Tag: Thomas Sydenham
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Christopher Wren’s contributions to medicine
JMS PearceHull, England An extraordinary natural philosopher and Renaissance man, Christopher Wren (1632–1723) (Fig 1) was primarily an astronomer and architect.1 He is remembered mostly for his work after the Great Fire of London of 1666 as designer of St. Paul’s Cathedral, originally erected in AD 604. Wren laid the first stone at on Ludgate…
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Hypochondria
JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold;Alike fantastic, if too new, or old:Be not the first by whom the new are tried,Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.— Alexander Pope The changing use and meaning of words are the daily bread of dictionary compilers. Long ago…
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Gouty quotes
JMS Pearce Hull, England The recent reproduction of G. Cruikshank’s A self-indulgent man afflicted with gout by a demon burning his foot reminded me of many memorable remarks made by sages of various disciplines (several themselves victims of gout) on the subject. That the excruciating pain of gout (Figs 1 and 2) provokes mirth and ribald…
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Thomas Sydenham, “The English Hippocrates”
JMS PearceEast Yorks, UK Still Fever burns, and all her skill defiesTill Sydenham’s wisdom plays a double part,Quells the disease and helps the failing Art. -from a poem on plague by John Locke, 1668 From Hippocrates, “Father Of Medicine,” to William Osler, “Father Of Modern Medicine,” plaudits for doctors abound and venerate their varied virtues.…
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Rheumatic fever: Evolution of causal concepts and management
Amogh BJTrivandrum, Kerala, India Nanditha VenkatesanRaipur, Chhattisgarh, India For centuries rheumatic fever (RF) and its sequelae scourged the lives of millions of people. Despite a substantial decline in deaths from the disease, rheumatic heart disease remains a problem, especially in areas of poverty. Over the past few centuries, a growing understanding of its causation and…
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The “English Hippocrates” and the disease of kings
Anne JacobsonOak Park, Illinois, United States Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689) is known as “The English Hippocrates” because of his detailed physical examinations, painstaking record keeping, and attention to the treatment of illness.1 At a time when the medical profession espoused theory and systemization, his belief in the power of observation and primary experience over scientific theory…
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Death by Dysentery? Artist Frank Russell Wadsworth in Madrid
Sally Metzler Chicago, Illinois, United States Frank Russell Wadsworth (1874-1905) A River Lavadero, 1905, Oil on canvas, Union League Club Chicago Though he basked in the Spanish sun, the summer warmth would be his downfall, indeed his early death. Artist Frank Russell Wadsworth of Chicago gravitated towards the vivid colors and picturesque river banks…
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Incurably curious: mystery and drama in clinical case reports
Julia DahlkampLondon, United Kingdom Introduction In recent years the genre of the written medical case report1 has come to be regarded as unscientific, a form of anecdotal evidence low in the hierarchy of study designs.2 Clinical geneticists, on the other hand, have emphasized its unique quality, as a single observation can offer an understanding that…