Locke and Sydenham / [Anon].

John Brown

Date:: [1850]

Credit: Locke and Sydenham / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

18/36 page 18

$In his Epistle to Dr. Mapletoft, prefixed to the Observa- tiones Medicse,” his first publication, when he was 42 years of age, he gives his friend a long and entertaining account of his early professional life, and thus proceeds— ‘‘ Having returned to London, I began the practice of Medicine, which when I studied curiously with most intent eye {intento admodum oculo') and utmost diligence, I came to this conviction, which to this day increases in strength, that our art is not to be better learned than by its exercise and use; and that it is likely in every case to prove true, that those who have directed their eyes and their mind, the most accurately and diligently, to the natural phenomena of diseases, will exeel in eliciting and applying the true indications of cure. With this thread as my guide, I first applied my mind to a closer observa¬ tion of fevers, and after no small amount of irksome waiting, and per¬ plexing mental agitations, which I had to endure for several years, I at last fell upon a method by which, as I thought, they might be cured, which method I some time ago made public, at the urgent re¬ quest of m.y friends.” He then refers to the persecution and calumnies he had been exposed to from the profession, who looked upon him as a pesti- lent fellow', and a setter forth of strange doctrines ; and adopts the noble saying of Titus Tacitus in reply to Metellus,— “ It is easy to speak against me when I make no reply; you have learned to speak evil, I, my conscience bearing me witness, have learned to despise evil-speaking; you are master of your tongue, and can make it utter what you list, I am master of my ears, and can make them hear without being offended.” And, after making the reference we have already mentioned, to his method having had the sanction and assistance of Locke, he thus concludes in regard to the ultimate success of his newly discovered way,*— “ As concerns the future, I cast the die, not over-careful how it may fall, for, since I am now no longer young, and have, by the blessing of the Almighty, a sufficient provision for the remainder of my journey, (tantum mihi est viatici, quantum restat vige,) I will do my best to attain, without trouble to myself or others, that measure of happiness so beautifully depicted by Politian:— ^ Felix ille animi, divisque simillimus ipsis. Quern non mendaci resplendens gloria fuco Sollicitat, non fastosi mala gaudia luxus. Sed tacitos sinit ire dies, et paupere cultu Exigit innocuce tranquilla silentia vitae* ” We shall now give more fully his peculiar views, and in order$

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