Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 822

JOHN HUXHAM (1692-1768) A dissertation on the malignant, ulcerous sore-throat. J. Hinton 1757 [4] 70 pp. 19.9 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 819

Huxham was a serious student of the Hippocratic method and a strong supporter of the tenets and precepts of Boerhaave and Sydenham. This adherence to careful observation and interest in patient care resulted in his several valuable writings. Huxham was especially interested in the relationship of disease to weather conditions and devoted the first part of this tract on diphtheria to that subject. His excellent description of diphtheria was the first to recognize the paralysis of the soft palate that occurs in this disease but he failed to make a clear differentiation between the pharyngitis of diphtheria and that of scarlet fever. He also describes a number of remedies of which few, except for the warm gargles, could be considered effective today.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 5050; Osler 3040; Wellcome III, p. 323

Gift of John Martin, M.D.