BORRHAAVE, HERMANS. 



BOETHIUS, A.NNIUS MANLIUS. 



71.1 



lectured since 1703. In conformity with hi* custom, he opened hii 

 course by a general disoonn* worthy of hi* other performance* of 

 that kind, ' Ontio de Chemia euo* errore* expurganto,' Leydan, 

 1718, 4to. 



Boerhaave WM one of the fint who nude cheinutry delightful ind 

 inUllifiible ; and though the rmpid progrtM of the science ha rendered 

 ) work, oo this subject obsolete, he will erer be mentioned with 

 reepect in iu hutory. He excelled in experiment*, Mid repeated them 

 with unwearied patience; he performed one experiment 300 and 

 another 877 time*. He wm skilled in organic chemutry, and showed 

 how the animal fluid, might be deeompoeed by simple means, and 

 how to avoid destructive dutillation over the open fire, in the manner 

 than practised. HU work on the element* of chemistry went through 

 numerous edition*, and wai tranalated into the French and English 



_j many office* discharged with unparalleled success, obtained for 

 Boerbaave a reputation which waa almost without a precedent, and 

 which scarcely knew any other limit* than those of the civilised world. 

 The learned of every part of Europe corresponded with him, and 

 ewry academy deeired to be honoured by dissertations from the hand 

 of the most dutinguinhed muter of hi* art. Much of his time wa* 

 of ooiine taken up with patient*, some of whom came to consult him 

 from the rnott distant countries of Europe ; and in answering letters, 

 which in urgent care* were sent to ask the advice of the fint physician 

 in the world. The pecuniary proceeds of bis practice must have been 

 enormous for at bis death he left more than two millions of florins. 

 He wa* elected a Comepondent of the Academy of Sciences at Paris 

 in 1715, and a Foreign Associate in 1728 ; in 1730 he WM elected a 

 Fellow of the Koyal Society of London. He communicated to the 

 Royal Society and to the French Academy some observations on mer- 

 cury, which were published in the ' Philosophical Transactions' and in 

 the 'Hnmoirs of the Academy of Sciences' for 1734. 



In 1722 hi course both of lecture* and practice was interrupted by 

 the gout, which he brought upon himself, be says, by an imprudent 

 confidence in the strength of hi* constitution, and by transgressing 

 those rules which be had a thousand time* inculcated upon his friends 

 and pupils. In consequence of his illness, he lay five month* in bed 

 without daring to more, because any effort renewed his torment*, 

 which were so exquisite, that lie was at length not only deprived of 

 motion but of sen. In the sixth month of his illness, having 

 obtained some remi-sion, he took simple medicines in large quantities 

 and got well Hi* unexpected recovery was celebrated on the llth of 

 January 1723 by a public illumination. Frtfh attacks of illness in 

 1727 and 1729 shattered hi* constitution and forced him to resign the 

 profeMonbip* of chemistry and botany : on this occasion he delivered 

 the lecture entitled ' Oratio quam habuit cum Botanicam et Chemicam 

 profesaionem public* poueret, 1 I/eyden. 1729, 4to. 



In 1730 be was again elected rector of tho university, and on quitting 

 this honourable office he delivered a discourse on the subserviency of 

 the ph.TMcian to nature, 'De honore Medici sorvitute,' Leyden, 1781, 

 4 to. About the middle of 1737 that illness began which proved fatal 

 In a letter to a frirnd in London, dated September 8th 1738, he details 

 the symptom* with a masterly band ; and it appears clearly from his 

 description that he wa* labouring under organic disease of the heart, 

 with it* ordinary concomitant* general dropsy, disturbed sleep, and 

 a distracting MOM of suffocation. He expired on the 23rd of September 

 1788, in hi* 70th year. 



Boerbaav* was the most remarkable physician of his age, perhaps 

 the greatfut of modern time* : a- man who, when we contemplate hi* 

 geciua, hi* erudition, the singular variety of hi* talent*, hi* unfeigned 

 piety, hi* spoils** irnarwrtir. and the impress which he left not only 

 nporaneons practice, but on that of succeeding gener 



toad* forth a* one of the brightest name* on the page of medical 

 history, and may be quoted a* an example not only to physician*, but 

 to mankind at large. The town of Leydon, which on his recovery 

 from hi* first illness, bad given him so aignal a proof of its affection, 

 eieotiid a monument to hi* memory in St Peter's church. 



He married. September 10th, 1710, Mary Drolenveaux, the only 

 daughter of a burgomaster of Leyden, by whom he had four children, 

 of whom one alone, Joanna Maria, survived her father; thn others 

 died in their infancy. 



BseiJn the work* already mentioned, Boerbaave published several 

 oration* and treatisis, and many more hsve been attributed to him, 

 which are not recognised as genuine in his own catalogue. 



The works which be edited are the work* of Drelincoart ; the 

 observation* of Piw ; the anatomical and surgical work* of Vesallus, 

 edited in conjunction with Albinus; the ' Traotatu* Medico* de Loe 

 Veners*. pnrfixus Apbrodisiaco ;' the smaller anatomical work* of 



m; Bdlini'Onlbe Urine and Pul*e; ' Prosper Alpmtu'Ontiw 

 rronoti* of Life and Death :' and the celebrated edition of Aretwus. 



Three works cams out tinder the auspices of Itonhaave which pro- 

 bably would never have been published bat for hit friendly aid : these 

 are-' The Physical History of the Sea,' by Count Marsigli, Ameter- 

 daam, 1726, fello ; the ' Botaoieon ParWense,' by Le Vaillant, who when 

 dying sent him the manuscript, Leyden, 1727, folio ; and Sw 

 dam's ' Hutory of Insects,' printed at Amsterdam in 1787 in 

 folio, with plate*, and a Preface by Boerhaave. 



{****</ Hatehiaeon, Siognpkia Jfetea.) 



1101; oltNE, LUDWIO, was bom in 1784, of Jewish 



parents, at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, where his father, Jacob Baruch, was a 

 banker. After having received his preparatory education in hi native, 

 place, he went to the University of llerlin, and then to tliat of Halle, 

 where he studied medicine, though against hi* will ; but as persons of 

 the Jewish penraanon cannot hold any public office in Oennany, the 

 only scientific department that they can devote themselves to with any 

 bope of advantage is medicine, which they are allowed to nractis . In 

 1807 however he gave up his medical pursuits, and in the University of 

 Heidelberg be began to study politics and political economy, which he 

 continued in 1808 at Oiessen. On his return to Frankfurt, which was 

 then in the bonds of the French, he received an office in the depart- 

 ment of the police, which he held for several years, although it little 

 agreed with his peculiar views. In 1 815, when Frankfurt recovered Hi 

 old constitution, Boerne, being a Jew, was of coarse dismissed from hi* 

 office, but received a pension. Having thus got rid of all external 

 ties, he now began to devote himself with energy and great succees 

 to what he conceived to be bis calling; : he became a political writer, 

 and successively edited three periodicals, the ' Frankfurt StnnU-Kis- 

 tretto,' ' Die Zeitschwingen,' and ' Die Wage,' which were published 

 at Offenbach, but some of the papers in these periodicals were too 

 liberal for the government of Hesse-Darmstadt, which soon suppressed 

 them, and Boerne himself was arrested at Frankfurt, and charged with 

 having promulgated revolutionary ideas. He was tried as a criminal, 

 but as no evidence was brought acainst him, he was acquitted, and 

 declared innocent In 1817 Boerne exchanged his Jewish religion for 

 Protestantism, and altered his name Baruch into Itoerne. After having 

 given up ' Die Wage,' in 1821, he lived in complete retirement, partly 

 at Frankfurt, partly at Paris, and partly at Hamburg, until, about the 

 time of the French revolution of 1S80, lie went to reside at Paris. 

 Here he endeavoured to act upon Germany through the medium of 

 a French journal, ' La Balance,' which he intended also to be a sort 

 of mediator between the two countries But he gradually sank into 

 a state of despondency and bitterness, which hastened his death, which 

 took place on the 18th of February 1887. 



Owing to his retirement he was nearly forgotten in Germany, when, 

 shortly before the outbreak of the French revolution of 1830, he pul>- 

 lished a collection of all his political, critical, and philosophical wi 

 in 8 vols. Svo (Hamburg, 1829-31 ; a second edition appeared in 

 The occurrences in France contributed to make bis works at the time 

 very popular with the liberal party. During his residence at Pari* he 

 published six more volumes of politioal letters, entitled ' Itriefe aus 

 Paris,' and ' Neue Brief e aus Paris,' in which be attacked the German 

 governments most unsparingly, and with a bitterness which must 

 be accounted for by the disappointment of hU hopes. Boerne, with 

 all his faults, is one of the most eminent political and critical Gorman 

 writers of the present century. He was a man of great humour and 

 wit; his deep feeling ia most manifest in a splendid eulogium on Jean 

 Paul (' Denkrede auf Jean Paul,' Erlangen and Hamburg. 1826, Svo), 

 and he was one of the few Germans at Paris who maintained his 

 character as a German, and did not sink into that frivolity and licen- 

 tiousness into which many able person* of his Acquaintance fell. He 

 remained what he had always been, a sincere warm-hoarted man. All 

 his writings are distinguished for power, clearness, and brilliancy of 

 style, qualities rarely met with in German writers. Some yean after 

 his death bis former friend, H. Heine, published a work on Boerne, 

 entitled ' Heine iiber Boerne' (Hamburg, 1840, Svo), which is of a 

 moat defamatory nature. A monument more worthy of the noble 

 spirit of Boerne is hi* Life by Carl Gutxkow (' L. Boerne'a Leben,' 

 Hamburg, 1840). 



BOETHIUS, ANNIUS MAX1.IUS TORQUATUS SEVKRINUS, 

 the most learned and almost the only Latin philosopher of his time, 

 descended from an ancient and noble family, was born at Home A.D. 455, 

 forty-six yean after the taking of that city by Alaric. His father wa* 

 put to death by Valentinian III., to whom he had been prefect of the 

 palace, in the very year in which his son was born. Though deprived 

 of his father, his other relations gave Boethius a good education, and 

 encouraged in him an early taste for philosophy and letters. They 

 sent him to Athens, where these studies still flourished, and where he 

 remained for eighteen yean, studying every branch of literature, but 

 more especially philosophy and mathematics. Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, 

 anil 1'tolemious were his favourite tinhorn. Upon his return to Home 

 be soon attracted public attention, and the most eminent persona of 

 the city sought bis friendship. He married Klpia, a lady of literary 

 attainment*, descended from one of the mot considerable families of 

 Muslins, who bore him two sons. 



Boethiu* wa* made consul in the year 487, at the age of thirty-two, 

 under Odoaoar, king of the Heruli, who at that time reigned in Italy. 

 Two yean later, Theodoric, king of the Goths, invaded the country, 

 put Odoacer to death, and fixed the seat of his government at Ravenna. 

 The Romans, and the inhabitant* of Italy generally, became rec< 

 to the administration of affairs under Theodoric, who ruled them by 

 the same laws to which they hod been accustomed under the emperors ; 

 and Boethiu* had the singular felicity, in the eighth year of Theodorio's 

 reign, to ace his two sons, Patriciu* and Hypatius, raised to the consu- 

 lar dignity. During their continuance in office, Theodoric came to 

 Rome, He wa* received by the senate and people with the greatest 

 joy, and Boethin* pronounced an elegant panegyric before him in the 



