fresh upon them, its people had asked for a university in place of the proffered exemption from taxation; in Leyden, which, when Scaliger was invited to a professorship, had ordered a ship of war to receive him, a helping hand was always outstretched to aid the meritorious student. Trigland, one of the divinity professors of the university, who had been a friend of Boerhaave's father, and who entertained great expectations as to the boy's future, procured for him the patronage of Van Alphen, the burgomaster, to whose paternal, continuous, and benevolent interest Boerhaave renders grateful tribute.
While a student at the university, by the advice of his instructors, in addition to studies in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Chaldee he attended lectures on natural philosophy and mathematics. During his undergraduate course he was often called upon by Siguerd, his professor, to take part in discussions upon the latter subjects. The study of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry he tells us he found most entertaining. In his twenty-first year he delivered the academic oration upon the subject that "the Doctrine of Epicurus concerning the Chief Good was well understood by Cicero," for which he received the gold medal.
It may perhaps be of interest to recall at this time the dignified formalities with which the competition for university honors was then surrounded.[1] The candidate first announced his intentions to the rector and senators, and these in turn informed the curators, who appointed the day for the oration. Then the applicant waited on each of the curators, and on the chief magistrate and sheriff of the city, to desire their presence. If the oration gave satisfaction to the curators, their secretary was sent to his habitation to thank him in their name, and to acquaint him that he should be presented with the gold medal. This was worth thirteen pounds, and bore a Pallas in relief on the front, and an engraved inscription relating the name of the person and the occasion on the reverse.
"The University of Leyden," Thorold Rogers tells us, "was far more renowned in the seventeenth century than Oxford, Cambridge, or Paris, and students from all countries crowded into this the youngest of the great universities. The student was exempted from taxation; he received his wine, beer, tea, coffee, salt, soup, and books free; and when once his name had been on the university rolls he was amenable for all offenses to a special court composed of the rector, four professors, and a representation in the city magistracy. One of the gravest punishments with which he could be visited, in the popular apprehension,
- ↑ Burton's Life and Writings of Boerhaave, 1746, p. 9.
