146 B O E 
vanities, they are fond of retreating, as to the mod inno¬ 
cent and entertaining recreation.” 
Not long before he died, he told his friends, that he 
had never doubted of the fpiritual and immaterial nature 
of the foul ; bvit that, in a very fevere illnefs with which 
he was afiliited, he had a kind of experimental certainty 
of the diftimilion between corporeal and thinking fub- 
ilances, which mere reafon and philofphy cannot liipply, 
and had opportunities of contemplating the wonderful and 
inexplicable union of foul and body. “ This,” fays Dr. 
jchnfo.n, in his exquifite life of him, “ he ilhiftrated by 
the effetfs which the infirmities of his body had upon his 
faculties ; which yet they did not fo opprefs or vanquiih, 
but that Iris foul was always mailer of itfelf, and always 
refigned to the pleafure of its Author.” 
fie lies buried in the great church of Leyden, under a 
•large marble urn, thus (imply infcribcd : 
Saiutijero Boerhavii Gcnio 
Sacr. 
The pcdefial fupports fix heads, four of which repre- 
fent the four ages of life, and two the fciences in which 
Boerhaave excelled. The capital is decorated with a 
drapery of white marble, in which the artill has fliown 
the different emblems of diforders and their remedies. 
Above, upon the furface of the pedeftal, is the medallion 
of. Boerhaave : at the extremity of the frayne, a ribband 
difplays the favourite motto of this learned man ; Simplex 
vigilum veri, Truth unarrayed. 
Jt has been mentioned, to the honour of Boerhaave, by 
one of his biographers, that he received the vifits of three 
crowned heads ; the grand duke of Tufcany, William the 
Third, and Peter the Great ; the lad of whom dept in 
his barge all night, over againft the houfe of this illuftri- 
ous profeff'or, that he might have two hours conversation 
with him before he began his lectures. Thefe vifits mod 
a (lured ly did more honour to the princes than to the phi - 
lofopher, whofe power, like that of the poets mentioned 
by Charles the Ninth in his epidle to Ronfard, is excrcifed 
upon the minds, whilft that of the fovereign is confined 
to the bodies of mankind. 
Of Boerhaave, the following eulogium is given by the 
learned baron Haller. “ Since I was the difciple of the 
inrmortal Boerhaave, fifty years have elapfed ; but his 
image is, neverthelefs, continually prefent to my mind. I 
have always before my eyes the venerable (implicit)' of 
that great man, who polfefTed, in an eminent degree, the 
power of perfuafion. How often have I heard him fay, 
when he fpoke of the precepts of the Gofpel, that the 
Divine Teacher of it had much more knowledge of the 
human heart than Socrates! He particularly alluded to 
that fentence in the New Teftament, ‘ Whofoever looketh 
after a woman to lull after her, hath already committed 
adultery with her in his heart for, added my illnfirious 
mailer, the firtt attacks of vice are always feeble; reafon 
has then fomepower over the mind. It is then in the very 
moment that inch thoughts occur as to have a tendency to 
withdraw us from our duty, that if we with diligence 
fupprefs them, and turn our attention to fomething elfe, 
we may avoid the approaching danger, and not fall into 
the temptations of vice.” 
The following is a lift of his works, as given by him- 
felf in the preface to his Elementa Chemiae. Oratio de 
Commendanda Studio Hippocratico. An. 1701. De Ufu 
Ratiocinii mechanic - ! in Medicina, 1703. Qua repurgatre 
Medicinae facilis afferitur fimplicitas, 1709. De compa- 
rando certo in phyficis, 1713. De Chemia, (uos Eproves 
cxpnrgante, 1718. De Vita et Obitu Cl. Bernardi Albini, 
1721.' Quanv habuit, quum honefta miflione impetrata, 
botanicam et chemicam profellionem publice ponerem, 
1729. De honore Medici, fervitute, 1731, 44, 45. ln- 
(litutionis Medic,e in u(us annuae exercitationis domelii- 
cos, 1708. Aphorifmi de Cognofcendis et Curandis Mor- 
bis, in ufum doiftrinae-domeflicae, 1709. Index Plantarum 
in Horto Lugd. Bat. repert. 1710. Libelius de Materia 
1 
B O E 
Medica, etRemediorum formulis quse ferviunt aphorifmis 
1719. Index alter Plantarum, quae in Horto Lugd. Bat, 
aluntur, 1720, 2 vols. Epiftola ad Ruyfchium de fabrica 
Glandularum in Corpore humano, 1722, p. 129. Atroch 
nec Defcripti prius Morbi Hiftoria, fecundum Medica 
Artis Leges confcripta, 1724. Atrocis rarillimique Morbi 
Hiftoria altera, 1728. Tra&atus Medicus de Lue aphre- 
difiaca, praefixus Aphrodifiaco, 1728. 
BOERH A A'VIA,y. [fo named by M. Vailiant, in ho, 
nour of the famous Boerhaave. ] In botany, a genus of the 
clafs monandria, order monogynia, natural order aggre¬ 
gates. The generic characters are—Calyx : perianthium 
oblong, tubular, and angular; placed beneath the corolla, 
with a contracted entire mouth, permanent. Corolla: 
one-petalled, bell-fiiaped, upright ; bluntly five-cleft, 
plaited, feated on the calyx ; nectary flefliy, fubcylindric, 
with a toothletted mouth, furrounding the bafe of the 
germ. Stamina : filaments one, two, or three, inferted 
into the edge of the neCtary, between the toothlets, ca¬ 
pillary, at bottom (within the calyx) more (lender, up¬ 
right, about the length of the corolla; antheraae twin, 
globular. Piftillum : germ roundidi, pedicelled ; the 
pedicel ftirrounded by the neCtary; ftyle filiform, twilled, 
the height of the ftamens ; (tigma capitate. Pericarpium : 
none ; calyx enlarged, clofed, incrufts the feed. Seed : 
one: oblong, obtufe, angular.— EJJbitial CharaElcr. Ca¬ 
lyx, none; corolla, one-petalled, bell-lhaped, plaited; 
feed, one, naked, inferior; ((lamina, one, two, or three.) 
Species. 1. Boerhaavia ereCta, or upright hogweed : 
(lem erect, fmooth; flowers two-ftamined. Stem two 
feet high. At each joint a pair of ovate pointed leaves, 
whitifh underneath, on foot-lialks an inch in length. At 
thefe joints, which are far afunder, come out alfo fmall 
fide-branches, growing ereiTt; they, as well as the (tern,. 
are terminated by loofe panicles of flcfii-colon red flowers, 
fucceeded by oblong glutinous feeds. This was difcovered 
by Dr. Houftoun, at La Vera Cruz, in 1731. Alfo in the 
Society ifles. 
2. Boerhaavia diffufa, or fpreading hogweed : ftem 
fmooth and even, dilfufed; leaves ovate. This fends out 
many diffufed (talks, a foot and a half or two feet long; 
with fmall roundidi leaves at eacli joint. The flowers 
grow very fcatteringly, upon long branching peduncles 
from the axils and at the ends of the branches; they are 
of a pale red colour, and are fucceeded by feeds like thofe 
of the foregoing fort. Linneus adds, that the leaves are 
whitifii underneath ; that the flowers are purple, have 
one ftamen only, and a twin anthera. Native of both In¬ 
dies. Mr. Miller received the feeds from Jamaica by 
Dr. Houftoun : but it had been cultivated in the royal gar.- 
den at Hampton Court in 1690. 
3. Boerhaavia hirfuta : ftem diffufed, pubefeent; leaves 
ovate, repand. This fends out many trailing hairy (talks,, 
which divide into fmaller branches. According to Lin* 
neus, the Items are a foot high ; and the flowers blood- 
red, with two ftamens. It is diftinct.however from the 
firft fort. Jacquin affirms, that he has always found one 
ftamen only. This was alfo fent to Mr. Miller by Dr. 
Houftoun, from Jamaica, where it grows naturally. 
4. Boerhaavia (candens, orclimbing hogweed : ftem ere£t, 
flowers two-ftamened, leaves cordate, acute. This fends 
out fieveral (talks from the root, which divide into many 
branches, and trail over whatever plants grow near them, 
riling to the height of five or fix feet. Leaves by pairs 
at eacli joint, on long foot-ftalk 3 ; of the colour and con¬ 
fidence of thofe of the greater chick-weed. The flowers 
grow in loofe umbels at the extremities of the branches ; 
they are yellow, and are fucceeded by fmall, oblong, vif- 
cous, feeds. The ftem is very (tiff and fmooth, with al¬ 
ternate branches : the leaves are fmooth : the umbels fix- 
flowered and green : the involucres five-leaved. Native 
of Jamaica, efpecially about Spanidi Town. Cultivated, 
in 1791 in the royal garden at Hampton Court. 
5. Boerhaavia repens: ftem creeping. Native of Nubia, 
between Macho and Tangos. 
6. Boer* 
