nd. In 1701 he was appointed lecturer on the institutes of
medicine at Leiden; in his inaugural discourse, _De commendando
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
botanic garden of Leiden, and by the publication of numerous works
descriptive of new species of plants. In 1714, when he was appointed
rector of the university, he succeeded Govert Bidloo (1649-1713) in the
chair of practical medicine, and in this capacity he had the merit of
introducing the modern system of clinical instruction. Four years later
he was appointed also to the chair of chemistry. 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, on the 23rd of September 1738 at Leiden. His genius so
raised the fame of the university of Leiden, especially as a school of
medicine, that it became a resort of strangers from every part of
Europe. All the princes of Europe sent him disciples, who found in this
skilful professor not only an indefatigable teacher, but an affectionate
guardian. When Peter the Great went to Holland in 1715, to instruct
himself in maritime affairs, he also took lessons from Boerhaave. His
reputation was not confined to Europe; a Chinese mandarin wrote him a
letter directed "To the illustrious Boerhaave, physician in Europe," and
it reached him in due course.

His principal works are--_Institutiones medicae_ (Leiden, 1708);
_Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis_ (Leiden, 1709), on which
his pupil and assistant, Gerard van Swieten (1700-1772) published a
commentary in 5 vols.; and _Elementa chemiae_ (Paris, 1724).

BOETHUS, a sculptor of the Hellenistic age, a native of Carthage (or
possibly Chalcedon). His date cannot be accurately fixed, but was
probably the 2nd century B.C. He was noted for his representations of
children, in dealing with whom earlier Greek art had not been very
successful; and especially for a group representing a boy struggling
with a goose, of which several copies survive in museums.

BOETIUS (or BOETHIUS), ANICIUS MANLIUS SEVERINUS (c. A.D. 480-524),
Roman phi