Herman Boerhaave
Herman Boerhaave | |
---|---|
University of Leiden | |
Theses | |
Academic advisors | Burchard de Volder[1] |
Notable students | Gerard van Swieten |
Author abbrev. (botany) | Boerh. |
Herman Boerhaave (Dutch: [ˈɦɛrmɑn ˈbuːrˌɦaːvə], 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738[2]) was a Dutch botanist, chemist, Christian humanist, and physician of European fame. He is regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital and is sometimes referred to as "the father of physiology," along with Venetian physician Santorio Santorio (1561–1636).[by whom?] Boerhaave introduced the quantitative approach into medicine, along with his pupil Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777) and is best known for demonstrating the relation of symptoms to lesions.[citation needed] He was the first to isolate the chemical urea from urine. He was the first physician to put thermometer measurements to clinical practice. His motto was Simplex sigillum veri: 'Simplicity is the sign of the truth'.[citation needed] He is often hailed as the "Dutch Hippocrates".[2]
Biography
Boerhaave was born at
In 1701 he was appointed lecturer on the institutes of medicine at Leiden; in his inaugural discourse, De commendando Hippocratis studio, he recommended to his pupils that 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 of Leiden, and by the publication of numerous works descriptive of new species of plants.[6]
On 14 September 1710, Boerhaave married Maria Drolenvaux, the daughter of the rich merchant, Alderman Abraham Drolenvaux. They had four children, of whom one daughter, Maria Joanna, lived to adulthood.[7] In 1722, he began to suffer from an extreme case of gout, recovering the next year.
In 1714, when he was appointed rector of the university, he succeeded Govert Bidloo in the chair of practical medicine, and in this capacity he introduced the modern system of clinical instruction. Four years later he was appointed to the chair of chemistry as well. In 1728 he was elected into the French Academy 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, at Leiden.
Legacy
His reputation so increased the fame of the University of Leiden, especially as a school of medicine, that it became popular with visitors from every part of Europe. All the princes of Europe sent him pupils, who found in this skilful professor not only an indefatigable teacher, but an affectionate guardian.[
The operating theatre of the University of Leiden in which he once worked as an anatomist is now at the centre of a museum named after him; the
He had a prodigious influence on the development of medicine and chemistry in Scotland. British medical schools credit Boerhaave for developing the system of medical education upon which their current institutions are based.
Boerhaave first described
Boerhaave was critical of his
Medical contributions
Boerhaave devoted himself intensively to the study of the human body. He was strongly influenced by the
Boerhaave's teaching of his knowledge and philosophy drew many students to the
The mechanistic concept of the human body departed from the age-old precepts laid down by Galen and Aristotle. In place of a servile dependence upon teachings handed down from antiquity, Boerhaave understood the importance of establishing definitive findings through his own investigation, and by the direct application of his own methods of testing. This new reasoning expanded the field of Renaissance anatomy: it opened the way to reforms of medical practice and understanding in the field of iatrochemistry.
Works
- Oratio academica qua probatur, bene intellectam a Cicerone et confutatam esse sententiam Epicuri de summo bono (Leiden, 1688)
- Het Nut der Mechanistische Methode in de Geneeskunde (Leiden, 1703)
- Institutiones medicae (Leiden, 1708)
- Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis (Leiden, 1709), on which his pupil and assistant, Gerard van Swieten (1700–1772) published a commentary in 5 vols.
- Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis (in Latin). Parisiis. 1728.
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- Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis (in Latin). Parisiis. 1728.
- Index plantarum quae in Horto academico Lugduno Batavo reperiuntur (in Latin). Leiden: Cornelis Boutesteyn. 1710.
- Index alter plantarum quae in horto academico Lugduno-Batavo aluntur (in Latin). Vol. 1. Leiden: Pieter van der Aa (1.). 1720.
- Index alter plantarum quae in horto academico Lugduno-Batavo aluntur (in Latin). Vol. 2. Leiden: Pieter van der Aa (1.). 1720.
- Institutiones et Experimenta chemiae (Paris, 1724) (unauthorised). (Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf)
- Historia plantarum quae in Horto Academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt (in Latin). Roma: Francesco Gonzaga. 1727.
- Elementa chemiae (in Latin). Vol. 1. Leiden: Severinus, Isaak. 1732.
- Elements of Chemistry. Vol. 1. London: Pemberton, J and J. 1735. Translated from the original Latin by Timothy Dallowe, MD.
- Elementa chemiae (in Latin). Vol. 2. Leiden: Severinus, Isaak. 1732.
- Historia plantarum quae in Horto Academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt (in Latin). Vol. 1. Amsterdam. 1738.
- Historia plantarum quae in Horto Academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt (in Latin). Vol. 2. Amsterdam. 1738.
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Historia plantarum quae in Horto Academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt, 1727
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Elementa Chemiae, 1732
References
- ^ Gerrit Arie Lindeboom (ed.), Boerhaave and His Time, Brill, 1970, p. 7.
- ^ JSTOR 20395297.
- ^ Robert Siegfried (2002). From Elements to Atoms: A History of Chemical Composition, Volume 92, Issues 4–6. American Philosophical Society. p. 128
- ^ a b Mendelsohn, p. 287
- ^ Herman Boerhaave (1690). "De distinctione mentis a corpore" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- OCLC 8591273.
- ^ "Herman Boerhaave (www.whonamedit.com)". Archived from the original on 7 February 2006. Retrieved 7 February 2006.
- PMID 4883155.
- ^ Clow, Archibald & Nan L. Clow The Chemical Revolution, Batchworth Press, London, 1952.
- ^ Boerhaave, H., Atrocis, nec descripti prius, morbii historia: secundum medicae artis leges conscripta (Leiden, the Netherlands: Lugduni Batavorum Boutesteniana, 1724).
- ISBN 9004070435, 978-9004070431
- ^ Principe, Lawrence (2007). New Narratives in Eighteenth-Century Chemistry: Contributions from the First Francis Bacon Workshop, 21–23 April 2005, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. Springer, pp. 66–67
- ^ H. Biglow, Orville Luther Holley (1817). The American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review, Volume 1. H. Biglow, p. 192
- ^ Hosack, David (1824). Essays on various subjects of medical science. New York Symour. p. 113
- ^ Cook, Harold (2007). Matters of Exchange. New Haven: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age. p. 393.
- ISBN 978-0521425926.
- ^ Broman, Thomas (2003). The Medical Sciences. Cambridge: The Cambridge History of Sciences. p. 469.
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Boerh.
- Guggenheim, K. Y. "Herman Boerhaave on nutrition." The Journal of Nutrition 118, no. 2 (1988): 141-143.
- Mendelsohn, Everett (2003). Transformation and Tradition in the Sciences. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521524858
- Rina Knoeff (2002), "Herman Boerhaave (1668–1783): Calvinist chemist and physician." History of Science and Scholarship in the Netherlands, Volume 3. Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- JSTOR 20395297
Further reading
- Ducheyne, Steffen (2017) "Different Shades of Newton: Herman Boerhaave on Isaac Newton mathematicus, philosophus, and opto-chemicus", Annals of Science 74(2): 108-125.
- Powers, John C. (2012). Inventing Chemistry: Herman Boerhaave and the Reform of the Chemical Arts. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-67760-6.
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). 1911. .
- Samuel Johnson's 1739 biography of him online: Life of Herman Boerhaave
- Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, National Museum of the History of Science and Medicine
- A recent discussion of Boerhaave's Syndrome in the New England Journal of Medicine (subscription required)
- Works by Herman Boerhaave at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Herman Boerhaave at Internet Archive
- Works at Open Library
- Herman Boerhaave at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- "Aphorismi de Cognoscendis et Curandis Morbis" (1709; “Aphorisms on the Recognition and Treatment of Diseases”)
- "Elementa Chemiae" (1733) (Elements of Chemistry)
- "A New Method of Chemistry" (1741 & 1753) (English Translation of "Elementa Chemiae" by Peter Shaw)
- Javed Chaudhry Article about Herman Boerhaave