It will undoubtedly surprise some of my readers, as it did me, to learn that during the comparatively barren period of the eighteenth century, to which brief reference has been made on a previous page, there were in Northern and Central Germany several anatomists and biologists who did creditable work as original investigators in these departments of medicine. Of this small number, however, I shall mention here only one—Reil. While he spent the greater part of his life in Germany, he was in reality a native of Holland. * * * * * JOHANN CHRISTIAN REIL was born at Rhaude, East Friesland, in 1759. His father, who was the pastor of the village church, gave his son an excellent preliminary training, which enabled him, at the age of ten, to enter the high school (_Gymnasium_) in the neighboring town of Norden. On attaining his twentieth year, Johann entered the University of Goettingen, but he remained there only a short time, as he had become convinced that the Halle University offered greater facilities for those who intended, as did Reil, to follow a medical career. Three years later, armed with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, he began the practice of his profession at Norden. In the course of five years he managed to build up such a reputation as a successful practitioner that the University of Halle invited him to occupy the position of Professor Extraordinary of Clinical Medicine. Then, after the lapse of only a short year from the time of his acceptance of this invitation, he was promoted to the full professorship. Almost simultaneously he was appointed (1789) to the position of City Physician of Halle. It was probably while serving in the latter capacity that he began to reveal to the Government that he was not only an excellent physician but also possessed, at the same time, unusual executive ability. Between the years 1789 and 1806, at which latter date the German army met with a disastrous defeat at the hands of the French (battle of Jena), the almost constant warfare brought all official university work to a stop. But Reil was not idle during this long period, for it was at this time that he devoted himself chiefly to laboratory research work with reference to the anatomy and physiology of the brain and nerves. The products of this work are recorded in the Archives of Physiology which Reil published in 1796 in association with Autenrieth, and they are pronounced by Sudhoff to be masterly. One of the cerebral structures which Reil was the first to describe is that known to all anatomists as “the island of Reil.” Another important series of studies which were made by Reil were published by him under the title: “On the Diagnosis and Treatment of Fevers” (Halle and Berlin, 1799–1816; 3d edition, 1820–1828).