737 



BCECKH, AUGUST. 



BOEEHAAVE, HERMANN. 



733 



* BCECKH, AUGUST, waa bora in the year 1785 at Carlsruhe, in 

 the grand-duchy of Baden. He was educated at the university of Halle 

 in the Prussian province of Saxony, was thence admitted into the 

 Teachers' Seminary at Berlin, and was afterwards appointed professor 

 of the Greek language and literature in the university of Berlin, which 

 office he still holds. He also 611s the situation of secretary to the class 

 of history and philosophy in the Academy of Sciences in that city. He 

 is an associate member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Bclles- 

 Lettres of France, and a corresponding member of most of the other 

 learned societies of Europe. 



Professor Boeckh's principal philological and critical work is his 

 edition of Pindar (Leipzig, 3 vols. 4to, 1811-21), consisting of the 

 Greek text, with various readings, scholia, a Latin translation, a con- 

 tinuous commentary, notes, and a treatise on Greek versification. But 

 the work which has established his reputation among the students of 

 Greek antiquity throughout Europe is 'Die Staatshaushaltung der 

 Athcner ' (Berlin, 2 vols. 8vo), which has been translated into English 

 by the present chancellor of the exchequer, Sir George Cornewall 

 Lewis, under the title of ' The Public Economy of Athens ' (London, 

 second edition, revised, 1842). It is divided into four books, the heads 

 of which will best exhibit the extent of investigation which the work 

 comprise* : Book 1, on the prices of commodities, wages of labour, 

 rent of land and houses, and profits of stock, in Attica ; book 2, on the 

 financial administration and expenditure of the Athenian state; book 

 3, on the ordinary revenues of the Athenian state ; book 4, on the 

 extraordinary revenues of the Athenian state. 



In 1819 Professor Bceckh published 'Die Entwickelung der Lehren 

 des Pythagoriier Philolaos ' (' Development of the Doctrines of Philolaus 

 the Pythagorean'). In 1838 he published his ' Metrologische Unter- 

 snchungen iiber Gewichte, Munzfusse, und Masse des Alterthums' 

 (' Hetrological Investigations concerning the Weights, Corns, and 

 Measures of Antiquity'). This treatise includes a full inquiry into 

 the subjects which were more summarily discussed in the first six 

 chapters of the first book of ' The Public Economy of Athens.' In 

 1840 came out his ' Urkunden iiber das Seewesen des Attischeu Staats' 

 (' Documents relating to the Maritime Administration of the Athenian 

 State '). He also published a ' Dissertation on the Silver-Mines of 

 Laurion in Attica,' and in 1843 an edition of the 'Antigone' of 

 Sophocles. The great work entitled ' Corpus Inscriptionum Gnecarum,' 

 printed under the authority and at the expense of the Royal Academy 

 of Berlin, was commenced by Boeckh, and continued by Frantz, one of 

 Bccckh'n pupils, who has since died. This work, in three magnificent 

 folio volumes, but not yet completed, is to contain all the Greek 

 inscriptions known, whether printed or in manuscript. 

 (ffouvelte Biographic UniverteUe.) 



BOERHAAVE, HERMANN, was born on the 31st of December 

 1668 at Voorhout, a village two miles from Leyden, of which his father, 

 James Boerbaave, was the minister. Being designed for the Church, 

 he was instructed by his father in the classical languages, and at the 

 age of eleven he was already able to translate both Greek and Latin 

 with tolerable accuracy. He went to Leyden in 1682, and at the 

 university there he studied Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Chaldee, with 

 ancient, modern, and ecclesiastical history, and the mathematics ; and 

 he soon began to give public proofs of his eloquence and erudition. 

 In 1688 he delivered an oration before Gronovius, professor of Greek. 

 In 1689 he took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, the subject of 

 his inaugural thesis being the distinction between the soul and the 

 body. In this, as in his former discourse, he refuted the atheistical 

 doctrines of Epicurus and Spinosa, and obtained a great reputation for 

 piety and learning. 



About this time he taught the mathematics as a means of enabling 

 him to continue his studies, his resources having been much impaired 

 by the death of his father in 1682. Without giving up his intention 

 of entering the ministry, he now began the study of physic by a 

 diligent perusal of Vesalius, Bartholiuus, and Fallopius; he was a 

 constant attendant at Nuck's anatomical demonstrations, and examined 

 the anatomy of different animals himself. He carefully studied Hippo- 

 crates among the ancient and Sydenham among the modern medical 

 writers. He likewise prosecuted the study of chemistry and botany 

 with ardour, and still pursued his theological studies. Having taken 

 the degree of Doctor of Physic at Hardewick in 1693, he returned to 

 Leyden with the design of undertaking the ministry, but altered his 

 views, and adopted the medical profession, in consequence it is said 

 of an idle report having been propagated that he had gone over to 

 Spiuosa. Had Boerhaave been at this time firmly rooted in his design 

 of entering the church, it is difficult to conceive that this absurd 

 calumny could have made him change his resolution. It seems more 

 j.robable that, feeling himself eminently skilled botli in theology and 

 physic, he was wavering in his choice of a profession ; and as the 

 slightest weight will turn a loaded but well-balanced beam, so even 

 the breath of a slanderer made Boerhaave a physician. 



He now commenced the practice of physic, and his time was taken 

 np with visiting the sick, studying, making chemical experiments, 

 investigating every part of medicine with the utmost diligence, 

 teaching the mathematics, and reading the Scriptures. In 1701 he 

 was recommended by Van Berg to the university as a proper person 

 to succeed Drelincourt in the lectureship of the theory of medicine. 

 lie was elected on the 1 8th of May, and his inaugural discourse was 

 BIOO. DIV. vor,. i. 



on the study of Hippocrates. His lectures were received with great 

 applause, and he was soon prevailed upon by his audience to enlarge 

 his original design, and instruct them in chemistry. This he under- 

 took, not only to the advantage of his pupils, but to that of the science 

 itself. 



It was then in 1703 that Boerhaave delivered his lecture ' De usu 

 Ratiociuii Mechanic! in Medicina,' and also began, in theory at least, 

 to leave the Hippocratic method of simple observation, and to enter 

 upon mechanical speculations in connection with his researches in 

 medical science. Thus he supposed that the adaptation of trie calibro 

 of the vessels to the size of the globules of the animal fluids was the 

 principle which regulated the circulation of the humours, their 

 separation from the blood in the different organs of secretion, as well 

 as the morbid congestion of the blood in defluxions. tumours, and 

 inflammations ; so that, in the treatment of disease, all the efforts of 

 the physician were to be directed to the re-establishment of this 

 mechanical equilibrium ; and the medicines given with this intention 

 were called deobstruents, incisives, &c. To these mechanical hypo- 

 theses he joined chemical ones : thus he supposed many morbid 

 phenomena to arise from acrimony of the blood, which it was the 

 business of the physician to neutralise. This part of his doctrine, the 

 humoral pathology, as it is called, though banished for a time from 

 the schools, has always kept its hold on popular belief, and bids fair to 

 revive again. Late investigations into animal chemistry have shown 

 that certain deviations from the healthy composition of the blood 

 accompany, if they do not produce, certain diseases. Thus in jaundice 

 the blood contains both the colouring matter and the resin of the bile; 

 in gout the blood is loaded with earthy phosphates ; and in cholera it 

 is deficient both in water and in alkaline salts. But the most remark- 

 able of all these statements respects chlorosis : in this disease, where 

 the sickly pallor of the patient would naturally be attributed by the 

 ordinary observer to deficiency or poorness of the blood, we find a 

 singular deficiency of colouring matter. 



In 1703 the professorship of physic being vacant at Groningen, 

 Boerhaave was invited thither, but he preferred remaining at Leyden. 

 He had now read lectures on physic for eight years without the title 

 or dignity of a professor, when in 1709 he obtained the chair of 

 medicine and botany vacant by the death of Hotton. His inaugural 

 discourse was on simplicity in the practice of physic, ' Oratio qu:i 

 repurgataa medicinae facilis asseritur simplicitas,' Leyden, 1709. At 

 this time also he published the ' Institutions medicae in usus annuse 

 exercitationis domesticos/ first published at Leyden in 1708, but 

 several times reprinted. His ' Aphorism! de cognoscendis et curaudis 

 morbis, in usum doctrinse medicinee,' published in 1709, was also 

 frequently republished. On these two great works the reputation of 

 Boerhaave is founded. They have been translated into several 

 European languages, and even into Arabic ; and Van Svvieten, himself 

 a physician of no ordinary talent, illustrated the ' Aphorisms ' with a 

 commentary extending to five quarto volumes. Haller published a 

 commentary on the ' Institutions ' in seven quarto volumes, Leyden, 

 1750; and Lamettrie published a French translation with notes, 

 ' Institutions et Aphorisrnes,' Paris, 1743, 8 vols. 12mo. 



In the ' Institution.-',' Boerhaave indicates the plan of study to be 

 followed by a physician ; he gives a compendious history of the art, 

 and an account of the preliminary knowledge which is necessary for 

 its practice; then, entering upon his subject, in five successive chapters 

 he describes the parts and functions of the body, their alterations, the 

 signs of health and disease, together with hygiene and the art of 

 prolonging life. Lastly, he treats of the aids which art affords to 

 medicine ; here he details the system on the principles of which we 

 slightly touched above. In his 'Aphorisms,' Boerhaave gives a classi- 

 fication of diseases, and sets forth their causes, their nature, aud their 

 treatment, with a short but accurate summary of the whole of ancient 

 and modern medicine. These two works are masterpieces of learning, 

 order, and correctness of style. 



Boerhaave shed almost equal lustre upon the chair of botany, which 

 he held with that of medicine, by the publication of his ' Index 

 Plantarum quae in horto academico Lugduno-Batavo reperiuntur," 

 Leyden, 1710, 8vo. An enlarged edition of this work, with plates, 

 appeared under the title of ' Index alter Plantarum quse in horto 

 acadeinico Lugduno-Batavo aluntur,' Leyden, 1720, 4to. Boerhaave 

 greatly increased the number of specimens in the botanical garden ; 

 he figured new plants, established new genera, and was one of the 

 first who introduced the stamina and the sexual differences among 

 their characteristic distinctions. 



In 1715 Boerhaave was made rector of the University of Leyden, 

 and in the same, year was appointed physician to St. Augustine's 

 Hospital, and professor of practical medicine, having already delivered 

 the lectures more than ten years. Twice a week ha give clinical 

 lectures at the hospital, and, like other great physicians, forgetting bis 

 theories for awhile, distinguished and treated the compl-x forms of 

 disease before him with that unrivalled tact which stamped him the 

 first practitioner of his age. On laying down his office of rector, 

 Boerhaave delivered one of his finest orations, ' Oratio de comparando 

 certo in Physicis,' Leyden, 1715, 4to. 



He already held the chairs of theoretical medicine, practical 

 medicine, and botany, and, on the death of Lemort in 1718, that of 

 chemistry was added to the number, a subject on which he had 



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