Johann Conrad Barchusen (1666-1723) was a pharmacologist, chemist, physician. At the University of Utrecht, he was the first person to teach chemistry as a specific subject (not just as part of medicine). He published four textbooks on chemistry and two on medicine. The Pharmacopoeus synopticus is the first, published in 1690 in Frankfurt. Our copy belongs to the second, revised edition, published in Utrecht; the third appeared in Leiden (T. Haak, 1712).
In 1694, the city council of Utrecht granted Barchusen the right to teach private chemistry courses which could be attended by students of the university. His courses were so successful that the magistrate in 1695 financed construction of a chemical laboratory in the bastion of what was then the fortress of Sonnenborgh. In 1698, Barchusen was appointed to the position of lecturer. On 3 October 1698, the University Senate agreed to award him a Doctor of Medicine and in 1703 he was appointed extraordinary professor of chemistry, the first person in Utrecht to be given this rank. Boerhaave mentions him as "professor of chemistry at Utrecht, [he] deserves well to be read. He is an honest writer, and sufficiently accurate; he delivers good matter in an excellent style."
Binding a litlle rubbed and soiled, hinges strengthened at the inner side with linen, text slightly browned and soiled, apparently intensively used. Otherwise in good condition. Owen Hannaway, "Johann Conrad Barchusen (1666-1723): contemporary and rival of Boerhaave", in: Ambix, 14/2 (2013), pp. 96-11; BMN, I, p. 381; Hoogendoorn, BARCH01,2 (p. 56); cf.: Wellcome Library, II, p. 99.