View source for Herman Boerhaave

{{Short description|Dutch botanist, chemist, humanist, and physician (1668–1738)}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Herman Boerhaave
|image             = Herman Boerhaave by J Champan.jpg
|birth_date        = {{birth date|df=yes|1668|12|31}}
|birth_place       = [[Voorhout]], [[Dutch Republic]]
|death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1738|9|23|1668|12|31}}
|death_place       = [[Leiden]], Dutch Republic
|resting_place     = [[Pieterskerk, Leiden]]
|nationality       = Dutch
|field             = [[Medicine]]
|work_institutions = [[University of Leiden]]
|education         = [[University of Leiden]] (M.A., 1690)<br>[[University of Harderwijk]] (M.D., 1693)
|doctoral_advisor  =
|academic_advisors = [[Burchard de Volder]]<ref>Gerrit Arie Lindeboom (ed.), ''Boerhaave and His Time'', Brill, 1970, p. 7.</ref>
|doctoral_students =
|notable_students  = [[Gerard van Swieten]] 
|known_for         = Founder of clinical teaching
|author_abbrev_bot = Boerh.
|thesis1_title      = De distinctione mentis a corpore (On the Difference of the Mind from the Body)
|thesis1_url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwlpAAAAcAAJ&dq=
|thesis1_year       = 1690
|thesis2_title      = De utilitate explorandorum in aegris excrementorum ut signorum (The Utility of Examining Signs of Disease in the Excrement of the Sick)
|thesis2_url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=wDZlAAAAcAAJ&dq=
|thesis2_year       = 1693
}}

'''Herman Boerhaave''' ({{IPA|nl|ˈɦɛrmɑm ˈbuːrˌɦaːvə|lang}}, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738<ref name=":0">Underwood, E. Ashworth. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. {{JSTOR|20395297}}.</ref>) was a Dutch [[chemist]], [[Botany|botanist]], [[Christian humanism|Christian humanist]], and [[physician]]. He is sometimes regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital along with Venetian physician [[Santorio Santorio]] (1561–1636).<ref>{{cite web | title=Dutch Scientist, Chemist & Botanist | website=Encyclopedia Britannica | date=1998-07-20 | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herman-Boerhaave | ref={{sfnref|Encyclopedia Britannica|1998}} | access-date=2025-06-16}}</ref> Boerhaave introduced the quantitative approach into medicine, along with his pupil [[Albrecht von Haller]] (1708–1777). 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 veri sigillum'': 'Simplicity is the sign of the truth'.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/aa__001biog02_01/aa__001biog02_01_1031.php|title=Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden|date=1854}}</ref> He is often hailed as the "Dutch [[Hippocrates]]".<ref name=":0" />

==Biography==
[[File:Oud Poelgeest Oegstgeest.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Oud Poelgeest]] Castle, Herman Boerhaave's home in [[Oegstgeest]], near [[Leiden]]. This was the site of his outdoor botanical garden that was renowned during his lifetime and rivalled [[Hortus Cliffortianus]], the garden of his friend and sponsor to [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]]. He travelled back and forth to his friend's garden and to the Leiden University by [[trekschuit]] (horse-drawn boat).]]

Boerhaave was born at [[Voorhout]] near [[Leiden]]. The son of a [[Protestant]] [[pastor]],<ref>Robert Siegfried (2002). ''From Elements to Atoms: A History of Chemical Composition, Volume 92, Issues 4–6''. American Philosophical Society. p. 128</ref> in his youth Boerhaave studied for a [[Divinity (academic discipline)|divinity]] degree and wanted to become a preacher.<ref name="Mendelsohn, p.287">Mendelsohn, p. 287</ref> After the death of his father, however, he was offered a scholarship and he entered the [[University of Leiden]], where he took his [[master's degree]] in [[philosophy]] in 1690, with a dissertation titled ''De distinctione mentis a corpore'' (''On the Difference of the Mind from the Body'').<ref>{{cite web|author=Herman Boerhaave |url=http://ilorentz.org/history/proefschriften/sources/Boerhaave_1690.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ilorentz.org/history/proefschriften/sources/Boerhaave_1690.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=De distinctione mentis a corpore |year=1690}}</ref> There he attacked the doctrines of [[Epicurus]], [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[Baruch Spinoza]]. He then turned to the study of medicine. He earned his [[medical doctorate]] from the [[University of Harderwijk]] (present-day [[Gelderland]]) in 1693, with a dissertation titled ''De utilitate explorandorum in aegris excrementorum ut signorum'' (''The Utility of Examining Signs of Disease in the Excrement of the Sick'').

In 1701 he was appointed lecturer on the institutes of medicine at Leiden; in his inaugural discourse, ''De commendando [[Hippocrates|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 [[Hortus Botanicus Leiden|botanic garden of Leiden]], and by the publication of numerous works descriptive of new species of plants.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gunn|first=Mary|title=Botanical exploration of southern Africa : an illustrated history of early botanical literature on the Cape flora : biographical accounts of the leading plant collectors and their activities in southern Africa from the days of the East India Company until modern times|date=1981|publisher=Published for the Botanical Research Institute by A.A. Balkema|others=L. E. W. Codd|isbn=0-86961-129-1|location=Cape Town|pages=40|oclc=8591273}}</ref>

On 14 September 1710, Boerhaave married Maria Drolenvaux (1686–1746), the daughter of the rich merchant, [[Alderman]] Abraham Drolenvaux. They had four children, of whom one daughter, Maria Johanna (1712–1791) – wife of German art collector with various influential political ties [[Frederic Count de Thoms]] (1696–1746), lived to adulthood.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/2404.html |title=Herman Boerhaave (www.whonamedit.com) |access-date=2006-02-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060207020803/http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/2404.html |archive-date=7 February 2006 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>  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. Whether he was the first to do so is contested; in the words of one medical historian, Boerhaave "was neither an innovator of this practice, nor an especially energetic practitioner of it", though he did help to popularize the method.<ref name="b417"></ref> 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.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} When [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] went to Holland in 1716 (he had been in Holland before in 1697 to instruct himself in maritime affairs), he also took lessons from Boerhaave.<ref name="p085">{{cite book | last=Massie | first=Robert K. | title=Peter the Great, His Life and World | publisher=Alfred A. Knopf | publication-place=New York | date=1980 | isbn=978-0-394-50032-4 | page=188}}</ref> [[Voltaire]] travelled to see him, as did [[Carl Linnaeus]], who became a close friend and named the genus ''[[Boerhavia]]'' for him. In one probably apocryphal story to show the reach of Boerhaave's fame, a man from China sent him a letter addressed only "to Mr. Boerhaave, physician in Europe," and it reached him in due course.<ref name="b417">{{cite journal | last=Cook | first=Harold J. | title=Boerhaave and the Flight from Reason in Medicine | journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine | publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press | volume=74 | issue=2 | year=2000 | issn=0007-5140 | jstor=44445445 | pages=221–240 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44445445 | access-date=17 June 2025}}</ref>

[[File:ErfgoedLeiden LEI001019039 Herman Boerhaave, bronzen standbeeld van J.Stracke (1817-1891).jpeg|thumb|Bronze statue made by J.Stracke (1817–1891)]]
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 [[Boerhaave Museum]]. [[Asteroid]] [[8175 Boerhaave]] is named after Boerhaave. From 1955 to 1961 Boerhaave's image was printed on Dutch 20-[[guilder]] banknotes. The [[Leiden University Medical Centre]] organises medical trainings called ''Boerhaave-courses''.

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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Underwood|first=E. Ashworth|date=1 January 1968|title=Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years|jstor=20395297|journal=The British Medical Journal|volume=4|issue=5634|pages=820–25|pmc=1912963|doi=10.1136/bmj.4.5634.820|pmid=4883155}}</ref> Every founding member of the [[Edinburgh Medical School]] had studied at Leyden and attended Boerhaave's lectures on chemistry including [[John Rutherford (physician)|John Rutherford]] and [[Francis Home]]. Boerhaave's ''Elementa Chemiae (1732)'' is recognised as the first text on chemistry.<ref>Clow, Archibald & Nan L. Clow ''The Chemical Revolution'', Batchworth Press, London, 1952.</ref>  
 
Boerhaave first described [[Boerhaave syndrome]], which involves tearing of the oesophagus, usually a consequence of vigorous vomiting. Notoriously, in 1724 he described the case of Baron Jan van Wassenaer, a Dutch admiral who died of this condition following a gluttonous feast and subsequent regurgitation.<ref>Boerhaave, H., ''Atrocis, nec descripti prius, morbii historia: secundum medicae artis leges conscripta'' (Leiden, the Netherlands: Lugduni Batavorum Boutesteniana, 1724).</ref> The condition was uniformly fatal prior to modern surgical techniques allowing repair of the oesophagus.

Boerhaave was critical of his [[Netherlands (terminology)#Dutch|Dutch]] contemporary [[Baruch Spinoza]], attacking him in his 1688 dissertation. At the same time, he admired [[Isaac Newton]] and was a devout Christian who often wrote about God in his works.<ref name="Mendelsohn, p.287"/> A collection of his religious thoughts on medicine, translated from Latin to English, has been compiled by the ''Sir Thomas Browne Instituut Leiden'' under the name ''Boerhaave's Orations'' (meaning "Boerhaave's Prayers").<ref>Boerhaave, Herman (1983). edited by Elze Kegel-Brinkgreve & Antonie Maria Luyendijk-Elshout. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=y-UUAAAAIAAJ Boerhaaveìs Orations]''. Volume 4 of Publications of the Sir Thomas Browne Institute Leiden. Brill Archive. {{ISBN|9004070435| 978-9004070431}}</ref> Among other things, he considered nature as God's Creation,<ref>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</ref> and he used to say that the poor were his best patients because God was their paymaster.<ref>H. Biglow, Orville Luther Holley (1817). ''The American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review, Volume 1''. H. Biglow, p. 192</ref><ref>Hosack, David (1824). ''Essays on various subjects of medical science''. New York Symour. p. 113</ref>

==Medical contributions==
Boerhaave devoted himself intensively to the study of the human body. He was strongly influenced by the [[Iatrophysics|mechanistic]] theories of [[René Descartes]], and those of the 17th-century astronomer and mathematician [[Giovanni Borelli]], who described animal movements in terms of mechanical motion. On such premises Boerhaave proposed a hydraulic model of human physiology.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cook|first1=Harold|title=Matters of Exchange|date=2007|publisher=Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age|location=New Haven|pages=393}}</ref> His writings refer to simple machines such as levers and pulleys and similar mechanisms, and he saw the bodily organs and members as being assembled from pipe-like structures.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lindemann|first1=Mary|title=Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe|date=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location= Cambridge|isbn=978-0521425926|pages=101–05|edition=second}}</ref> The physiology of veins, for example, he compared to the operation of pipes. He asserted the importance of a proper balance of fluid pressure, noting that fluids should be able to move around the body freely, without obstacles. For its well-being the body needed to be self-regulating, so as to maintain a healthy state of equilibrium. Boerhaave's concept of the body as apparatus centred his medical attention on material problems rather than upon [[ontological]] or [[Western esotericism|esoteric]] explanations of illness.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Boerhaave's teaching of his knowledge and philosophy drew many students to the [[University of Leiden]]. He emphasised the importance of anatomical research based on practical observation and scientific experiment. His concept of the bodily system took hold throughout Europe, and helped to transform medical education in the European schools. His insights aroused great interest among other critical medical thinkers, not least in [[Friedrich Hoffmann]], who strongly advocated the importance of physico-mechanical principles for the preservation or indeed the restoration of health.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Broman|first1=Thomas|title=The Medical Sciences|date=2003|publisher=The Cambridge History of Sciences|location=Cambridge|page=469}}</ref> As a professor at Leiden, Boerhaave influenced many students. Some in their experiments upheld and furthered his philosophy, while others rejected it and proposed alternative theories of human physiology. He produced a great many textbooks and writings through which the digested brilliance of his lectures at Leiden was circulated widely in Europe. In 1708 his publication of the ''Institutiones Medicae'' was issued in over five languages, and went into approximately ten editions. His ''Elementa Chemia'', a world-renowned chemistry textbook, was published in 1732.

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 ==
[[Image:Boerhaave - Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis, 1728 - 3032194.tif|thumb|upright|''Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis'', 1728]]

*''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.
** {{cite book |title=Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=3032194&custom_att_2=simple_viewer|location=Parisiis|via=apud Guillelmum Cavelier, via Jacobea, sub signo Lilii aurei|language=la|year=1728}}
* {{Cite book|title=Index plantarum quae in Horto academico Lugduno Batavo reperiuntur|volume=|publisher=Cornelis Boutesteyn|location=Leiden|year=1710|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=8766537}}
* {{Cite book|title=Index alter plantarum quae in horto academico Lugduno-Batavo aluntur|volume=1|publisher=Pieter van der Aa (1.)|location=Leiden|year=1720|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=8807973}}
** {{Cite book|title=Index alter plantarum quae in horto academico Lugduno-Batavo aluntur|volume=2|publisher=Pieter van der Aa (1.)|location=Leiden|year=1720|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=8809164}}
*''Institutiones et Experimenta chemiae'' (Paris, 1724) (unauthorised). (Digital edition by the [[University and State Library Düsseldorf]])
* {{Cite book|title=Historia plantarum quae in Horto Academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt|volume=|publisher=Francesco Gonzaga|location=Roma|year=1727|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=6963111}}
* {{Cite book|title=Elementa chemiae|volume=1|publisher=Severinus, Isaak|location=Leiden|year=1732|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=8547459}}
** {{Cite book|title=Elements of Chemistry|volume=1|publisher=Pemberton, J and J|location=London|year=1735|language=English|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/jums6t8q}} Translated from the original Latin by Timothy Dallowe, MD.
** {{Cite book|title=Elementa chemiae|volume=2|publisher=Severinus, Isaak|location=Leiden|year=1732|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=8550429}}
* {{Cite book|title=Historia plantarum quae in Horto Academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt|volume=1|publisher=|location=Amsterdam|year=1738|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=6863351}}
** {{Cite book|title=Historia plantarum quae in Horto Academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt|volume=2|publisher=|location=Amsterdam|year=1738|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=6864614}}

<gallery>
Boerhaave, Herman – Historia plantarum quae in Horto Academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt, 1727 – BEIC 6963111.jpg|''Historia plantarum quae in Horto Academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt'', 1727
Elementa Chemiae-Boerhaave.jpg|''Elementa Chemiae'', 1732
</gallery>

{{Clear}}
{{botanist|Boerh.}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

* Guggenheim, K. Y. "Herman Boerhaave on nutrition." ''The Journal of Nutrition'' 118, no. 2 (1988): 141–143. {{doi|10.1093/jn/118.2.141}}
* 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.
* [[Edgar Ashworth Underwood|Underwood, E. Ashworth]]. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. {{JSTOR|20395297}}

==Further reading==
* Ducheyne, Steffen (2017) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00033790.2017.1304574 "Different Shades of Newton: Herman Boerhaave on Isaac Newton ''mathematicus'', ''philosophus'', and ''opto-chemicus''"], ''[[Annals of Science]]'' 74(2): 108–125. 
* {{cite book |title=Inventing Chemistry: Herman Boerhaave and the Reform of the Chemical Arts |last=Powers |first=John C. |year=2012 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago, London |isbn=978-0-226-67760-6}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikisource}}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Boerhaave, Hermann |volume=4 |short=x}}
*[[Samuel Johnson]]'s 1739 biography of him online: [http://www.samueljohnson.com/boerhaave.html Life of Herman Boerhaave]
*[http://www.museumboerhaave.nl/ Museum Boerhaave] in Leiden, National Museum of the History of Science and Medicine
*[http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/344/2/138 A recent discussion of Boerhaave's Syndrome] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080413182227/http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/344/2/138 |date=13 April 2008 }} in the New England Journal of Medicine (subscription required)
* {{Gutenberg author |id=6193| name=Herman Boerhaave}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Herman Boerhaave}}
*[https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL863081A Works] at [https://openlibrary.org Open Library]
* {{MathGenealogy|id=101856}}
*[https://archive.org/details/hermanniboerhaa00boergoog "Aphorismi de Cognoscendis et Curandis Morbis" (1709; “Aphorisms on the Recognition and Treatment of Diseases”)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120916115830/http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/rotochem/Boer.html "Elementa Chemiae" (1733) (''Elements of Chemistry'')]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080612173212/http://usuarios.lycos.es/rotedu/Shaw.html "A New Method of Chemistry" (1741 & 1753) (''English Translation of ''"Elementa Chemiae"'' by Peter Shaw'')]
*[http://www.javed-chaudhry.com/zindagi-ka-khoya-howa-sira-by-javed-chaudhry/ Javed Chaudhry Article about Herman Boerhaave]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boerhaave, Herman}}
[[Category:1668 births]]
[[Category:1738 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Dutch physicians]]
[[Category:17th-century Dutch writers]]
[[Category:18th-century Dutch physicians]]
[[Category:18th-century Dutch writers]]
[[Category:Burials at Pieterskerk, Leiden]]
[[Category:17th-century Dutch anatomists]]
[[Category:18th-century Dutch anatomists]]
[[Category:17th-century Dutch botanists]]
[[Category:18th-century Dutch botanists]]
[[Category:18th-century Dutch chemists]]
[[Category:Dutch Christians]]
[[Category:Dutch entomologists]]
[[Category:Dutch Renaissance humanists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Leiden University alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Leiden University]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:People from Teylingen]]
[[Category:University of Harderwijk alumni]]
[[Category:Writers about religion and science]]