MICHEL, an eminent physician, was born at Leipsic, on the 26th of May 1644. After having studied the learned languages, the mathematics, and philosophy, first in his native town, and afterwards at Wittenberg, he returned to Leipsic, and, having devoted himself wholly to medicine, obtained the degree of bachelor in 1663, and a license or diploma in 1666. But being desirous to extend his acquirements, which were already considerable, he resolved, before taking his last degrees, to visit the countries most celebrated for the cultivation of the sciences; and with this view he commenced an interesting course of travels in Italy, sojournings for some time in the more remarkable cities of that fine country, as Naples, Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice, Padua, Pisa, Pavia, Milan, and Turin. He then crossed the Alps and proceeded to Paris, where he remained seven months; after which he passed over into England, and thence repaired to Holland. His intention was to employ an entire winter in attending the prelections of learned professors in the university of Leyden; but his design in this respect was thwarted by his sudden recall to Leipsic, where, on the 20th of August 1668, two days after his arrival, he received the degree of doctor, a distinction which proved the forerunner of new dignities. The Academy of the Curious in Nature admitted the young doctor one of its members in 1670, and the Faculty of Medicine in 1676. About the same time the university of Leipsic confided to him the chair of botany, and appointed him extraordinary professor of surgery; offices the duties of which he discharged with distinction. But he did not long enjoy his preferment; for, on the 9th of March 1683, he was suddenly cut off, in consequence of a hectic fever, occasioned, as some say, by a chemical experiment. Although Ettmuller only wrote short dissertations and mere opuscules, he nevertheless enjoyed an immense reputation. His feeblest productions were reprinted, translated, and commented on; nor were his lectures, collected by numerous auditors, sometimes with much inaccuracy, less favourably received by the public. He had the art of interesting and fixing the attention by a ready elocution, and by arguments much more specious than solid. Of this any one may satisfy himself by the perusal of his works, of which the following is a list: 1. De Singulibus, a thesis defended by Ettmuller in 1663; 2. Medicina Hippocratica Chymica, Leipsic, 1670, in 4to; 3. Vis Opifis diaphoretica, Leipsic, 1679, in 4to; 4. Chymia Rationalis ac Experimentalis curiosa, Leyden, 1684, in 4to; 5. Medicus Theoria et Praxi generali instructus, Francfort and Leipsic, 1685, in 4to; 6. Opera Omnia theoriae ac practicae, Lyons, 1685, in 4to; 7. Opera Omnia: nempe Institutiones Medicinae cum Notis, etc. Francfort, 1688, in fol.; 8. Opera Medica theoriae-practicae, Francfort, 1676, 2 vols. fol.; 9. Operum Omnium Medico-physicorum editio maxima, Lyons, 1690, 2 vols. fol.; 10. Opera Omnia in Compendium redacta, London, 1701, and Amsterdam, 1702, in 8vo. But of all the editions, the best is that which the son of the author published under the title of Opera Medica theoriae-practicae per filium Michaelem Ernestum, etc. Francfort, 1708, in 3 vols. fol. There is no complete translation of the works of Ettmuller, but there are numerous German, English, and French translations of the different treatises.

Michel Ernest Ettmuller, son of the preceding, born at Leipsic in 1673, was also a physician of some eminence. Besides collecting and editing the works of his father, which formed the principal labour of his life, he wrote a number of theses and memoirs, which are not destitute of merit, and died on the 25th September 1732.