Heurnius was born in
Utrecht, and studied at
Leuven and Paris. He went to the
University of Padua to study under
Hieronymus Fabricius; and graduated M.D. there in 1566, examined by
Petrus Ramus and Fabricius. He wrote on the
Great Comet of 1577; at that time he was town physician in
Utrecht. In 1581 he became professor of medicine at the
University of Leiden. Heurnius already had a reputation and good contacts with humanist scholars, and was appointed as senior to
Gerardus Bontius, an earlier physician on the faculty. He was a pioneer of the bedside teaching of medicine, and has been given credit for his methods. From Padua he brought not only
anatomy in the tradition of
Vesalius, but anatomical demonstrations and practical clinical work. Heurnius's ideas on teaching were transmitted widely through Otto,
Franciscus Sylvius,
Govert Bidloo and
Herman Boerhaave. ==References==