Hermann Boerhaave. Engraving of Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738), Dutch physician and chemist. After studying philosophy and medicine, Boerhaave began teaching at Leiden University. He was an excellent lecturer, taking his students to patients' beds and so founded clinical teaching. Boerhaave was the first person to describe the sweat glands and established that smallpox was spread by contact. He published two medical books and one on chemistry; these became popular and influential. Boerhaave became a professor of medicine and botany (1709), practical medicine (1714) and chemistry (1718) at Leiden. As famous as Newton in his lifetime, he died an extremely wealthy man.