Nicolas Lemery, who is not to be confounded with his son Louis, also a chemist, made a considerable number of contributions to pharmaceutical chemistry; and his Pharmacopée Universelle, Dictionnaire Universel des Drogues Simples, and Traité de l’Antimoine were standard works in their day.
Lemery was at one time a Protestant, and on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes fled to England; but, embracing Catholicism, he returned to Paris, re-established his pharmacy, and was elected into the Academy in 1699. He died in 1715.
William Homberg, born in Batavia in 1652, was originally intended for the profession of law, but, becoming attached to science, studied botany and medicine in Padua, chemistry at Bologna and in London, mechanics and optics at Rome, and anatomy at Leyden. In the course of his travels he visited the mines of Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, and Sweden. In 1682 he was invited to Paris by Colbert, and in 1691 was made a member of the Academy and was placed by the Duke of Orleans in charge of his laboratory—then one of the finest in Europe. Homberg married the daughter of Dodart, the physician. She became an expert préparateur, and was of great assistance to him in his experimental inquiries. He first made known the existence of phosphorus in France, discovered by Brand, of Hamburg, and he described the phosphorescent salt associated with his name. He made important observations on the saturation of alkalis by acids, and was aware that they combined in different proportions. He was an industrious worker, and, with the exception of Cassini, was the most active member of the Academy. He died on September 24th, 1715.
Next to Boyle, perhaps the most active agent in emancipating chemistry from the yoke of alchemy was Boerhaave, who, by his teaching as Professor of Physic, raised the University of Leyden to the summit of its fame.
Hermann Boerhaave, the son of a minister, was born near Leyden, in 1668. He occupied himself in turn with theology, classics, mathematics, chemistry, and botany, when he turned to physic, and, after a course of study at the University of Harderwyk, in Gelderland, began to practise. In 1702 he was appointed to a lectureship, and eventually to the Chair of Medicine, in the University of Leyden, of which he became Rector in 1714. His reputation as a teacher spread throughout Europe, and steadily increased until his death.
HERMANNUS BOERHAAVE
Medicinæ, Botanices, Chemiæ
& Collegii practici, in ACAD. LUGD. BAT.
PROFESSOR ORDINARIUS.
After a painting by T. Wandelaar
Boerhaave was one of the most learned men of his age, and singularly well cultured, not only in science but in history, poetry, and polite literature. He conversed in English, French, and German, and read Italian and Spanish with facility. “The Latin he spoke extempore in lectures or conversation was so clear that, with his action, method, and the aptness of his similes, he could level the most abstruse points to the meanest capacities.”[2] He was fond of music, and a good performer on several instruments, particularly the lute. He delighted to welcome musicians to his house. His profession as a physician brought him wealth, much of which he spent in horticulture; and the garden of his country seat, nearly eight acres in extent, was enriched with all the exotic trees he could procure and induce to flourish in the climate of Holland.
[2] Burton, Life of Boerhaave, p. 58 et seq.