Johann Conrad Barchusen


Johann Conrad Barchusen, originally Barkhausen, sometimes Barchausen was a pharmacist, chemist, physician and professor. At Universiteit Utrecht, he was the first person to teach chemistry as a specific subject. He published four textbooks on chemistry and two on medicine.

Biography

Barchusen was the eldest son of the burgher Conrad Barkhausen and his wife Catharina Hedwig Barkhausen. After the death of his parents, Johann Conrad Barchusen lived with his uncle Franz Caspar Barkhausen. Franz Caspar Barkhausen was a jurist, archivist and librarian who lived in Detmold. While living with him, Johann Barchusen learned Latin and Greek. He served an apprenticeship as a pharmacist in Berlin, Mainz and Vienna.
In 1690, his first book, Pharmacopoeus synopticus, appeared. The pharmaceutical textbook had two further editions during his lifetime. In 1693 he returned to Horn, but found no prospects there as a pharmacist. He traveled to Hungary and became a physician of the Venetian Doge and naval commander Francesco Morosini. Barchusen accompanied Morosini on a military expedition to Morea but the 75-year-old Morosini died January 1694 in Nafplion.
On September 16, 1694, the city council of Utrecht granted Barchusen the right to teach private chemistry courses which could be attended by students of the university. Because he did not have a medical degree, he could not be formally appointed as a professor at the university: his type of specialist was not yet recognized by the university. His courses were so successful that the magistrate, by decision of April 8, 1695, financed construction of a chemical laboratory in the bastion of what was then the fortress of Sonnenborgh. In May, 1698, the council voted to increase Barchusen's salary, but continued to debate the issue of an appropriate appointment.
On August 29, 1698, Barchusen was appointed to the position of lecturer. On October 3, 1698, the University Senate agreed to award him a Doctor of Medicine on an honorary basis, "on account of his erudition and of the excellent private and public testimonies to his skill in medicine and chemistry", giving him the formal status to support a faculty position. On March 19, 1703 he was appointed extraordinary professor of chemistry, the first person in Utrecht to be given this rank. At university commencement on June 21, 1703, he spoke on the history of chemistry. He continued his teaching activities until his death in 1723.
On December 13, 1699, Barchusen married Maria Johanna Pijlsweert, daughter of a wealthy Utrecht family. Their only son Conrad was born the following year, but he died as a child.

Research

Barchusen was one of the first representatives of the university to focus on teaching chemistry, which up to that time had been regarded as a sub-area of medicine. During his lifetime, Barchusen taught chemistry exclusively and wrote four textbooks in chemistry and two in medicine.
His viewpoint was broader than most of his contemporaries, placing chemistry in the context of natural philosophy and the composition of matter, rather than medicine.
Barchusen stated that the aim of chemistry was to "demonstrate how ‘sublunary bodies can be reduced into four different substances or principles: namely salt, oil, water, and earth; and these examined within various mixtures and combinations by the work of different fires and procedures."
Barchusen divided chemistry into three parts:
docimastica,
medica or iatro-chemia, and
alchemistica or hermetica which he stated was "knowledge based in fables".
Barchusen emphasized methods and laboratory techniques, describing in detail the tasks which a chemistry student should be able to carry out: the use of fires and specific procedures such as distillation, incineration, putrefaction, evaporation and fermentation to examine mixtures of the four substances and their chemical composition. He also gave extensive descriptions of the proper construction and furnishing of a laboratory and the instruments to be used within it. Ample room must be given for furnaces, and a cistern with fresh water must be available.
Barchusen classified instruments as "passive" and "active".
Herman Boerhaave wrote approvingly of his work:
Barchusen and his students carried out analytical investigations of blood, urine, feces, and bile, all of which were considered important to medical practice. He was the first to study succinic acid.
Barchusen was also interested in botany. The Pippau plant or Crepis setosa was also called Barkhausia.
Barchusen left 165 botanical and scientific works from his personal collection to the University Library of Utrecht, along with a portrait of himself which is in the Universiteitsmuseum of Utrecht.
His chemical laboratory in Utrecht was excavated by archaeologists as of 2000-2001 and items from it can be viewed at the Museum Sonnenborgh.

Works

His works appear under a number of variations of his name including Johannis Conradi Barchusen. Also, the title of the first edition sometimes differs from the title of later printings of the work. For example, his Elementa chemiæ was a second edition of Pyrosophia, adding to the original work a collection of alchemical emblems copied from an alchemical manuscript, and adding information about the possible chemical apparatus involved in alchemical work.