B O E 



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B O E 



Boerhaavc. ways cheerful. Calumny and detraction (which 

 * -' sometimes assailed even him) he never thought it ne- 

 cessary to refute, nor could they ever fret or sour 

 his temper. He said they were sparks, which would 

 go out of themselves if you did not blow them, and 

 that the best way to get the better of malice, was to 

 Ike it down. 



Being one day asked by a friend, who admired his 

 patience under great provocation, whether he knew 

 what it was to be angry ? He replied, with the ut- 

 most sincerity and frankness, that he was naturally of 

 an irrascible temper, but had attained this command 

 over himself by reflection and prayer to God. He 

 was, indeed, an admirable example of every moral 

 and Christian virtue. Through his whole life he 

 made it a rule to dedicate the first hour after he rose 

 in the morning to religious retirement. This, he 

 said, gave him vigour through the rest of the day, 

 and enabled him to support the fatigues of his pro- 

 fession : For the tranquillity of the mind, he averred, 

 was necessary to the health of the body, and could 

 be maintained amid the distresses of life only by a 

 well-grounded hope of the approbation of our Maker 

 on Christian principles. 



Aware that many great men had injured the repu- 

 tation, and lessened the utility, of their writings by 

 inattention to the graces of style, he made eloquence 

 and poetry a principal object of study ; and was a no 

 less elegant scholar than a profound and ingenious 

 philosopher. 



His funeral oration was pronounced by his friend 

 Schultens, and the city of Leyden erected an elegant 

 monument to his memory, in the church of St Peter, 

 with this inscription : Salutiferv Boerkaavii genio 

 sacrum. 



He married, in 1709, Mary Drolenveaux, only 

 daughter of the burgomaster of Leyden, by whom 

 he had four children ; three of whom died in their in- 

 fancy, and the other, Joanna Maria, survived her fa- 

 ther. 



His genuine works, according to his own catalogue 

 of them, and he declares, in 1732, that all others un- 

 der his name are spurious, except some prefaces to 

 new editions of books, are as follow : Oratio de com- 

 mendando studio Hippocratico, 1701. Oratio de usu 

 ratiocinii Mechanici in Medicina, 1703. Oratio qua 

 repurgatce Medicinal facilis asseritur Simplicitas, 

 1709. Oratio de comparando certo in Physicis, 1715. 

 Oratia de Chemia errores suos expurgante, 1718. 

 Oratio de Vita et Obitu Clarissimi Bernardi Albini, 

 1721. Oratio quam habui quum, honesta Missione 

 impetrata, Botanicatn et Chemicam Prqfessionem 

 pub/ice ponerem, 1729. Oratio de honore Medici 

 servitute, 1731. Elementa Chemia; qua: annivcrsario 

 labore docuit in pullicis privatisque scholis Herman- 

 titts Boerhaavc, 1732. lnstituiionis medico; in Usus 

 Annua; Exercitationis domcslicos, 1728. Qui dein 

 auctior aliquoties rccusus, in 8vo. Aphorismi de cog- 

 noscendis et curandis morbis, in usum doctrinal do- 

 niesticw, 1709. Qui dein aliquoties recusus, in 8vo. 

 Index Plantarum quas in Horto Academico Lugdu- 

 tio Batavo rrperiuntur, 1710, in 8vo. Libellus de 

 Materia Meaica et Remediorum formulis, 1719. 

 Index alter Plantarum qua in Horto Academico 

 Lngdnno Batavo aluntur, 1720, in 4to. Atrocis nee 



descripti prim morbi Historia, secundum medicce ar- Boerhav 

 tis Leges conscripta, 1724, in Svo. Atrocis rarissi- H 



tpta 

 mique morbi Historia altera, 1728, in Svo. Tracta- 

 tns medicus dc Luc Aphrodisiac':, 1728, in folio. 

 His three principal works are, his Institutes, his 

 Chemistrj', and his Aphorisms ; particularly the lat- 

 ter, which is perhaps more useful than any other 

 book that has ever been written on the subject of 

 medicine. He himself calls it " libellum mole par- 

 vum, gravem materie, nee sine labore natum ;" and 

 it is said to have had the honour of being translated 

 even into the Arabic, and circulated in the Turkish 

 empire. See Haller's Biblioth. Med. Pract. 1788. 

 H. Boerhaavii Op. omnia Med. Veneticis, 1757. 

 Math. Matty, Essay sur le charactere du grand Me- 

 dicin, oh eloge critique de. H. Boerhaavc, 1747. 

 Hutchinson's Biograph. Med. 1799. (*) 



BOERHAVIA, a genus of plants of the class 

 Monandria, and order Monogynia. See Botany. 



BOERO, Buero, Burro, Bouro, or Bourro, 

 the name of one of the Molucca islands, situated be- 

 tween Celebes and Ceram. It is about 54 miles long 

 from east to west, and 40 from north to south, and 

 was once subject to the king of Ternate. Cajeli, 

 the capital, is situated at the bottom of a gulf of 

 the same name, in a marshy plain, extending about 

 four miles, between the rivers Soweill and Abbo, the 

 latter of which is always turbid, and is the principal 

 river in the island. The island is inhabited by Moors 

 and Alfourians, the former of whom are strict Maho- 

 metans, and the latter a free people, who inhabit the 

 inaccessible mountains in the interior. The Dutch 

 company obtain from this island only black and white 

 ebony, and other kinds of valuable wood. The other 

 productions of Boero are pepper, cocoa nuts, bana- 

 nas, shaddocks, lemons, citrons, bitter oranges, &c. 

 The country is infested with enormous serpents, and 

 with a smaller species of snakes. The rivers swarm 

 with huge crocodiles, which often devour both men 

 and beasts. The Fort of Defence is protected by a 

 garrison of 25 men. See Bougainville's Voyage. 



() 



BOETHIUS, Flavius Axicius Manlius Tor- 



quatus Severinus, the most eminent of the la- 

 ter Romans, was born at Rome about the year 

 470, and flourished in the reigns of the Emperors 

 Zeno and Theodoric. He was deprived of his fa- 

 ther at an early age, and thus succeeded to the pa- 

 trimony and honours of a family so illustrious, that 

 even kings and emperors ambitiously assumed its 

 name. Several years of his youth were spent at 

 Athens, where he prosecuted his studies under the 

 direction of Proclus, with such indefatigable assidui- 

 ty, as to make himself master of all the learning of 

 the age. His sound and vigorous judgment preser- 

 ved him from the affectation of mystery and magic, 

 which then disgraced the Grecian schools ; but he 

 caught the spirit, and imitated the example, of Pro- 

 clus and his predecessors, who endeavoured to recon- 

 cile the nervous sense and acute subtlety of Aristotle 

 with the sublime but fanciful contemplations of Plato. 

 On his return to Rome, he continued to pursue his 

 studies with an eagerness unabated by the splendour 

 and the numerous avocations of his exalted situation ; 



Boethiut. 



