MEDICINE VERSUS ART 17 



And yet he taught a lot, not only clinical medicine and ophthal- 

 mology (in 1708, he gave the first special course on that subject), 

 but also physics, chemistry and botany! In those days, famous 

 professors did not occupy a chair but a whole settee. 



Boerhaave's musical interest must have been deep, for he de- 

 voted a special section to it in his autobiography. That section 

 (XXII) is very brief (seven words) , but that is of a piece with the 

 rest. Boerhaave was too busy a man down to his last day to in- 

 dulge in reminiscences. Here it is : 



XXII. Fessus testudinis concentu solabatur lassitudinem. Mu- 

 sices amantissimus. 



How eloquent are those few words ! Since I have read them and 

 pondered upon them, Boerhaave is more alive to me than he was 

 before, and I can almost see him with his "testudo" (not a tortoise 

 that, but a lute) relaxing his mind when his duty was done. 



Ill 



The other story concerns Theodor Billroth (1829-94), one of 

 the greatest surgeons of his time; the pioneer of visceral surgery. 

 Whatever be his greatness or his shortcomings as a surgeon, we 

 shall love him better if we realize that he was a life-long friend of 

 Johannes Brahms (1833-97). Brahms and he became very inti- 

 mate in Zurich, and when Billroth was called to Vienna, Brahms, 

 being a bachelor and without position, followed him there. 

 Though they spent much of their time together and often trav- 

 elled together, they exchanged a great many letters, of which 331 

 are preserved. These letters deal chiefly with musical matters, most 

 of Brahms' works being discussed in a friendly fashion. The sur- 

 geon's villa in Alsergrund (a suburb of Vienna) became a mu- 

 sical center. Indeed, he enjoyed the jus primae noctis over Brahms' 

 new creations, and the friends of both masters were given oppor- 

 tunities of hearing for the first time some of the masterpieces of 

 chamber music. Did they appreciate their privilege? Probably 



