Dr. Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689): his life and original writings / [edited by] Kenneth Dewhurst.

  • Thomas Sydenham
Date:
1966
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Dr. Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689): his life and original writings / [edited by] Kenneth Dewhurst. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    103/222 (page 79)
    DE ARTE MEDICA OR ARS MEDICA, 1669 1 Length of life with freedome from infirmity and pain as much as the constitution of our fraile composure is capable of is of soe great con cernment to man kinde, that there can scarce be found any greater undertakeing then the profession to cure diseases, nor is there any art that soe well deserves all the care and industry and observation of its professors to improve it and bring it to perfection, which I doubt not but in many parts and to a great degree it is capable of. He that shall goe about to doe this shall noe question deserve the thanks of man- kinde for soe good an intention, as the reduceing those rules and methods to a certainty, on the practise whereof the ease and recovery of sicke men depends, but whoever shall thinke to compass it alone will finde him selfe ingaged in a business too large for any one mans comprehension and too great for his owne single endeavours. My intention therefor is to propose some few things to the consideration of the Learned men of this soe usefull a faculty, and to excite their mutuali assistance to perfect the art and establish a setled certaine practise in the cure of sicknesses, that soe the large catalogue of yet incurable diseases and the frequent sad events of the rest being every day lessened [the diffidence which some sober men upon serious consideration seeme to have of the art its self and the disrepute which others industriously labour to bring upon the practise of physick being by the dayly growing successe of the physicians removed, industrious and learned prac titioners] 2 of physick [may] with more confidence and satisfaction attend their calling when they could be noe longer upbraided with those confessed opprobria medicorum which every day yeild to the efficacy of their médecins or well orderd methods. If this were once set about, it would not perhaps be found soe impossible a designe as is at first sight imagind, and the great improvement some parts ofmedecin have received within this few years give me confidence to believe that it is yet capable of great additions and that in a way some thing 1 P.R.O., 30/24/47/2, ff. 38-47. Two editions of this essay have been published. H. R. Fox Bourne in his The Life ofJohn Locke (1876), vol. 1, pp. 222-7 presented a version in modern spelling. A. G. Gibson's The Physician's Art (1933), pp. 13-26 is incomplete as he omitted the quotation from Cicero together with several sentences written on the opposite page of the manuscript and included in square brackets in this text. Both Fox Bourne and Gibson stated that Locke was the author. Two passages in Sydenham's writings express views similar to those in this essay (Works, vol. n, pp. 11-12 and 22-3). 2 An insertion—not properly worked into the text—may is an editorial addition. 79