Locke and Sydenham / [Anon].

  • John Brown
Date:
[1850]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

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    After the Earl’s death, Locke returned to England, and seems to have lived partly at Exeter House with Lord Shaftesbury, and partly at Oxford. It was in 1670, at the latter place, that he sketched the first outline of his immortal Essay, the origin of which he has so modestly recorded in his Epistle to the Reader. Dr. Thomas, and most probably Dr. Sydenham, were among the ^^five or six friends who met at my chambers,” and started the idea of that work, which has done more than any other single work to rectify prejudice, to undermine established errors, to dif¬ fuse a just mode of thinking, to excite a fearless spirit of inquiry, and yet to contain it within the boundaries nature has set to the human faculties. If Bacon first discovered the rules by which knowledge is to be advanced, Locke has most contributed by pre¬ cept and example to make mankind at large observe them, and has thus led to that general diffusion of a healthful and vigorous understanding, which is at once the greatest of all improvements, and the instrument by which all other improvements must be accomplished.” About this time Locke seems to have been made a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1674 he took the degree of Bachelor of Medicine; he never was Doctor of Medicine, though he gener¬ ally passed among his friends as Dr. Locke. In 1675 he went abroad for his health, and apparently^, also, to pursue his medical studies. He remained for some time at Montpellier, then the most famous of the schools of medicine. He attended the lectures of the celebrated Barbyrac, to whose teaching Sydenham is understood to have been so much indebt¬ ed. When there, and during his residence abroad, he kept a diary, large extracts from which are for the first time given by Lord King.* The following account of the annual capping ” at Montpellier is very amusing. The manner of making a Doctor of Physic is this; 1st, a procession in scarlet robes and black caps—the professor took his seat—and after a company of fid¬ dlers had played a certain time, he made them a sign to hold, that Ae might have an opportunity to entertain the company, which he did in a speech against innovations—the musicians then took their turn. The Inceptor or candidate, then began his speech, wherein I found little edification, being chiefly com¬ plimentary to the chancellor and professors, who were present. * Lord King refers to numerous passages in Locke’s Diaries exclusively devoted to medical subjects, which he has refrained from publishing, as unlikely to interest the general public ; and Dr. Forster gives us to understand that he has in his possession “ some ludicrous, sarcastic, and truly witty letters to his fidend Furley on medicine, his original profession but which letters the doctor declines giving to the public ‘‘in these days of absurd refinement.” We would gladly forswear our refinement to have a sight of them; anything that Locke considered worth the writing down about anything is likely to be worth the reading.
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