetuated. Among the physicians to whom reference has just been made were such men as Albrecht von Haller, of Berne, Switzerland, Van Swieten, of Vienna, and Hoffmann, of Halle, Prussian Saxony, many of whom are well known to-day in a general way to students of the history of medicine, but who, nevertheless, in at least a few instances, are worthy of having their careers described in further detail. In the following pages I propose to supply biographical sketches of these men and to show in what respects they exerted a beneficial influence upon the great body of their confrères, and also to what extent they made contributions to the science of medicine in its various branches.