LINN.EUS IN HOLLAND. 



77 



have been for the young Northern Do6lor, allowing him his usual 

 spirit of hberality, to aspire at the honour of admittance. Notwith- 

 standing all these obstacles he obtained it last. He sent Boerhaave 

 a copy of his new-published system. Eager to know the author of 

 this work, who had likewise recommended himself by a letter, he ap- 

 pointed Li n n s to meet him, on the day before his intended de- 

 parture, at his villa, at the distance of a quarter of a league from 

 Leyden, and charged Gronov to give him notice of his intention. 

 This villa contained a botanical garden, and one of the finest col- 

 leftions of exotics. Linn^us pun8;ually attended to the invitation. 



his theological career. One day, in an excursion, some man wholly engrossed the conver- 

 sation on divinity, especially on Spinosa, v\ homlie called the Heretic of Amsteidain. Bo£R- 

 HAAVE, who had long heard with silence the rantings of this stranger, asked at last, " wh.ether 

 " he had ever read Spinosa ■" — " the stranger answered in the negative ;" every person pre- 

 sent laughed at him. This man to avenge himself, called our ingenious enquirer a Spinosist, 

 which involved him in disagreeable disputes. Boerhaave, immediately upon his father's 

 death, which happened in 1683, began to apply himself exclusively to the study of physic, 

 in which he afterwards became the most eminent man, not only of the age he lived in, but 

 of many preceding centuries. He took his degree of docior in the 25th year of his age, and 

 was appointed professor of Physic, at Leyden, in 1701. Here he remained, declining the 

 most advantageous offers made him from abroad. His celebrity extended from Europe to 

 other parts of the globe. He even received a letter from China, directed A Villiistre 

 Boerhaave, Medecin en Europe. His school became the seminary of the greatest physicians. 

 Extremely aftive and plain, he was in other respefts a downright Dutchman. His whole 

 wardrobe consisted of a couple of suits, which he used to wear till they became threadbare. 

 His Dutch-built stature, his old shoes, his loose hair, and the large crab-stick, which he had 

 always with him, made him pass for some person of a low description, though he was one of 

 the richest individuals at Leyden. He left his daughter, who was married to Coum Toms, 

 upwards of a million of florins. His necessitous circumstances, during his youth, had rendered 

 him very parsimonious. He was, however, extremely beneficent to the poor. After having 

 accumulated the greatest merits in medicine, and benefited mankind in gfneral, he died in the 

 70th year of his age, on the 30th of September, 1738. See the following works respefting 

 Boerhaave :— Account of the life and writings of H. Boehaave, by -Dr. Burton, Lond. 

 1746, otlavo.— A. Shulden's Oratio Acaden.iica in memoriam H. Boerhaavh. Lugd. Bat. 

 1738, octavo. ---Essay sur le Caraclere du Grand Medecin; ou eloge critique de M. H. 

 Boerhaave, (par M, Maty) a Cologne, 1747, in oftavo. 



1 B0ERHAAV4 



