are fpurious, unless some few Prefaces to new Edtions of Books.

Oratio de commandando Studio Hippocratico, habita & impressa Lugd. Bat. 1701, apud Abraham Elzevir. de ufu Ratiocinij Mechanici in Medicina,

1703, apud Joann. Verbeffel.

qua repurgata Medicina facilis afferitur fimplicitas, 1703, apud Joan. Vanderlend.

de comparando certo in Phyficis, 1715, apud Petr. Vander Aa.

de Chymia fuos Errores expurgante, 1718, apud Petr. Vander Aa.

― de Vita & Obitu clariffimi Bernardi Albini, 1721, apud eundem.

quam habui, quum honefta Miffione impetrata, Botanicam & Chymicam Profeffionem publicæ ponerem, 1729, apud Ifaacum Severinum.

eundem.

de Honore Medici, Servitute, 1731, apud

Inftitutiones Medica in ufus annua Exercitationis domefticos, anno 1708, apud J. Vander-Lind. P. & F. Qui dein auctior aliquoties recufus, in 8vo.

Aphorifmi de cognofcendis & curandis Morbis, in ufum Doctrine domefticæ, 1709, apud J. Vanderlinden.

Qui dein auctior aliquoties recufue, in 8vc.

Index Plantarum quæ in Horto Academico Lugduno Batavo reperiuntur, 1710, apud Cornelium Bonteftein,

in 8vo.

Libellus de Materia Medica, & Remediorum Formulis, 1719, apud Ifaacum Severinum, in 8vo. Qui iterum prodiit, in 8vo.

Index alter Plantarum, quæ in Horto Academico Lugduni Batavo aluntur, 1720, apud Petrum Vander Aa, in 4to.

Atrocis nec defcripti prius, Morbi Descriptio, fecundum Medica Artis Leges confcripta, 1724, apud Bonteftein, in 8vo.

Atroc

Atrocis rariffimique, Morbi Hiftoria altera 1728, apud Sam. Luchtmans & Theod. Haak, 8vo.

Tractatus Medicus de Lue Aphordifiaca, præfixus Aphrodifiaco 1728, apud J. Am. Langerak Jok. & Herm. Verbeck, in Folio.

Befides these he communicated to the Royal Society, and to the Royal Academy of Sciences, fome Obfervations upon Quickfilver, which are published in the Philofophical Tranfactions.

Having given this Account of the Life and Writings of Boerhaave it remains, that I take fome Notice of his capital Works, which are his Inftitutes, his Aphorifms, and his Chymistry.

His Inftitutes were defigned as little more than a Syllabus to his Lectures. They are written in a very clofe and concife Style, but abound in Matter containing all the modern Discoveries in Anatomy, Phyfiology, and whatever relates to the Laws of the Animal Economy, and the Action of Medicines upon the Body, with confiderable Improvements of his own, which are specified under their proper Articles. This Treatife is very methodical and distinct; but I apprehend it is utterly unintelligible to any one who is not in fome Degree previously acquainted with the Subjects of which he treats.

His Aphorifms are, as he tells us himself, collected from the Greek medicinal Writers, the Arabians, and fome few of the Moderns; and his Reafonings are founded on the Structure of the Parts and the Laws of Mechanicks. I muft here obferve, that Boerhaave to his great Honour, feems to have gone counter to moft Writers of Inftitutes, and Compilers of Systems. For they have generally endea voured to lead Nature captive, and to make her a& conformable to their preconceived Notions, however crude and chimerical; impofing Laws upon the animal Economy, which have no Reality, and establishing with great Praise and Induftry, Sources of Action, which exift no where but in their own Imaginations.

Imaginations. Boerhaave, on the contrary, was convinced by daily Experience and a Fund of good Senfe, that the Greek Physicians by diligent Obfervation had determined, with great Accuracy, how Nature acts in producing the Symptoms of Diftempers, and her Methods of relieving herself, either with or without the Affiftance of Art, and that their Experience had furnished them with very fuccefsful Methods of Cure. The two Points there'fore which he feems to have had perpetually in View, were to establish, on mechanical Principles, as much as was poffible, the Doctrine of the Antients with Refpect to the Diagnostics and Prognoftics of Difcafes, and fhew that they could not be otherwise than they have reprefented them.

But the fecond View is of more Importance than the firft, it being no less than to demonftrate, that the Methods of Cure purfued by the antient Phycians were generally the best that could poffibly have been contrived with the Materials they were acquainted with, though for Reasons to which they were probably Strangers. This appears to me the diftinguishing Character of Boerhaave, and by this he has done almoft as much Service to Phyfic, as his Predeceffors for fome Centuries had done Mifchiefs.

It is greatly to be lamented that our illuftrious Author did not think proper to publish his Lectures on his Institutes and his Aphorifms before his Deceafe. If he had forefeen the fatál Confequences of fuch an Omiffion, I believe his Love to Mankind would have prevailed upon him to have done it, and thereby prevented the Mifchiefs which his great Name, and the Reputation of his Lectures, may poffibly do in the World. That I may explain my Meaning I muft obferve, that it is the Misfortune of the English to be very little used to converfe in Latin, though, perhaps, no People in the World understand

it better. Add to this, that as we pronounce Latin in a different Manner from all other Nations, our Ears are not accustomed to the foreign Accent. Hence Foreigners with Difficulty understand us, and on the other Hand it is impoffible for us to take their Meaning, efpecially in long Difcourfes with that Degree of Exactnefs, which Subjects of Importance require; and indeed it is no eafy Matter to take the entire Senfe of long Difcourfes, though delivered in the Languages we are beft acquainted with. This is the Realon that many of his Pupils who have long attended his Lectures, for two or three Years have frequently mistaken his Meaning, and held their own Errors with an equal Degree of Veneration with the genuine Doctrine of their Profeffor, and have imprudently neglected to fet themselves right, by examining the Sources from whence Boerhaave himself drew his Treasures; fometimes perhaps because they imagined the Authority of their Profeffor rendered it fuperfluous, and fometimes because they were Strangers to the Languages in which the beft medicinal Authors wrote thus either out of Choice or Neceflity, taking a more eafy, though a lefs certain, Way to Knowledge, than Boerhaave either advised or thought proper to pursue himself.

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That this has been really the Cafe the fpurious Works attributed to Boerhaave by his Scholars are glaring Evidences; among which his Method of ftudying Phyfic, as I think it is called deferves fome Notice, being a crude and injudicious Performance, and in a great many Inftances contradictory to the Sentiments of Boerhaave, on the Subjects there treated ; and as I remember, it recommends fome Authors who never wrote or even exifted. In the fame Rank is the Praxis Medica printed in five Volumes in Holland, though the Title tells us at Padua. In the Preface we are informed, that many of his Au

ditors took his Lectures in Writing; that these were carefully compared, and hence this Work was compiled. Yet notwithstanding all this Care, there are not many Pages without fome enormous Error, nor even Sentences without falfe Latin: fo little did they understand either their Profeffor or their Subjects.

With refpect to his Chymiftry, it may be juftly faid, that his Theory is more philofophical, exact and full, and his Proceffes more methodical and regular, than thofe of any preceding Author on the Subject. It is remarkable, that in this Work he has made many chymical Operations fubfervient to the establishing feveral important Doctrines of the Antients, and to the Confirmation of their Practice. I fhall conclude with remarking, that this Work alone would have been fufficient to raise the Character of any other Man, but is however that in which Boerhaave fhines mnch less than in his Inftitutes and Aphorifms, the laft of which is, perhaps, more useful than any one Book written upon Phyfic, and has had the Honour of being tranflated into Arabic, as is faid by the Mufti, and printed at Conftantinople

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