BOERHAAVE, HERMANN (16681738)

This article appears in Volume V04, Page 116 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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BOERHAAVE, HERMANN (16681738) , Dutch physician and man of science, was born at Voorhout near Leiden on the 31st of December 1668. Entering the university of Leiden he took his degree in philosophy in 1689, with a dissertation De distinctione mentis a or pore, in which he attacked the doctrines of

Epicurus

EPICURUS (342–270 B.C.)

, Hobbes and Spinoza. He then turned to the study of

medicine

MEDICINE

, in which he graduated in 1693 at Harderwyck in Guelderland. In 1701 he was appointed lecturer on the institutes
1 Thucydides (v. 38), in speaking of the " four councils of the Boeotians," is referring to the plenary bodies in the various states.
of

medicine

MEDICINE

at Leiden; in his inaugural discourse, De commendando Hippocratis studio, he recommended to his pupils that

great

GREAT

physician as their model. In 1709 he became professor of botany and medicine, and in that capacity he did good service, not only to his own university, but also to botanical science, by his improvements and additions to the botanic

garden

GARDEN (from O. Fr. garden, mod. Fr. jardin; this, like our words " garth," a paddock attached to a building, and " yard," comes from a Teutonic word for an enclosure which appears in Gothic as gards and O. H. Ger. gart, cf. Dutch gaarde and Ger. .garten)

of Leiden, and by the publication of numerous works descriptive of new species of plants. In 1714, when he was appointed

rector

RECTOR (Lat. for " ruler," " guide," &c., from regere, "
rule
- RULE
")

of the university, he succeeded Govert Bidloo (16491713) in the chair of

practical

PRACTICAL

medicine, and in this capacity he had the merit of introducing the modern system of clinical instruction. Four years later he was appointed also to the chair of

chemistry

. In 1728 he was elected into the French

Academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

of Sciences, and two years later into the Royal Society of London. In 1729 declining health obliged him to resign the chairs of

chemistry

and botany; and he died, after a lingering and painful illness, on the 23rd of September 1738 at Leiden. His genius so raised the fame of the university of Leiden, especially as a school of medicine, that it became a resort of strangers from every part of Europe. All the princes of Europe sent him disciples, who found in this skilful professor not only an indefatigable teacher, but an affectionate guardian. When Peter the

Great

GREAT

went to Holland in 1715, to instruct himself in maritime affairs, he also took lessons from Boerhaave. His reputation was not confined to Europe; a Chinese liiandarin wrote him a

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

directed " To the illustrious Boerhaave, physician in Europe," and it reached him in due course.
His principal works areInstilutiones medicae (Leiden, 1708); Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis (Leiden, 1709), on which his pupil and assistant, Gerard van Swieten (17001772) published a commentary in 5 vols.; and Elementa chemiae (Paris, 1724).

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