ous accounts of his lectures which were then in circulation. "This brought Petrarch to my mind, who bewails the unhappiness of his age upon finding himself ranked among the chief poets in it. With what confidence could I, conscious of my own insufficiency, and full of admiration of other authors, enter the list of writers of chemistry? At length, however, I undertook the disgustful work which I now declare was extorted from me."
In his prime Boerhaave was. tall, robust, and athletic, hardened by exercise, negligent in dress, with a large head, curly brown hair, bright, piercing eyes, and a florid complexion. He was a sincere and affectionate friend, courteous in his professional intercourse, never talking of his own affairs, ready with praise for others, but silent concerning himself.[1] "There was in his air something rough and artless, but so majestic and great at the same time that no man ever looked upon him without veneration and a kind of tacit submission to the superiority of his genius." He rose at four o'clock in summer and at five in winter. Ten was his usual bedtime. One hour he devoted to prayer and meditation. This, he said, gave him spirit and vigor in the business of the day. All his abilities he ascribed to the goodness of God. In the severest winter he had neither fire nor stove in his study, where he passed three to four hours in the morning. His library abounded in the works of the best historians, poets, and authors of polite literature as well as in those upon medicine.
By unceasing industry he produced in rapid succession books, minor treatises, orations, and discussions. Besides the public lecture on botany and the private lectures on chemistry, the institutes and practice of physics, which employed him four hours in speaking, he frequently spent an hour in giving a public lecture on some special subject. He allowed nothing to interfere with his duties as a teacher.
He brought to the lecture room a vast comprehension, a prodigious memory, and a solid experience. He used no notes; his manner was concise, clear, and methodical. He illustrated his subjects with quotations from the poets, of which his favorites were Virgil, Ovid, Rapin, and Cowley. Sometimes by a delicate irony he stirred his audience to laughter, but never moved a muscle of his own face. His lecture room was thronged. Men came to Leyden from all parts of the world, who regarded it as a special glory to have been taught by the illustrious Boerhaave. As a writer said of him after his death: "Long was he the oracle of his faculty. Never was preceptor more beloved, professor more celebrated, nor physician more consulted."[2]
His practice was enormous. A hundred patients, it is said,
