The "Physiology of The Hague" is in the name of Dr. W.J.A. Jonckbloet (1817 - 1885), a man of letters in The Hague, later professor in Deventer and in Groningen. From 1840 a large number of small books had been published in Paris, which were called "Physiologies": booklets of about 150 pages, in which all kinds of professions, types and matters of daily life - mostly in Paris - were described in a disparaging and ironic way. Apparently Jonckbloet, honored in 1841 with an honorary doctorate, decided to make a similar booklet for The Hague as well. It contains a humorous and critical description of the city and its inhabitants, in which the lottery hall, the Mauritshuis, the Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten, societies and coffee houses, the theater, the Haagse Bos and Scheveningen, among others, are discussed. In the section entitled "Literary (?) Societies," he also ridiculed his "own" Exercise breeds knowledge - of which he was an honorary member - much to the anger of his fellow members. It barely came to an expulsion. The booklet was very popular and already in the same year a second edition appeared.