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HERMANN BOERHAAVE OF LEYDEN, HOLLAND, ONE OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED PHYSICIANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Hermann Boerhaave, who was born at Voorhont, near Leyden, Holland, on December 31, 1668, was the son of a poor but highly educated clergyman; and it was owing to this circumstance that he received in early youth a most careful training in Latin and Greek and in belles-lettres. At the age of fourteen he entered the public school of Leyden, and made such rapid progess in his studies—history, mathematics, the different branches of natural philosophy, Hebrew and Chaldean languages, and metaphysics—that he was soon able to follow regularly the lectures given at the university. He was only fifteen at the time when his father died, leaving him absolutely penniless; but Van Alphen, the Burgomaster of Leyden, befriended him and furnished all the funds needed for a continuance of his studies at the university. But young Boerhaave, who was not willing to be entirely dependent on the aid thus provided, contributed to his own support not a little by giving private instruction to young students of the wealthy class. In 1690 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, the subject of his dissertation being a refutal of the doctrines of Epicurus, Hobbes and Spinosa. His original intention had been to prepare himself for the ministry, but, after continuing his studies in theology for a short time, he determined that the better course for him would be to choose the career of physician. Accordingly he began, at the age of twenty-two, to study the anatomical treatises of Vesalius, Fallopius and Bartholinus, and at the same time he followed a course of instruction in dissecting,