Herman Boerhaave the man and his work

Herman Boerhaave, the son of a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, was born in a village near Leyden on 31 December 1668. After an unusual course of studies ... » 

Herman Boerhaave, the son of a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, was born in a village near Leyden on 31 December 1668. After an unusual course of studies in philosophy, theology, and medicine at the University of Leyden, he graduated in 1693 as a doctor of medicine at the University of Harderwijk, now long defunct. At the age of 32 years Boerhaave became reader in medicine in the University of Leyden, and during this period of eight years he wrote two books, The Institutes of Medicine and The Aphorisms concerning the knowledge and cure of diseases, which in many Latin editions and in translations into several languages, were used in universities throughout the world continuously until fifty years after his death.In 1709 Boerhaave was appointed professor of medicine and botany in the University of Leyden. At that time his medical teaching was mainly theoretical. He now devoted much time to the study of botany, and he greatly improved the contents of the celebrated Physic Garden of the University of Leyden. Famous botanists - including Linnaeus - profited greatly by his teaching. In 1714 Boerhaave was entrusted with clinicalteaching in the St Caecilia Hospital, and in the twelve beds allocated to him for this purpose he initiated the modern method of bedside teaching. His classes were attended by large numbers (100 or more) students, and many famous physicians and teachers of medicine were trained by him. In the first four decades of the eighteenth century to have been trained and 'promoted' as doctor of medicine by Boerhaave himself was a cachet which gave its owner the entry to any medical appointment. «