Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 549.5

THOMAS SYDENHAM (1624-1689) Tractatus de podagra et hydrope. Typis R.N. : Impensis Gualt. Kettilby ... 1683 First edition. [10], 201, [1] p. 18 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 549

First edition of Sydenham’s classic work on gout a masterpiece of clinical observation, in which he distinguished between gout and rheumatism for the first time. Sydenham, ‘the English Hippocrates’, is regarded as the founder of modern clinical medicine; “[He] believed that personal observation and the care of the patient were more important than the discovery of new physiological processes or the formulation of yet another general doctrine. The supreme task of the physician was to assist the healing power of nature in the cure of the sick. He must, therefore, most carefully observe each case and its symptoms; he must identify particular diseases by searching for typical pathological processes and by comparing similar individual cases before coming to conclusion. This is essentially the modern view of the task of the practicing physician and clinician” (Printing and the Mind of Man).

Cited references: Keynes, 3951 (1705 ed.); Morton, 4486; Krivatsy, 11637; Osler, 998

Gift of John Martin, M.D.