Thomas Sydenham

Thomas Sydenham was born in 1624 at Wynford Eagle in Dorset, England, into a Puritan gentry family. His studies at Oxford were interrupted by the English Civil War, in which he and his brothers fought for Parliament. After the war he returned to Oxford, took a degree in medicine and settled in practice in London. Sydenham rejected elaborate theories about hidden causes of disease. Instead, following the example of Hippocrates, he taught that a physician should observe patients closely and describe each disease as a naturalist describes a plant, noting its regular course and symptoms. His Observationes Medicae (1676) described London's epidemics year by year. He gave classic accounts of gout, from which he suffered himself, of measles and scarlet fever, and of the childhood movement disorder still called Sydenham's chorea. He promoted Peruvian bark (cinchona, the source of quinine) for intermittent fevers and used a preparation of opium that became known as Sydenham's laudanum. His friend John Locke assisted him for a time. He died in London on 29 December 1689.

Faith: Thought deeply about theology and left a manuscript fragment titled 'Theologia Rationalis'. Source: Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900) (via Wikisource)

See also: Hippocrates · John Locke · William Harvey