VAN SWIETEN’S EARLY PROFESSIONAL CAREER.—Gerhard van Swieten was born at Leyden, Holland, on May 7, 1700. His parents, who died while he was still a child, left to him an ample fortune, which enabled him to obtain an excellent education. His guardians, however, were either negligent or quite incompetent to look after his best interests during the period of youth and early manhood; but, despite this fact, his own industriousness, his native talents, his ambition to excel and his purity of mind carried him safely and creditably through these early years. At the age of sixteen he entered the High School of Louvain, near Brussels, and during the following two years the study of Latin and Greek and of philosophy chiefly engaged his attention. Then, upon his return to Leyden, he began in earnest to prepare himself for the career which he had chosen—viz., that of the practice of medicine. Boerhaave, who, at that period of time, represented by universal consent the leading medical authority of the world, was the regular professor of medicine in the university (1710–1738), and was held in such high esteem as a teacher that students flocked by hundreds from all parts of Europe to benefit from his instruction. Among this number were two young men,—Albrecht von Haller, of Berne, Switzerland, and the subject of the present sketch,—both of whom afterward became celebrated for the important parts which they played in the advancement of medical science. Boerhaave appears to have taken a special liking for the latter and to have entertained great confidence in his ability as a physician. In 1727, when Boerhaave, by reason of a gouty affection of his legs, began to experience considerable difficulty in attending to his official duties in the university, van Swieten, upon whom the degree of Doctor of Medicine had been conferred only two years previously, was from time to time authorized by his superior to lecture in his place. As the years passed by, and as the pupil showed more and more clearly that he was entirely competent to perform this important duty in behalf of his teacher, van Swieten came eventually to be accepted as the worthy interpreter of Boerhaave’s teachings. This practice continued for nearly twenty years, and with ever increasing confidence in and affection for the pupil on the part of his distinguished teacher. Boerhaave’s death in 1738, however, put an end to van Swieten’s substitute professorship. All the available evidence goes to show that Boerhaave hoped that, in the event of his death, van Swieten would be chosen his successor; but the records of the university fail to show that the latter held at any time an official position in the teaching body. During Boerhaave’s lifetime no opposition of any kind was offered to van Swieten’s continued yet officially unauthorized occupancy of the Chair of Medicine, although it was well known that he was a Roman Catholic; but, after Boerhaave’s