Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/257

 method of studying diseases which he introduced, Sydenham is admitted to have made an epoch in medical science. Haller has used his name to denote a period in the history of medicine; Boerhaave never mentioned it without a tribute of respect.

Sydenham's reputation, as is often the case with innovators, rose more rapidly abroad than at home. Schacht, the eminent professor of Leyden, constantly recommended Sydenham's works to his students (, De Morbo Epidemico, London, 1680, p. 112). Ettmüller of Leipzig, Spon of Lyons, Doleus, and other eminent continental physicians are said to have publicly professed their adhesion to his doctrines before 1691. At the beginning of the eighteenth century his fame grew to an equal height in his own country; he began to be called the English Hippocrates, and has always been regarded since as one of the chief glories of British medicine. As a commemoration of his services to medicine, the Sydenham Society, founded at London in 1845, issued thirty volumes down to 1857, from which date down to the present day the periodical issue of medical monographs and translations (nearly seventy in number) has been carried on by the New Sydenham Society.

Although in his works and private letters Sydenham often refers with some bitterness to the hostility of his medical brethren, evoked, as he thought, by his innovations in practice, he had many devoted friends among the most eminent and orthodox physicians. Dr. Mapletoft, Gresham professor of medicine, was perhaps the most intimate. Paman, also a Gresham professor, and Brady, regius professor of medicine at Cambridge, by asking his advice in very flattering terms, elicited two of his medical treatises. Dr. Cole of Worcester performed a similar service to medicine by causing the ‘Epistolary Dissertation’ to be written. Goodall, the historian of the College of Physicians (to whom the ‘Schedula Monitoria’ was dedicated), was one of Sydenham's staunch defenders. The dedication of the treatise on gout to Short denotes a mutual respect. Micklethwaite, president of the College of Physicians, publicly avowed his adhesion to Sydenham's new doctrines. Walter Needham's friendship is acknowledged by Sydenham himself. Walter Harris and a greater man, Richard Morton, pay him the warmest eulogiums. Sydenham's friendship with Boyle and with Locke is well known. Boyle, to whom the first edition of the ‘Methodus Curandi’ is dedicated, and by whose persuasion the work was undertaken, accompanied Sydenham, with characteristic scientific zeal, in his visits to patients.

Locke was a still more intimate friend. He wrote Latin verses prefixed to the second edition (1668) of the ‘Methodus Curandi,’ and is mentioned in the dedication of the ‘Observationes Medicæ’ (1676) with high praise and as approving of Sydenham's methods. Locke, as a physician, agreed with Sydenham, and his medical opinions, expressed in his letters, are even more revolutionary. The ‘Shaftesbury Papers,’ quoted in Fox-Bourne's ‘Life of Locke,’ contain medical notes and observations by the two friends, in which the hands of both may be recognised. The manuscript printed in 1845 as ‘Anecdota Sydenhamiana,’ containing medical observations partly taken down from Sydenham's own lips, is recognised by Mr. Fox-Bourne as being in the handwriting of Locke. Sydenham was also consulted by his friend about some of his medical cases.

Two physicians are known as having been actual pupils of Sydenham—viz. Sir Hans Sloane and Thomas Dover (‘Dover's powder’), buccaneer and physician. The latter lived in Sydenham's house, and describes how he was treated by him for the small-pox (see The Ancient Physician's Legacy). Sir Richard Blackmore more than once acknowledges his debt to Sydenham's advice and teaching. When a student he asked Sydenham's advice as to what books he should read for the study of medicine. The answer was a jest: ‘Read “Don Quixote,”’ meaning evidently that books were of no use (cf., On the Small-Pox, 1723, preface; On the Gout, 1726, preface).

The question whether Sydenham's works were originally written in Latin or English has been much controverted. They were all published in the learned language, but it has been stated that the Latin version was due to two of Sydenham's friends. This rumour was current from the beginning of his literary career, and there seems little doubt that, although he was generally acquainted with Latin, he had the assistance of better latinists than himself in preparing his works for the press. His first work, ‘Methodus Curandi’ (1666 and 1668), is referred to in 1671 by Henry Stubbs or Stubbe (1632–1676) [q. v.], the polemical physician of Warwick, who quotes a passage and then adds, ‘'Tis true he did not pen it Latine, but another (Mr. G. H.) for him, and perhaps his skill in that tongue may not be such as to know when his thoughts are rightly worded.’ Stubbe was a contemporary of Sydenham at Oxford in the