Sydenham, Works, 1696, first English edition
The Whole Works Of that Excellent Practical Physician Dr. Thomas Sydenham. Wherein Not only the History and Cures of Acute Diseases are treated of, after a New and Accurate Method; But also the Shortest and Safest Way of Curing Most Chronical Diseases. Translated from the Original Latin, by John Pechy, M. D. of the College of Physicians of London. London, Printed for Richard Wellington, at the Late, and Edward Castle, at the Angel, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1696.
Modern full brown leather with gold details on boards. Raised bands and gold text on spine. Spine a bit sunned. Scattered scratches and small scuffs. New end papers. Prior owner’s inscription on first original blank: “Jno Dolman Surgeon 1711 |No: 8___.” Prior owner’s inscription on title page: “Frederick Bailey, April 1st, 1806.” K7 trimmed slightly smaller at fore-edge. Small loss of margin at bottom corner pf Aa, Dd2, Kk3. Small marginal tear of fore-edge of Oo. Creases to upper corners of Mm6-Mm8. Small faint brown stains involving text of L8-M2 and Aa6-Aa7. Two small lacunae affecting text of Pp. Very rare foxing and minimal toning. Otherwise, interior very clean and bright. Binding tight. Lacking original rear blank(s). Advert at bottom of last page for translator’s purgatives sold out of his home. Apparently, textually complete.
New ffep, blank, blank, title, A^4, a-Q^8, R^4, aa-Pp^8, new rfep.
Title, (22), 1-248, 353-592. Note: At R4 to Aa, pagination jumps from 248 to 353, but catchword (Dr.) matches (even to enlarged titular font size), and the index lists no topics with pagination between these numbers. Furthermore, this collates exactly to our other copy of this same edition. Thus, textually complete.
Waller 9418.
Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689) is knowns as “the English Hippocrates,” and as the founder of modern medicine. He “dominated the field of clinical medicine in the seventeenth century as no other man did at that time.” He completed his medical studies at Oxford. After the Second Civil War he built his practice in London and became famous all over Europe. He never taught at a university, he never founded a school, and he had no pupils in the usual sense. He made no single medical discoveries, but “he did more than discover. He initiated a new mode of approach.” He studied the natural history of disease from an analytical consideration of the cases which presented themselves to him, rather than merely trusting the ancients. Yet he also followed a principle of “back to Hippocrates” in the he embraced the spirit of inquiry of the ancients. He was a friend of Robert Boyle, and he supported the then-budding but controversial ideas of contagion. His works were first printed in Latin in 1685 (interestingly, as “editio altera” though there is no known earlier edition). (Singer)
J. F. Payne said that Harvey was the Master of Science; Sydenham the Master of Practice. Interestingly, Sydenham wrote his works in English and then had them translated (By Dr. John Mapletoft and Gilbert Havers) into Latin for publication. So published English translations are actually back translations. As an aside, “he was a Puritan” and “knew the English Bible,” reminding anyone who would undertake the profession of medicine that they would have to one day give account to God for their treatment of their patients. (See Rolleston, and also Macpail).
He gave a good description of malaria (ague) and popularized the use of Jesuits’ bark (quinine) for its treatment (Singer 455).
Osler 1008: regarding the translator, and borrowing from the Dictionary of National Biography, “Peachy, Pechy, or Peche (1655-1716)” practiced as an apothecary rather than physician. “After publishing a number of useless works he issued in 1695 “a vigorous and idiomatic translation of ‘the whole works’ of Sydenham, which went through eleven eds to 1740.”
