Medicine. 253 



ginning of the eighteenth century. At that auspi- 

 cious period, every part of science began to as- 

 sume a more correct and improved aspect, and, 

 from the vast and diversified labours of the pre- 

 ceding age, it had become more practicable to 

 select and combine the materials necessary to con- 

 struct the theories of medicine w^hich were speedily 

 to appear. Accordingly, very early in the century 

 three new and considerably different systems were 

 presented to the world in the writings of Stahl, 

 Hoffman, and Boerhaave. And they are the 

 more worthy of examination at the present time, 

 as they not only engrossed the attention of physi- 

 cians during a great part of the century, but as 

 even now they are not without influence upon 

 principles and practice. 



Notwithstanding the seniority of Stahl and 

 Hoffman by a few years, they were, as theorists 

 of medicine, strictly the cotemporaries of Boer- 

 haave. It is judged expedient to begin with the 

 latter in this place, not only on account of the 

 great importance and celebrity of his system, but 

 because his doctrines held a closer alliance with 

 the predominant philosophy of that period, and 

 those of the two others with the succeeding 

 theories. 



Herman Boerhaave began his career as a 

 teacher and a writer, about the commencement 

 of the eighteenth century. In all respects he de- 

 serves to be considered as one of the greatest men 

 that ever adorned the medical profession. He 

 possessed a vast range of erudition, and had cul- 

 tivated the auxiliary branches of medicine with 

 such assiduity, that he particularly excelled in 

 anatomy, chemistry and botany. No physician, 

 since Galen, has so authoritatively swayed the 

 empire of opinion, nor been more universally obey- 

 ed in the school^ of physic. Endowed by nature 



