One of the most formidable antagonists to the iatro-chemical doctrines was Dr. Archibald Pitcairne, first a professor of medicine in the University of Leyden, and afterwards of Edinburgh, and one of the most eminent physicians of his time. He was born in Edinburgh, on the 25th of December, 1652. After finishing his school education in Dalkeith, he went to the University of Edinburgh, where he improved himself in classical learning, and completed a regular course of philosophy. He turned his attention to the law, and prosecuted his studies with so much ardour and intensity that his health began to suffer. He was advised to travel, and set out accordingly for the South of France: by the time he reached Paris he was so far recovered that he determined to renew his studies; but as there was no eminent professor of law in that city, and as several gentlemen of his acquaintance were engaged in the study of medicine, he went with them to the lectures and hospitals, and employed himself in this way for several months, till his affairs called him home.
On his return he applied himself chiefly to mathematics, in which, under the auspices of his friend, the celebrated Dr. David Gregory, he made uncommon progress. Struck with the charms of this science, and hoping by the application of it to medicine to reduce the healing art under the rigid rules of mathematical demonstration, he formed the resolution of devoting himself to the study of medicine. There was at that time no medical school in Edinburgh, and no hospital at which he could improve himself; he therefore repaired to Paris, and devoted himself to his studies with a degree of ardour that ensured an almost unparalleled success. In 1680 he received from the faculty of Rheims the degree of doctor of medicine, a degree also conferred on him in 1699 by the University of Aberdeen.
In the year 1691 his reputation was so high that the University of Leyden solicited him to fill the medical chair, at that time vacant; he accepted the invitation, and delivered a course of lectures at Leyden, which was greatly admired by all his auditors, among whom were Boerhaave and Mead. At the close of the session he set out for Scotland, to marry the daughter of Sir Archibald Stevenson: his friends in his own country would not consent to part with him, and thus he was reluctantly obliged to resign his chair in the University of Leyden.
He settled as a physician in Edinburgh, where he was appointed titular professor of medicine. His practice extended beyond example, and he was more consulted by foreigners than any Edinburgh physician either before or after his time. He died in October, 1713, admired and regretted by the whole country. He was a zealous supporter of iatro-mathematics, and as such a professed antagonist of the iatro-chemists. He refuted their opinions with much strength of reasoning, while his high reputation gave his opinions an uncommon effect; so that he contributed perhaps as much as any one, to put a period to the most disgraceful, as well as dangerous, set of opinions that ever overspread the medical horizon.
Into the merits of the iatro-mathematicians it is not the business of this work to enter; they at least display science, and labour, and erudition, and in all these respects are far before the iatro-chemists. Perhaps their own opinions were not more agreeable to the real structure of the human body, nor their practice more conformable to reason, or more successful than those of the chemists. Probably the most valuable of all Dr. Pitcairne’s writings, is his vindication of the claims of Hervey to the great discovery of the circulation.
Boerhaave, the pupil of Pitcairne, and afterwards a professor in Leyden, was a no less zealous or successful opponent of the iatro-chemists.
Herman Boerhaave, perhaps the most celebrated physician that ever existed, if we except Hippocrates, was born at Voorhout, a village near Leyden, in 1668, where his father was the parish clergyman. At the age of sixteen he was left without parents, protection, advice, or fortune. He had already studied theology, and the other branches of knowledge that are considered as requisite for a clergyman, to which situation he aspired; and while occupied with these studies he supported himself at Leyden by teaching mathematics to the students—a branch of knowledge to which he had devoted himself with considerable ardour while living in his father’s house. But, a report being raised that he was attached to the doctrines of Spinoza, the clamour against him was so loud that he thought it requisite to renounce his intention of going into orders.[171] He turned his studies to medicine, and the branches of science connected with that pursuit, and these delightful subjects soon engrossed the whole of his attention. In 1693 he was created doctor of medicine, and began to practise. He continued to teach mathematics for some time, till his practice increased sufficiently to enable him to live by his fees. His spare money was chiefly laid out upon books; he also erected a chemical laboratory, and though he had no garden he paid great attention to the study of plants. His reputation increased with considerable rapidity; but his fortune rather slowly. He was invited to the Hague by a nobleman, who stood high in the favour of William III., King of Great Britain; but he declined the invitation. His three great friends, to whom he was in some measure indebted for his success, were James Trigland, professor of theology, Daniel Alphen, and John Van den Berg, both of them successively chief magistrates of Leyden, and men of great influence.
Van den Berg recommended him to the situation of professor of medicine in the University of Leyden, to which chair he was raised, fortunately for the reputation of the university, on the death of Drelincourt, in 1702. He not only gave public lectures on medicine, but was in the habit also of giving private instructions to his pupils. His success as a teacher was so great, that a report having been spread of his intention to quit Leyden, the curators of the university added considerably to his salary on condition that he would not leave them.
This first step towards fortune and eminence having been made, others followed with great rapidity. He was appointed successively professor of botany and of chemistry, while rectorships and deanships were showered upon him with an unsparing hand. And such was the activity, the zeal, and the ability with which he filled all these chairs, that he raised the University of Leyden to the very highest rank of all the universities of Europe. Students flocked to him from all quarters—every country of Europe furnished him with pupils; Leyden was filled and enriched by an unusual crowd of strangers. Though his class-rooms were large, yet so great was the number of students, that it was customary for them to keep places, just as is done in a theatre when a first-rate actor is expected to perform. He died in the year 1738, while still filling the three different chairs with undiminished reputation.
It is not our object here to speak of Boerhaave as a physician, or as a teacher of medicine, or of botany; though in all these capacities he is entitled to the very highest eulogium; his practice was as unexampled as his success as a teacher. It is solely as a chemist that he claims our attention here. His system of chemistry, published in two quarto volumes in 1732, and of which we have an excellent English translation by Dr. Shaw, printed in 1741, was undoubtedly the most learned and most luminous treatise on chemistry that the world had yet seen; it is nothing less than a complete collection of all the chemical facts and processes which were known in Boerhaave’s time, collected from a thousand different sources, and from writings equally disgusting from their obscurity and their mysticism. Every thing is stated in the plainest way, stripped of all mystery, and chemistry is shown as a science and an art of the first importance, not merely to medicine, but to mankind in general. The processes given by him are too numerous and too tedious to have been all repeated by one man, how laborious soever he may have been: many of them have been taken upon trust, and, as no distinction is made in the book, between those which are stated upon his own authority and those which are merely copied from others, this treatise has been accused, and with some justice, as not always to be depended on. But the real information which it communicates is prodigious, and when we compare it with any other system of chemistry that preceded it, the superiority of Boerhaave’s information will appear in a very conspicuous point of view.