Thomas Sydenham, known as the "English Hippocrates" and who defined "Sydenham's Chorea", said in 1680, "Among the remedies offered by God to relieve human suffering, none is as universal and useful as opium."
Thomas Sydenham [1624-89] The greatest clinician of the period. He was born as one of the 5 children of a conservative family in England, and after his education at Oxford, he served as a cavalryman in the Cromwell army for 4 years with his father and brothers, due to the turmoil in the country. He completed his medical education at Cambridge in 1648, and although he gained great fame during his work on Westminister William Harvey and his work De Motu Cordis and on the Palm Mall, he was not made a member of the Royal College of Physicians due to his political views.
Thomas Sydenham (10 September 1624 – 29 December 1689) was an English physician. He was the author of Observationes Medicae (1676) which became a standard textbook of medicine for two centuries so that he became known as 'The English Hippocrates'. Among his many achievements was the discovery of a disease, Sydenham's chorea, also known as St Vitus' Dance. To him is attributed the prescient dictum, "A man is as old as his arteries."
He took Hippocrates' method as an example, believed that human intelligence was limited, did not favor medical theories on the grounds that they were useless in medical practice, and argued that real medicine could be learned at the bedside. At the beginning of his work on febrile diseases, he stated that he adopted Hippocrates' views as follows:
“In my opinion, no matter how a disease manifests itself, the thing to do is to resist the power that opposes nature and its damaging effect on the patient, and it can be overcome by natural means.” To a student who asked him which medical book he recommended reading, he said, “Read Don Quichotte, it is a very good book; "I still read it," he said.
Again, he said to Hans Sloane, an important anatomist, and botanist of the period: “Anatomy and botany are nonsense!.. No, young man, no! "Go to the patient's bed, you can only learn about the disease there."
Symptoms such as pain, fever, weakness, and itching (symptomata accidentalid) do not indicate disease and they can be found in different diseases; With careful examination, the real cause of the disease (symptomata essentialid) can be determined; The complaints occurring in patients arise from the struggle between the disease factors and the patient; Since each body's fight against the disease is different, the symptoms that occur in patients will also be different; He argued that the disease could be described if all symptoms and the course of the disease were followed carefully.
He brought system and order to medical practices by describing gout, scarlet fever, measles, erysipelas, dysentery, malaria, chorea, pneumonia, influenza, and hysteria. His best-known works are Medical Observations [1675] and A Treatment on the Gut [1683].
He described measles and gout diseases in his works as follows:
“Measles usually affects children. On the first day, they feel cold and shiver. On the second day, their movements increase, their tongues become rusty, they become thirsty, they fall asleep, and their noses and eyes run continuously. The rash increases in severity until the fourth day. Then small red spots like flea bites appear on the face and forehead; These increase in number and combine to form large spots on the face. The spots spread across the chest. "On the eighth day, they disappear, and on the ninth day, not a trace remains."
“When the patient goes to bed with gout, he sleeps comfortably. He wakes up at two in the morning with severe pain in his big toe. After that, he gets cold, shivering, a little fever rises, the pain increases, it spreads to the ligaments, it hurts as if they were torn, and sometimes there is pressure and tension. After a few days the other foot swells; The patient suffers from the same pains.” He used his own invention, laudanum (opium tincture), for the treatment of the disease. He rejected the iatrophysics and iatrochemistry movements; He advocated supporting the natural power of the body in treatment; He preferred simple drugs instead of many drugs (polypharmacy). For example, he used iron in anemia, cinchona in malaria, and mercury in syphilis.
He died in 1689 due to kidney stones and gout, but his value was later realized. XVIII. It is said that Boerhaave [1668-1738], one of the great physicians of the 19th century, took off his hat whenever Sydenham's name was mentioned.