Editing Herman Boerhaave (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Oud Poelgeest Oegstgeest.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.2|[[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]].]]

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|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8591273|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. 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.