Elichman, John

, a physician of Leyden, and a very able linguist, was a native of Silesia. We have no account of his early years. At Leyden, in 1638, he married the daughter of a burgomaster, and died the following year, 1639. He was remarkable for understanding sixteen languages, and was so well skilled in the Persian, that, in the judgment of Salmasius, Europe had never produced a man who had equal knowledge of that language. He was of opinion, that the German and the Persian languages were derived from the same original; and he gave several reasons for it. He wrote a letter in Arabic, “De usu lingua? Arabicae in medicina,” which was printed at Jena in 1636. His dissertation “De termino vitae secundum mentem orientalium” appeared in 1639, and would have been more extensive and correct, if he had not died while he was writing it. His Latin translation of the Picture of Cebes was printed at Leyden in 1640, together with the Arabic version, and the Greek, under the care of Salmasius, who prefixed a very ample preface. ²