Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 549

THOMAS SYDENHAM (1624-1689) Observationes medicae circa morborum acutorum historiam et curationem. G. Kettilby 1676 [56] 425 [54] pp., front. (port.). 16.1 cm.

In the later half of the seventeenth century, internal medicine took an entirely new turn in the work of one of its greatest figures, Sydenham, who revived the Hippocratic methods of observation and experience. He was one of the principal founders of epidemiology, and his clinical reputation rests upon his firsthand accounts of malarial fever, scarlatina, measles, dysentery, and numerous other diseases. The present work is a third edition of Sydenham's book on fevers, first published in 1666 under the title Methodus curandi febres. It is the first definitive edition, being entirely rewritten and about four times larger than the earlier editions. It contains his important study on epidemiology and is one of the fundamental texts in this branch of medicine, with numerous observations on epidemics in London from 1661 to 1675.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 2198; Osler 994; Waller 9402

Gift of John Martin, M.D.