He adopted no special system, but studied disease as one of the phenomena of nature.

His clinical lectures, held bi-weekly, became exceedingly popular and were made attractive not less by the accuracy and care with which the cases were studied than by the freedom from fanciful doctrines and the frank honesty of the man.

He was much greater than his published work would indicate, and, as is the case with many teachers of the first rank, his greatest contributions were his pupils.

No other teacher of modern times has had such a following.

Among his favorite pupils may be mentioned Haller, the physiologist, and van Swieten and de Haen, the founders of the Vienna school.
In Italy, too, there were men who caught the new spirit, and appreciated the value of combining morbid anatomy with clinical medicine.