Boerhaave, a Dutch physician and philosopher, occupied special prominence in last part of the seventeenth and the early part of the eighteenth centuries. He engaged in the practice of medicine at Leyden in 1693, and became professor of theory and practice of medicine in the university of that city in 1701. He was erudite, exact, simple and eloquent, and hence as a lecturer very popular. He specially advocated simplicity in practice of medicine. Professor of botany was added to his duties in 1709. He wrote a treatise in 1703 (in Latin) advocating mechanical and chemical hypotheses in medicine. In 1708 his institutes of medicine extended his reputation; and in 1709 appeared his famous ‘Aphorisms’ on the diagnosis and cure of disease. In this was a well defined classification of diseases, including their causes, nature and treatment, which was adopted by his contemporaries. He was distinguished as a botanist and chemist. He published a description of plants at Leyden in 1710, and became professor of chemistry in 1718 in addition to his other duties. He made chemistry popular by presenting it in a clear and attractive style, in his lectures and in his ‘Elements of Chemistry’ (1724). On account of his attack of gout he was constrained to give up the teaching of botany and chemistry in 1727. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1730. His fame extended over the world. A Chinese mandarin hearing of his fame addressed a letter to Boerhaave, physician in Europe, which reached him in due time. His practice was lucrative, and he spent money freely in the interest of science and benevolence, yet such was his success that it is said that at his death (in 1738) he left an estate of nearly a million dollars. Cullen, who was born in 1710 and died in 1790, was undoubtedly the greatest medical man of his age. It is especially interesting to read the biographies of such men as Cullen and of Hunter his contemporary, and of Jenner of the last half of the eighteenth century, and of John Brown the quack—though much quoted. The present century may be considered as the epoch of physiological experiment and clinical observation. The efficient laborers of the last eighty years in the field of medicine have been so numerous that it would be impossible to notice at this time even those deemed most celebrated, while it would be invidious to attempt such a selection. In this time our materia medica has received a large number of most important additions, amongst which may be noticed, morphia, quinia, strychnia, iodine and the iodides, bromides, cyanohydric acid, cod-liver oil, chloroform, chloral, nitrite, amyl and a long list of preparations from the vegetable kingdom and from the hydrocarbon series.