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Jerome David Gaubius
Born 1705   Died November 29, 1780  
Hieronymus David Gaubius

A student of Boerhaave's1 and his successor as Professor of Medicine and Chemistry at Leyden. Gaubius was much respected in his time, and his Libellus de Methodo Concinnandi Formulas Medicamentorum (1739) was translated into English as early as 1741. One of his best known works was Institutiones Pathologiae medicinalis (1758), a textbook on systematic pathology which remained popular for many years.

Boswell visited Gaubius in Leyden on May 5, 1764. In the autumn of 1763, Boswell had left a chemical preparation of his uncle's with Gaubius, without actually meeting the doctor. On May 4 or 5 he wrote a letter to Gaubius in Latin, asking to meet him, which he did.

Gaubius' Chemiam artibus academicis jure esse inserendam is available for free at Project Gutenberg. In 1978 was published his correspondence with Antonio Nunes Ribeiro Sanches and others, entitled Hieronymus David Gaubius (1705-1780): Zijn correspondentie met Antonio Nunes Ribeiro Sanches en andere tijdgenoten. He published some other writings which are sometimes available via the AbeBooks used books search engine.

  • 1Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) was a Dutch botanist, humanist and physician of European fame. He is regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital. His main achievement was to demonstrate the relation of symptoms to lesions. (Source: Wikipedia)
Hieronymus David Gaubius (Wikipedia)
Boswell in Holland 1763-64

Unless otherwise noted, the source for a dated quotation of Boswell's is generally the corresponding volume of the Yale Trade Editions of Boswell's journals.