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

  • Thomas Sydenham
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

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.

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    the Secretary of State. But Sydenham firmly believed that Talbor owed his financial success to adopting the bark after reading Sydenham's book. Also he was embittered at failing to profit from pioneering the use of Peruvian bark in fever-ridden England because he had openly published the details of his method of administration. Sydenham informed Locke that Talbor had made -£5,000 from the secret use of quinine and added: He was an Apothecary in Cambridge wher my booke and practices never much obteyned. 1 Locke made a note of Sydenham's remarks on quinine, and during his travels brought it to the notice of several French physicians. It was then (1678) completely unknown in France, and Dr. Magnol, a celebrated physician of Montpellier, remained unimpressed with the remedy: he thinks he knowes [a] better thing than kina kina to cure agues, wrote Locke in his journal. 2 In 1679 Talbor was invited to France, where he increased his fortune by treating such distinguished patients as the Prince of Condé, the Dauphin, Colbert, and Cardinal de Retz. The bark soon became known as the English remedy, and its popularity in France caused the avaricious Talbor to corner the market to the extent that Peruvian bark reached a price of -£15 a pound for a time. Through Mapletoft, Locke consulted Sydenham when called to attend the Countess of Northumberland (wife of the British Ambassador to France) who was stricken with trigeminal neuralgia. 3 After endeavouring to allay her pain with opium he asked Mapletoft to get the opinions of some of the leading London physicians. Dr. Mickle- thwaite, Sir Charles Scarburgh, and Dr. Dickinson all sent long letters of advice, but Locke depended most on Sydenham's instructions. Mapletoft had secretly consulted him, and in a footnote he suggested that Locke should adopt Sydenham's treatment. If you think the name will prejudice the advice, Mapletoft added, you may take it upon yourselfe. And on the back of the letter he wrote: For yourselfe. Lege solus. 4 Why the secrecy? It would appear that Sydenham was not very popular in higher medical circles. And this letter substantiates his constant complaints of professional hostility: indeed in the unpublished preface to his treatise on smallpox he stated that his life had been threatened. I should not make these reflections [he wrote], 5 how true soever, had I not been used by some of them with these greatest indignitys beyond almost the 1 B.L., MS. Locke, c. 19, f. 166, 3 August, 1678. 2 Ibid., {. 3, f. 316, 27 October, 1678. 8 Details of her illness have been published by Kenneth Dewhurst, A Symposium on Trigeminal Neuralgia, J. Hist. Med. (1957), 12, 21-36. 1 B.L., MS. Locke, c. 19, f. 164, 1 December, 1677. 6 P.R.O., 30/24/47/2, f. 55.