Hermann Boerhaave

Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738), Dutch doctor, who introduced bedside teaching and is considered by some historians the most important medical educator. He was born in Voorhout, near Leiden, and educated for the ministry at the University of Leiden. In 1689 he became a doctor of philosophy, and in 1690 he began to study medicine, chemistry, and botany. He received his medical degree from the University of Harderwijk in 1693 and then returned to Leiden, where he was appointed lecturer on the theory of medicine in 1701 and became Professor of Medicine and Botany in 1709. At about that time he published the two works on which his lasting fame chiefly rests, Institutiones Medicae (Medical Principles, 1708) and Aphorismi de Cognoscendis et Curandis Morbis (Aphorisms on the Diagnosis and Cure of Diseases, 1709).

To combine practice with theory, Boerhaave founded a hospital in which he gave clinical instruction to his pupils, thus introducing the clinical method into medical education. In 1718 he became Professor of Chemistry, and in 1724 he published Elementa Chemiae (Elements of Chemistry), a work that did much to make the science of chemistry clear and intelligible. He also made contributions in the field of botany.