HERMAN, one of the greatest physicians, as well as the best men, that this or perhaps any age has ever produced, was born in 1668, at Vorhout, a village near Leyden. At the age of 16 he found himself without parents, protection, advice, or fortune. He had already studied theology and the other ecclesiastical sciences, with the design of devoting himself to a clerical life; but the science of nature, which equally engaged his attention, soon engrossed Boerhaave, his whole time. This illustrious person, whose name afterwards spread throughout the world, and who left at his death above 200,000l. could at that time barely live by his labours, and was compelled to teach mathematics to obtain necessaries. But in 1693, being received doctor in the science of physic, he began practice; and his merit being at length discovered, many powerful friends patronized him, and procured him three valuable employments: the first was that of professor of medicine in the university of Leyden; the second, that of professor of chemistry; and, thirdly, that of professor of botany. The Academy of Sciences at Paris, and the Royal Society at London, invited him to become one of their members. He communicated to each his discoveries in chemistry. The city of Leyden became in his time the school of Europe for this science, as well as for medicine and botany. All the princes of Europe sent him disciples, who found in this skilful professor, not only an indefatigable teacher, but even a tender father, who encouraged them to pursue their labours, consoled them in their afflictions, and so laced them in their wants. When Peter the Great went to Holland in 1715, to instruct himself in maritime affairs, he also attended Boerhaave to receive his lessons. His reputation was spread as far as China: a mandarin wrote to him with this inscription, "To the illustrious Boerhaave, physician in Europe;" and the letter came regularly to him. The city of Leyden has raised a monument in the church of St Peter, to the salutary genius of Boerhaave, Salutifero Boerhaavi genio facrum. It consists of an urn upon a pedestal of black marble: fix heads, four of which represent the four ages of life, and the two sciences in which Boerhaave excelled, form a group issuing between the urn and its supporters. The capital of this basis is decorated with a drapery of white marble, in which the artist has shewn the different emblems of disorders and their remedies. Above, upon the surface of the pedestal, is the medallion of Boerhaave: at the extremity of the frame, a ribbon displays the favourite motto of this learned man: Simples vigiliam veri, "Truth unarrayed."

From the time of the learned Hippocrates, no physician has more justly merited the esteem of his cotemporaries, and the thanks of posterity, than Boerhaave. He united to an uncommon genius, and extraordinary talents, the qualities of the heart, which gave them so great a value to society. He made a decent, simple, and venerable appearance, particularly when age had changed the colour of his hair. He was an eloquent orator, and declaimed with dignity and grace. He taught very methodically, and with great precision; he never tired his auditors, but they always regretted that his discourses were finished. He would sometimes give them a lively turn with raillery; but his raillery was refined and ingenious, and it enlivened the subject he treated of, without carrying with it any thing severe or satirical. A declared foe to all excess, he considered decent mirth as the salt of life. It was the daily practice of this eminent person, through his whole life, as soon as he rose in the morning, which was generally very early, to retire for an hour to private prayer and meditation on some part of the Scriptures. He often told his friends, when they asked him how it was pos- sible for him to go through so much fatigue? that it was this which gave him spirit and vigour in the business of the day. This he therefore recommended as the best rule he could give: for nothing, he said, could tend more to the health of the body than the tranquillity of the mind; and that he knew nothing which could support himself, or his fellow-creatures, amidst the various difficulties of life, but a well-grounded confidence in the supreme Being upon the principles of Christianity. This was strongly exemplified in his own illness in 1722, which can hardly be told without horror; and by which the course of his lectures as well as his practice was long interrupted. He was for five months confined to his bed by the gout, where he lay upon his back without daring to attempt the least motion; because any effort renewed his torments, which were so exquisite, that he was at length not only deprived of motion but of sense. Here his medical art was at a stand; nothing could be attempted, because nothing could be propounded with the least prospect of success. But, having (in the sixth month of his illness) obtained some remission, he determined to try whether the juice of fumitory, endive, or succory, taken thrice a-day in large quantity, (viz. above half a pint each dose), might not contribute to his relief; and by a perseverance in this method he was wonderfully recovered. This patience of Boerhaave's was founded not on vain reasonings, like that of which the Stoics boasted; but on a religious composure of mind, and Christian resignation to the will of God.

Of his sagacity and the wonderful penetration with which he often discovered and described, at the first sight of a patient, such distempers as betray themselves by no symptoms to common eyes, such surprising accounts have been given, as scarcely can be credited though attested beyond all doubt. Yet this great master of medical knowledge was so far from having presumptuous confidence in his abilities, or from being puffed up by his riches, that he was condescending to all, and remarkably diligent in his profession; and he often used to say that the life of a patient (if trifled with or neglected) would one day be required at the hand of the physician. He always called the poor his best patients; for God (said he) is their paymaster. The activity of his mind sparkled visibly in his eyes. He was always cheerful, and desirous of promoting every valuable end of conversation; and the excellency of the Christian religion was frequently the subject of it: for he asserted, on all proper occasions, the divine authority and sacred efficacy of the Scriptures; and maintained, that they only could give peace of mind, that sweet and sacred peace which puffeth all understanding; since none can conceive it but he who has it; and none can have it but by divine communication. He never regarded calumny nor detraction (for Boerhaave himself had enemies), nor ever thought it necessary to confute them. "They are sparks (said he) which, if you do not blow, will go out of themselves. The surest remedy against scandal, is to live it down by a perseverance in well-doing; and by praying to God that he would cure the distempered minds of those who traduce and injure us." Being once asked by a friend, who had often admired his patience under great provocations, whether he knew what it was to be angry, and by what means he had so entirely suppressed that impetuous and ungovernable passion? Boerhaave answered, with the utmost frankness and sincerity, that he was naturally quick of resentment: but that he had, by daily prayer and meditation, at length attained to this mastery over himself.

About the middle of the year 1737, he felt the first approaches of that fatal illness which brought him to the grave, viz. a disorder in his breast, which was at times very painful, often threatening him with immediate suffocation, and terminated in an universal dropy: but during this afflictive and lingering illness, his constancy and firmness did not forsake him; he neither intermitted the necessary cares of life, nor forgot the proper preparations of death. About three weeks before his dissolution, when the Rev. Mr Schultens, one of the most learned and exemplary divines of the age, attended him at his country-houle, the doctor desired his prayers, and afterwards entered into a most remarkably judicious discourse with him on the spiritual and immaterial nature of the soul; and this he illustrated to Mr Schultens with wonderful perspicuity, by a description of the effects which the infirmities of his body had upon his faculties; which yet they did not so oppress or vanquish, but his soul was always master of itself, and always resigned to the pleasure of its Maker—and then he added, "He who loves God ought to think nothing desirable but what is most pleasing to the supreme goodness." These were his sentiments, and such was his conduct in this state of weakness and pain. As death approached nearer, he was so far from terror or confusion, that he seemed less sensible of pain, and more cheerful under his torments, which continued till the 23d day of September, 1738, on which he died (much honoured and lamented) between four and five in the morning, in the 70th year of his age—often recommending to the bye-standers a careful observation of St John's precepts concerning the love of God, and the love of man, as frequently inculcated in his first epistle, particularly in the fifth chapter. His funeral oration was spoken in Latin before the university of Leyden, to a very numerous audience, by Mr Schultens, and afterwards published at their particular desire. He wrote, 1. Institutiones Medicae. 2. Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis Morbis. 3. Institutiones et Experimenta Chemiae. 4. Libellus de Materiis Medica, et remediiorum formulis que serviant aphorismis. Swieten published, Commentaries upon his Aphorisms, in 5 vols 4to; and several other works, all greatly esteemed.