In science, Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) was a Dutch physician and chemist notable for the publications of his 1724 textbook Elements of Chemistry, an outgrowth of his lectures at the University of Leyden, in which he outlined influential theories on heat, fire, and expansion of bodies. [1] The publication of Boerhaave’s textbook is said to mark the start of the modern concept of chemistry. [7] Boerhaave is considered one of the pioneers in physical chemistry, for introducing quantitative methods into the measure of temperature and mass and for carrying out some of the first calorimetric research.

Boerhaave's law
In his publications, Boerhaave established as physical axiom, or universal proposition, in what came to be known as "Boerhaave's law", which states that: [1]


This law or axiom of heat was the opening sentence to French chemist Antoine Lavoisier’s 1787 Elements of Chemistry. [2]

Note
Boerhaave’s discussion of fire in his Elements of Chemistry is often referred to as Traite du feu or “Treatise on fire”.

Influence
In his lectures, Boerhaave incorporated many elements of French corpuscular theory, especially French physician and chemist Louis Lémery’s concept of fire. [3] One of his notable students was English physicist and chemist Andrew Plummer, professor of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh from 1726 to 1755, whose ideas on attractive and repulsive forces involved in chemical affinity had influence on his successors Scotts physician and chemist William Cullen and physicist and chemist Joseph Black.

Human chemistry
In 1732, Boerhaave is said to have metaphorically compared the force of affinity (chemical affinity) with “love, if love be the desire for marriage”. [5] This view was corroborated in 1837 by French chemist Jean Dumas who stated that “there is some truth in this poetic comparison.” [6]

Boerhaave’s Elements was influential to German polymath Johann Goethe, the founder of human chemistry, who read this work in his early twenties. [4]

Education
Boerhaave completed a PhD in physics, which he obtained in July, 1693, having performed a public disputation, "de utilitate explorandorum excrementorum in ægris, ut signorum." Later he obtained an MD. Boerhaave was an associate of Polish physicist Daniel Fahrenheit, who communicated to Boerhaave his thermometer developments in letters of correspondence.

References
1. (a) Boerhaave, Herman. (1724). Elements of Chemistry (Elementa Chemiae). Publisher.
(b) Boerhaave, Herman. (1724). Institutiones et Experimenta Chemiae, (an unauthorized publication of his chemical lectures at the University of Leyden). Paris.
(c) Boerhaave’s (authorized) Latin version, Elementa Chimiae, appeared in 1732.
(d) Boerhaave, Hermann. (1727). A New Method of Chemistry (trans. Peter Shaw and Ephriam Chambers). London: Osborn and Longman; translated by Peter Shaw, MD, 2 vols. (London, 1742).
(e) Boerhaave, Herman. (1754). Elémens de Chymie: Contient la Seconde Partie du Traité du Feu, Volume 3. Clardon.
2. Lavoisier, Antoine. (1787). Elements of Chemistry, (pg. 1). Edinburgh: G.G. and J.J. Robinsons.
3. Kim, Mu Gyung. (2003). Affinity, That Elusive Dream – A Genealogy of the Chemical Revolution, (section 4.3: Herman Boerhaave, Savante-Chemiste, pgs. 177-88; note, pg. 484). MIT Press.
4. Duntzer, Heinrich. (1884). Life of Goethe, Volumes 1-2 (pgs. 88-89). Estes.
5. Boerhaave, Herman. (1732). Article/Books (quote: “si amor dicendus copulae cupido.”). Publisher.
6. Mellor, Joseph W. (1922). Modern Inorganic Chemistry (pg. 95). Longmans, Green & Co.
7. Sestak, Jaroslav. (2005). Science of Heat and Thermophysical Studies (pg. 455). Gulf Professional Publishing.

Further reading
● Metzger, Helene. (1930). Newton, Stahl, and Boerhaave et la Doctrine Chimique. Paris: Alcan.
● Love, Rosaleen. (1974). “Herman Boerhaave and the Element-Instrument Concept of Fire” (abs), Annals of Science, 31: 547-59.

External links
● Herman Boerhaave – Wikipedia.