Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 501

FRANS LEBOE (1614-1672) Idea praxeos medicae. Typis Combi, & La Noù 1672 [14] 655 [20] pp. 14.6 cm.

Le Boë, or Sylvius as he is usually called, was, if not the founder, certainly the outstanding proponent and most influential of the iatrochemists who explained and treated all disease chemically, basing their treatment on a supposed chemical relationship between the disease and the drug. Of south Flemish extraction, his family emigrated to Frankfurt for religious reasons and he was born at Hanau. Sylvius was graduated in medicine from Basel in 1637 and returned to Leiden where he became one of the greatest teachers of his time. He was keenly interested in the new developments of his day and was a strong supporter of Harvey. He was a pioneer of bedside teaching, and in the present work an engraved title page shows the interior of a sickroom with a patient lying in a canopied bed and a physician, a nurse, and several others in attendance. This little volume is the second edition of a general handbook on medical practice for the use of students and physicians, following Sylvius' principles.

Cited references: Waller 9431

Gift of John Martin, M.D.