_Passage in Boerhaave_ (Vol. vii., p. 453.).--As the passage is incorrectly
given from memory, it {603} is not easy to say where it is to be found. I
venture, however, to lay before the FOREIGN SURGEON the following, from the
_Institutiones Medicae caet. digestae_, ab Herm. Boerhaave (Vienna, 1775),
p. 382.:
"Unde tamen mors senilis per has mutationes accidit inevitabilis, et ex
ipsa sanitate sequens."
And from Ph. Ambr. Marhesz, Praelectiones in H. Boerh., _Inst. Med._
(Vienna, 1785), vol. iii. p. 44.:
"Tum vivere cessat decripitus senex, sine morbo in mortem transiens,
nisi senectutis vitium ineluctabile pro morbo habeas."
See also s. 475. Possibly the required passage may be found in Burton's
_Account of the Life, &c. of Dr. Boerhaave_ (London, 1743). Allow me,
however, to quote the following from a discourse of Joannes Oosterdijk
Schacht (Boerhaave's cotemporary), delivered by him September 12, 1729,
when he entered on the professorship at Utrecht. From this it will appear
that the words ascribed to Boerhaave may be attributed to other learned
men:
"Nemini igitur mirum videatur, si innumeris stipata malis superveniat
senectus, quam nec solam nec morbis tantum comitatam obrepere, sed
ipsam morbum esse, et olim vidit vetustas, et hodierna abunde docet
experientia."--Joann. Oosterdijk Schacht, _Oratio Inauguralis caet._
(Traj. ad Rhenum, 1729).
From the _Navorscher_.