Highlights from the History of Medicine Collection
Opera universa [1685] reflects on many significant observational breakthroughs during an era when medical science lacked the technology to assist medical investigation.
The Health Sciences Library System is privileged to own a fine copy of one of the great standard History of Medicine produced in 17th century England, Opera universa. In quibus non solummodo morborum acutorum historiae & curationes nova & exquisita methodo ... traduntur, verum etiam morborum fere omnium chronicorum curatio brevissima ... exhibetur, by Thomas Sydenham. [Translated title: Complete Works. In which not only the histories of acute diseases and cures, by a new and choice method, are related, but also a very speedy cure for almost all chronic diseases.] The work embodies the height of observational talents from that era.
Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689) represents the best of 17th century English medical practice. He began his medical education at Oxford University and earned his MD degree from Cambridge. Referred to as the English Hippocrates, Dr. Sydenham is widely recognized as one of the great diagnosticians of his time.
Sydenham was also a prodigious author, publishing numerous massive texts based on bedside observations of a wide variety of patients over his lengthy medical career. His Opera universa, published in 1685 near the end of his career, reflects on his many significant observational breakthroughs during an era when medical science lacked the technology to assist medical investigation. Through his clinical observations, Sydenham was able to differentiate between measles and scarlatina, accurately describe pleurisy, different kinds of chest pains, and a number of other acute and chronic diseases. He is especially well remembered for his all-too-human description of attempts to treat his own malady, acute gouty arthritis. Opera universa was one of the standard medical works used by medical students throughout Europe for well over a century after Sydenham’s death.
As an interesting side note, some of Sydenham’s pupils found fame in careers other than medicine. They include philosopher John Locke; British Museum founder Sir Hans Sloane; and privateer captain Thomas Dover, who rescued marooned Alexander Selkirk (fictionalized in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe).
--John Erlen
