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BOERHAAVE. 



Roerhaave. were known in Boeotia from the time of Cadmus, 

 *""" "\ -' though the alphabet whi^h he introduced contained 

 only sixteen characters, and was not completed till 

 many ages after. See Pausan. in Bceot. Herod, lib. v. 

 Diodor. lib. iv. Horn. Iliad, lib. iii. iv. Stat. Theb. 

 Bryant, Anal. Anc. Myth. Univers. Hist. vol. ii. 

 p. 370. (n) 



BOERHAAVE, Herman, a most distinguished 

 physician, was born T>ec. 31. 1668. He was son of 

 the Rev. James Bocrhaave, minister of the village of 

 Voerhout, two miles from Leyden. Being intended 

 by his father for the church, he was educated on a 

 plan suited to that view, and distinguished himself by 

 his proficiency, both at the public school of Leyden 

 and at the university. When sixteen years of age, 

 he lost his father ; and his mother being thus left a 

 widow with nine children, of whom the eldest was 

 'iot yet seventeen, and with a very slender provision 

 for their support, he found it difficult to obtain the 

 means of prosecuting his education. At one time he 

 was under the necessity of teaching mathematics to 

 procure subsistence. In 1690, he took his degree in 

 philosophy ; and in an inaugural disputation on the 

 distinction between matter and mind, he exposed, with 

 great ingenuity and learning, the unsoundness of the 

 principles of Epicurus, Ho^bes, and Spinoza. While 

 prosecuting the study of theology, that of nature 

 had not been neglected by him, and at length it 

 seemed to engross his whole attention. He entered, 

 with the concurrence of his friends, on a regular course 

 of medical education, and resolved to obtain a degree 

 in physic before entering the church. Of all medical 

 writers, he particularly admired Hippocrates and 

 Sydenham. The former he considered as the source 

 of medical science ; and the latter he says, he repeat- 

 edly perused, and every time with greater eagerness. 

 He made rapid and vast progress in all the branches 

 of medical knowledge, anatomy, physiology, che- 

 mistry, botany, surgery, and medicine ; and obtained 

 a degree from the university of Harderwick in 1693. 



But being still resolved to devote himself to the 

 profession of a clergyman, he was on the point of pe- 

 titioning for a licence to preach, when a report, un- 

 justly spread, of his having revolted to the standard 

 of Spinoza, excited so much popular prejudice against 

 him, that he resolved to abandon his pursuit, and to 

 apply himself wholly to the medical profession. 



At first his practice was so small, that it was in- 

 sufficient for his support; but he continued to sup- 

 ply the defect by teaching mathematics ; till, on the 

 death of Drelincourt, in 1701, he was appointed 

 lecturer on the institutes of medicine at Leyden ; 

 and was successively professor of physic and botany, 

 and of chemistry and botany, in that university. In 

 171 1, he was made rector of the university, and phy- 

 sician to the hospital of St Augustine. The Aca- 

 demy of Sciences at Paris wrote to him about this 

 time, requesting his correspondence on botany and 

 physics, and elected him a member in 1728. The 

 Royal Society of London elected him a member of 

 their body in 1730. 



He had filled with such distinction the various of- 

 hces in which he had been placed, and had acquired 

 so much fame by the publication of his celebrated 

 Aphorisms, and other treatises, that Leyden was 



now become the school of medical science for Eu> Boerhaae, 

 rope. Dr Matty says, the city was scarcely sufficient 

 to contain the numbers of students who resorted to 

 him. But in 1722, the course of his academical lec- 

 tures, as well as his practice, was interrupted by an 

 attack of rheumatism, so severe, that the history 

 of it can hardly be perused without horror. He was 

 confined to his bed for five months, and compelled to 

 lie on his back without motion ; as the slightest ef- 

 fort gave him exquisite pain. But he at length re- 

 covered beyond the expectation, and to the great joy, 

 of all who knew him. 



His malady, he says, was brought on by an im- 

 prudent transgression of those rules which he had so 

 often been at pains to inculcate upon others. He rose 

 one morning before light, and rashly exposed himself, 

 while in a profuse perspiration, to the cold air and 

 dews. 



His medical skill seems here to have been of little 

 avail ; and it is worthy of remark, that his disease 

 had never been described by medical writers as dis- 

 tinct from gout before Sydenham, in whose works 

 only Boerhaave could find an account of his own dis- 

 order. It is observable, too, that, in the first edi- 

 tion of the Aphorisms, which was published in 1708, 

 no notice is taken of rheumatism ; but this disease ap- 

 pears in the subsequent editions ; his attention ha- 

 ving been but too strongly directed towards it. In 

 the above most distressing, we had almost said scarcely 

 tolerable situation, he set an admirable example of pa- 

 tience and resignation ; and this he was enabled to 

 do, not only from his steady acquiescence in the di- 

 vine principles of Christianity, of which he never lost 

 sight, but also, as he told a friend, from his revolving 

 in his memory, as he lay whole days and nights with- 

 out sleeps the stores of knowledge he had then trea- 

 sured up, and thus diverting his attention from what 

 he sometimes thought insupportable torment. 



Having resumed his studies and labours, and pur- 

 sued them with unremitting ardour for four years 

 more, he again became so ill that his friends despaired 

 of him. He recovered, however, so far as to be able 

 to continue his lectures ; but, in 1729, having had 

 frequent returns of his disorder, he judged it prudent 

 to resign the professorship of chemistry and botany. 



From this time he lived more privately, but was 

 far from being idle. Numerous patients consulted 

 him from all parts of Europe, coming to him when 

 their diseases would permit, and when they would 

 not, transmitting to him their cases in writing, to ask 

 his opinion and advice. Much of his time was also 

 spent in revising his different works for new and im- 

 proved editions, as well as in revising and publishing 

 correct editions of many valuable works of other 

 writers. Still, however, he enjoyed ease in compari- 

 son of his former mode of life ; and he now chiefly re- 

 sided at his country house, a short way from Leyden, 

 with his wife and daughter, to whom he was greatly 

 attached. His principal amusement was to visit and 

 superintend the culture of the numerous plants in his 

 extensive garden. 



About the middle of 17^7, he became affected by 

 a disease which at last proved fatal. The following 

 account of which, written by himself to a friend in 

 London, fifteen days before he died, will, we should 



