Thomas Sydenham

Front matter

ROBERT W WOODRUFF LIBRARY

^MASTERS OF ^MEDICI^E

CtCERO.1

Preface

THE constant complaint of all biographers of Sydenham has been the paucity of their materials. It has been the custom to say that nothing certain was known about his life, and even the most important events in it have been involved in great obscurity. This complaint is no longer well founded. The publication in recent years of historical documents from the Public Record Office, and other collections, has thrown a flood of light on the personal history of the seventeenth century, and on the life of Sydenham among others. Many contemporary statements, especially as to his military services, which had been strangely discredited, have been shown to be perfectly correct. Again, a more careful search into the earlier printed records has brought to light many facts overlooked by previous writers. The first bio-

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PREFACE

grapher to make use of the English historical documents was a French physician, M. Frederic Picard, whose life of Sydenham, a most laborious and accurate study from original sources, is far superior to any of its predecessors. But there are other books and documents which it was impossible that M. Picard, with all his thoroughness, should know.

The following sketch is not based upon any previous biography, but compiled entirely from original authorities, whether previously quoted or not. Some sources have, I believe, never been drawn upon before except in the article on Sydenham which I contributed to the " Dictionary of National Biography."

On this account it has seemed necessary to print in full some documents which are rather materials for history than history itself ; and generally to give a good deal of detailed evidence which somewhat interferes with the writing of a continuous narrative. While regretting this, I hope that the stamp of authenticity thus given to the history may make up for other defects.

In a work of this compass it would be impossible to give the authority for every statement ; but a general list of authorities is given at the end. For others, as well as for a bibliography of Sydenham's writings, I may refer to the " Dictionary of National Biography."

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PREFACE

I should be glad if this sketch should induce some readers to study for themselves Sydenham's own works, of which good editions, both English and Latin, were published by the old Sydenham Society, and are still accessible.

The portrait placed as a frontispiece is from a direct photograph of the painting in the College of Physicians, which is, according to the highest authorities, the work of Mary Beale.

In conclusion, I desire to express my thanks to Dr. Nias, who very liberally placed his notes on the Sydenham family at my disposal.

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Chapter I

Birth — Parentage — Family history — Pedigree — Home life — First residence at Oxford.

Chapter II

Civil War in Dorset — Its peculiar features — Services and exploits of the Sydenhams — Death of Sydenham's mother — How avenged — Loss and recovery of Weymouth — Sydenham in the field — End of first Civil War — Sydenham returns to Oxford.

CHAPTER III. Second Residence at Oxford

A chance meeting determines Sydenham to become a physician — Second residence at Oxford — Created M.B. — Appointed Fellow of All Souls' — Oxford, under Puritan rule — Character of studies there — The scientific movement — Its connection with the London Society — Sydenham's studies — Revives his knowledge of Latin — Facilities for medical study — Teaching of medicine, anatomy, chemistry, botany.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV. Sydenham's Second Military Service

Sydenham's petition to Cromwell — John Sydenham, an infantry captain, promoted to be major — Killed in Scotland — Thomas Sydenham, captain of horse — Narrow escape from a drunken soldier — Services in England and Scotland — Sydenham's marriage — Starts in practice in Westminster.

CHAPTER V. Life in London ; Visit to Montpellier

Sydenham's residence in Westminster — A malarious district — Becomes candidate for parliament — Appointed Comptroller of the Pipe — Visits Montpellier — Probable date of this journey — Probably a pupil of Barbeyrac — Restoration of Charles II. — Sydenham returns to London — Suffers severely from gout — Death of Colonel Sydenham, and of Sydenham's father — Obtains license of College of Physicians — Reasons why not a Fellow — Always mentioned with respect by the College.

CHAPTER VI. Sydenham and the Plague

Previous history of the Plague in England — Cessation since 1647— Recrudescence in 1664— The Great Plague of 1665 — ■ Flight of the richer citizens — Sydenham leaves London — Justification for this step — Returns in the autumn — His views on the Plague.

Chapter VII

His first work, "Method of Curing Fevers" — Dedication to Robert Boyle — Review in the " Philosophical Transactions " — Attacked by Henry Stubbe — Reprinted at Amsterdam — Second edition, with a poem by John Locke — The third edition, entitled, " Medical Observations on Acute Diseases" — His greatest work — " Theory of Epidemic Constitutions " — Description of scarlatina.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER VIII. Sydenham's Shorter Writings

Ephtola Responsoria dua — To whom the letters were addressed— Materials on which they were based — Dissertatio Ephtolaris addressed to Dr. Cole — Reference to Dr. Goodall — Sydenham's explanation of hysteria — Treatise on the Gout and Dropsy — Sydenham's personal experience of gout — His explanation of dropsy — His estimate of anatomy — Schedula Monitoria — Description of a new fever — Remarks on other diseases, especially chorea, often called Sydenham's chorea — Close of Sydenham's literary activity.

CHAPTER IX. Medical Practice in Sydenham's Time

Change in medical practice after the Restoration — Rise of the chemical school — Influence of the Virtuosi — The King encourages quacks — Competition with surgeons and apothecaries— Manners of physicians — A caricature portrait of Sydenham — His own methods of practice — His treatment of the small-pox — His use of bark and opium — " Sydenham's laudanum."

CHAPTER X. Home Life and Last Days

Sydenham's children and grandchildren — Professional success — His sufferings from gout — His habits of life — His pupils — Recommendation of Don Quixote to Blackmore — Failing health — Death and burial — Memorial and epitaph.

CHAPTER XI. Sydenham's Will ; His Descendants

The will — Provision for children, grandchildren, and other relatives — Sydenham's eldest son — His professional career little known — Wrote a small medical work — Sydenham's grandchildren,

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CONTENTS

Chapter XII. Page

Processus Integri, written for the use of his son — The most popular of Sydenham's works — Large sale of early editions — The Oxford MS. — Anecdota Sydenham! an a — Written by Locke — Theologia Rationalis, a MS. work on natural theology — Extant letters of Sydenham.

CHAPTER XIII. In What Language did Sydenham Write? 210

General use of Latin in Universities — Presumption that Sydenham knew Latin — Classical quotations in his writings —Positive statements that his works were Latinized by others — Evidence from Sydenham's English MSS. — Comparison of those with the printed works — Conclusion.

CHAPTER XIV. Sydenham and Hippocrates 222

Sydenham's aims in studying diseases — Why he valued Hippocrates so highly — The dogmatic system of Hippocrates — The natural method of cure —Debt of Sydenham to Bacon — Sydenham's originality — Comparison of Harvey and Sydenham.

CHAPTER XV. Sydenham's Friends : Boyle, Locke, and Others 236

Robert Boyle — His scientific researches — Impartial interest in medicine — Sympathy with Sydenham — Letter from Sydenham to him — John Locke, a regular physician — Was much influenced by Sydenham — Their relations to each other — Letter of Sydenham to Locke — Locke's views about medicine — More revolutionary than Sydenham's — Other friends of Sydenham's — His contemporary and posthumous reputation.

XVI

ONE of the most sympathetic critics who ever wrote about Sydenham, that delightful essayist, Dr. John Brown, speaks of him as " The Prince of practical physicians, whose character is as beautiful and as genuinely English as his name." His name, indeed, has a thoroughly English sound. It calls up before our minds a little homely Somersetshire village which the fame of the great physician has made known throughout the world. And all the associations which cluster round his home life are equally English. He was born and bred in the heart of one of the most English parts of England, that old West Saxon kingdom which the modern Dorsetshire novelist has taught us again to know as Wessex. He was educated at the oldest English University, which has always drawn to itself, along with other elements of strength, the best intellectual promise of the western counties. He lived through a time when the English character was strung

J B up to an unexampled height of intensity, and, being placed near the centre of affairs, had special opportunity of feeling the throb of the national heart, and sharing its emotions.

Sydenham's character was certainly noble and beautiful. We will leave it to the genial Scottish physician to call it genuinely English. If there are strong elements in the English character, these Sydenham possessed, and if he had limitations, these also were national, and so not easily discernible by us.

We might go further and recognise a thoroughly English type of intellect in the follower of Bacon and comrade of Locke ; linking his name with these two, perhaps the most representative of English thought, not only for his independence and originality, but for his love of the concrete, his prosaic, practical wisdom, his piety and benevolence. Locke left the subtleties of philosophy to show the reasonableness of Christianity, or to discourse of the education of children ; and not their education only, but their diet and the thickness of their shoes. Bacon, if less practical, at all events gave such aims as these their most dignified expression, when he defined knowledge, not as matter for contemplation or discourse, but as " a rich Storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate." No words could better consist with Sydenham's conception of knowledge.

But we must not be too exclusively national, lest we 2 run the risk of being provincial. Sydenham's is a name not for England only but for the world. We do not ignore the foundation of Greek science on which Sydenham built, nor the breath of French medicine, which no doubt in some degree inspired him. Still in the main the object of the following sketch is to exhibit the life and character of Sydenham not only in connection with medicine, but in its relation to English life, English history, and English science.

We have now to try to give some picture of that little corner of England in which the great reformer of practical medicine first saw the light, and of the material and moral surroundings in the midst of which he grew up.

First, it will be interesting to give some details concerning the little Dorsetshire village with which not our physician only, but his family were so closely associated. Wynford Eagle (according to Hutchins's History of Dorset) is a hamlet and chapelry belonging to Little Toller or Toller Fratrum, lying about eight miles from Dorchester. In Domesday Book it is called Wynfort. Its curious additional name is derived from the Honor de Aqulla^ or the Eagle, of which it was formerly held.

This great " Honour " or Barony of Eagle had its seat in Sussex, but derived its name from a Norman family named Aquila, or Aigle, from a town in

Normandy, Aigle, whence they came, so that the village in England derived its second name from a village in France. The first holder was Gilbert de Aquila of Pevensey, who had other possessions in other counties. The " Honour " passed afterwards to the Crown, and was regranted by Edward II. to the family of Lovel. From the Lovels it passed through an heiress to the family of St. Maur, and from the St. Maurs, again through an heiress, to William Zouch, whose son became Lord Zouch. His descendant, John Lord Zouch, sold it in the 36th year of Henry VIII. for ^40 to Thomas Sydenham, who will be spoken of hereafter.

After changing hands several times, the manor was bought by an eminent barrister, William Draper West, afterwards Puisne Judge of the Queen's Bench, and ultimately Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who was raised to the Peerage in 1829, as Baron Wynford, of Wynford Eagle. It has thus descended to its present possessor, Lord Wynford. Not now the manorial residence, it is occupied as a farmhouse.

The picturesque, grey, ivy-grown old house is still standing, little altered from its original state. It lies in a hollow, sheltered by the downs and upland pastures, and is a pleasing specimen of a small seventeenthcentury manor-house. The front is composed, as usual, of three parts, each surmounted by a gable. The projecting central block contains a recessed porch with stone benches. The wings recede and are pierced with old mullioned windows wrought in very hard stone, and perfectly preserved. The whole building is very solidly constructed of stone and flint.

A thick growth of ivy covers the whole front, and makes it difficult to decipher the date carved on the central block, but it appears to be about 1630, so that the house would have been built by Sydenham's father.

On the summit of the central gable an eagle carved in stone declares the ancient name of the house. This bird, however, is of modern workmanship ; the old eagle of the Sydenhams, headless and maimed, may be found in a back yard. The old walled garden and a large orchard beyond appear to be quite in their original state. The whole house appears small, having perhaps once been larger ; and it stands in an awkward relation to the road, which must formerly have taken a different direction. The interior is almost entirely modernised, but one old oak room, beautifully panelled in the Jacobean style, remains to tell of its ancient dignity.

The little church of Wynford Eagle is a chapelry belonging to the mother church of Toller Fratrum, two miles off. The original chapel must have been of great antiquitity, as it contained portions of supposed Saxon architecture. The Sydenhams, we are told, erected a building on one side of it for a family burial-place, and there most members of our physician's family were laid. But the old chapel with the tombs of the Sydenhams has been entirely destroyed, not a vestige of it remaining. The poor little modern structure, built in 1840, does not even stand on the same site, and has only a fragment or two of the old chapel built into its walls. Thus of the old family which interests us hardly a trace remains in their ancient and dignified home. Their name is preserved only in one field, which still goes by the name of " Sydenham's."

The surrounding district, without being notably picturesque, presents a rich and pleasing English landscape. Its centre, of course, is Dorchester, a place of ancient fame, and having been — as its name implies, and some remarkable remains of antiquity testify — an important military station in Roman times. This importance was probably due to its proximity to the seaports of the Dorset coast, once busy and flourishing, though deserted by the course of modern trade. As, however, the history of epidemics is an important feature in the life of Sydenham, we may recall the fact that the greatest of all recorded epidemics, the Great Pestilence or Black Death of the fourteenth century, first reached our shores at a Dorsetshire seaport.

The proximity of Wynford Eagle to Dorchester was also important in another way, since the fact had great influence in determining the political sympathies of the Sydenham family, and thus in affecting the course of our physician's life. Dorchester was strongly Puritan. Clarendon says "a place more entirely disaffected to the King England had not," and " it was the magazine whence the other places were supplied with principles of rebellion." This was doubtless true not only of the town itself but of the surrounding district. Sydenham was thus brought up in an atmosphere of Puritanism, or rebellion, as Clarendon calls it, and it is worth while for a moment to consider what this meant.

We can gain from Mrs. Hutchinson's life of her husband, Colonel Hutchinson, a very clear notion of the reasons which determined conscientious men to side with the Parliament against the King. There were political grounds and religious grounds. Politically, such men protested against the assumption' of absolute power by the King, upholding the old English principle that the sovereignty of the State does not reside in the Crown alone, but in Crown and Parliament. On religious grounds, this party desired to make the English Church approximate more closely to the Reformed Churches of the Continent and of Scotland, regarding the changes which had been made at the English Reformation as incomplete or inadequate. But some who felt deeply on the political question, Mrs. Hutchinson tells us, had less sympathy with the religious aspect of the controversy— that is, they were more Parliamentary than Puritan.

On the other hand the Royalists, or Cavaliers, with equal conscientiousness, took entirely opposite views both political and religious. They considered their loyalty to the King to be paramount over all other political considerations, and if the Parliament differed from the King, that was flat rebellion. On the religious side they had no desire to see the Church ot England made more decidedly Protestant ; they clung to the Episcopacy, with the ceremonial and other features of the old Church which the Reformation of the preceding century had spared and which were strongly supported by the King.

The views of the two parties were totally irreconcilable, but it is clear that conscientious men might be found, and were found, on both sides.

The Sydenham family were evidently both Parliamentary and Puritan ; and it seems that an unusual number of county families in Dorset were on this side. They were termed by their opponents " Rebels " ; the term " Roundhead," which originated in another part of the country, being rarely, if ever, used in the Dorsetshire pamphlets. In its literal sense, the latter nickname would have been hardly applicable to our hero, for Sydenham, like Cromwell, Milton, Hutchinson, and most of the Puritan leaders of whom we have portraits, wore his hair long.

It can hardly be thought an unimportant matter to which party Sydenham belonged. We cannot appreciate his whole character and career without remembering that he was imbued with the intense earnestness of the Puritans, and was quite prepared, in opposition to authority of any kind, to be called, if necessary, a rebel.

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Early Life and Education HO MAS Sydenham was born at Wynford

X Eagle, and baptized September 10, 1624. He was the fifth son of William Sydenham of Wynford Eagle, and Mary his wife, daughter of Sir John Jeffery, Knt., of Catherston. Without necessarily supposing that genius is the result of external influences, or of hereditary transmission alone, the various factors which make up the antecedents and surroundings of a man of genius are well worth studying.

As regards antecedents the family history of Sydenham is very interesting. The family is first recognised at Sydenham, North Petherton, near Bridgwater, Somerset, which manor was held by Robert de Sydenham in the time of King John. From his time onward a pedigree is traceable, which has been

1 1 carried on up to the present day and displayed in great detail by some living descendants of the Sydenham family. It forms a large printed sheet with some hundreds of names, which we have been allowed to inspect, and from which many interesting facts may be collected.

In the Middle Ages we find that the family contributed some distinguished names to the national annals. One Richard Sydenham was judge of the Common Pleas in the time of Richard II. ; Simon Sydenham was Bishop of Chichester in the reign of Henry V., and went on an embassy to the Emperor. Numerous knights, members of parliament, sheriffs and other dignitaries issued from the family ; and amongst their alliances it is interesting to note that a daughter of Sir George Sydenham, or Combe Sydenham, in Queen Elizabeth's time, married Sir Francis Drake.

The main branch of the Sydenham family remained in Somersetshire, where they occupied seats at Brimpton, Aller, Chetworthy, Orchard Windham, and Dulverton. A few words may be said about their families before we pass to the branch from which our physician was descended. The Brimpton branch received a baronetcy, which became extinct in 1743. Tl>e Chetworthy branch was noted in the seventeenth century for its attachment to the Royal family. Three of its members were knighted. The best known, Sir Edward Sydenham, fought with

Charles I. at Oxford, but afterwards compounded for his estates and even became a member of the (Parliamentary) Council of State ; but was removed in 165 1 for suspected complicity with the Stuarts.

An heiress of the Sydenhams of Orchard Windham, married Sir John Windham of that place and of Fellbrigge, Norfolk, and was thus an ancestress of the distinguished Windham family, one of whom, Sir William Windham, was a Secretary of State under George I. He left a son, Sir Charles Windham, also a statesman, who became Earl of Egremont ; but the title became extinct in 1845.

The Dulverton branch has left the largest number of known descendants, among whom we find the Rev. Humphrey Sydenham, called the silver-tongued preacher, a noted Anglican divine of the seventeenth century ; and a Colonel William Sydenham, who fought in the civil wars on the opposite side to his namesake, Colonel Sydenham, the brother of our physician.

In the eighteenth century we find Floyer Sydenham, the learned Platonist, who published the first English translation of Plato, a version at one time much valued. In later times we note among the Sydenham decendants the late Professor Williamson, the naturalist, of Owens College, Manchester, and Mrs. Mary Everett Green, the learned and indefatigable editor of many volumes of the State Papers, to whom all historical students are so much indebted. To this

J3 lady's researches also is due a great part of what is known about the Sydenham pedigree. Other names more or less known in literature or in the public services might be mentioned, and many descendants of this family are still living.

Those who have any belief in hereditary genius or talent will be interested in a record which shows so many members of one family distinguished in arms, statecraft, or letters.

We now pass to the branch of the family to which our physician belonged.

The Sydenhams first appear at Wynford Eagle in the person of Thomas, the third son of Richard Sydenham of Aller, Somerset, who, as already stated, bought the manor of Lord Zouche. Nothing is known of this William Sydenham but that his mother, when a widow, made her will early in the fifteenth century, intending to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, or at least to visit the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul, but died before carrying out her design. This was not the last instance of strong religious feeling in the Sydenham family. Thomas Sydenham bought a farm and manor formerly belonging to the estate of the Abbey of Cerne, and is mentioned in the reign of Queen Elizabeth as the possessor of a park called Wynford or Sydenhams, to the extent of 160 acres, beside considerable rights of sheep pasture. So that the property was an important one. His great-greatgrandson William was the father of our Sydenham,

He was born in 1593 an^ died m ID6i. All we know about him is that he was of Puritan leanings and strongly supported the cause of the Parliament, so that, when an elderly man, he fought in the Parliamentary army with the rank of Captain, and was for some time a prisoner to the Royalists. He married, November 4, 161 1, Mary, the orphan daughter of Sir John Jeffrey of Catherston, deceased six months before. Of this lady nothing is known beyond the circumstances of her death, to be afterwards mentioned ; but we naturally try to learn something about her family. Her father must have been a gentleman of wealth and good position in the county, though the mere fact of his having received knighthood in the first year of James I. does not perhaps prove very much, since at that time knighthood was regarded by many country gentlemen more as a burden than as an honour. His tomb at Whitchurch Canonicorum is described as "a fine altar tomb with canopy." It is recorded that his son George, Mrs. Sydenham's brother, died at the age of thirty, after a long illness, " with firm faith in Christ." His epitaph expresses more than a conventional amount of religious sentiment, and the phraseology strikes one as somewhat Puritan, so as to imply that Sydenham's mother came of a pious family ; the more so as the monument was placed by the Sydenham family. George Jeffrey is described as "esquire," which at that time would indicate that he was the eldest or only son. The family of Jeffrey does not further appear in Hutchins' History of Dorset, and it is possible that Mrs. Sydenham was the last representative of the family, though it is not stated that she was an heiress.

William and Mary Sydenham had born to them seven sons and three daughters, whom it may be desirable, for the sake of clearness, to enumerate.

(1) William, the well-known colonel and Cromwellian, baptized 8th April, 1615, buried 1st August, 1661.

(2) Francis, major in the Parliamentary army, born (or baptized) 24th April, 161 7 ; killed in the wars, 1 Oth February, 1644-5.

(3) John, born 26th April, 1621 ; died young.

(4) George, died 5th September, 1629.

(5) Thomas, baptized 10th September, 1624; died 29th December, 1689.

(6) John, major in the Parliamentary army, born 3rd March, 1626 ; killed in the wars in Scotland, and buried 7th May, 1651.

(7) Richard, Civil Commissioner under the Commonwealth and Protectorate ; date of birth not recorded; buried 27th January, 1657. He is described in the Register as " Captayne," but his military service, if any, cannot be traced.

The daughters were : —

(1) Mary ; married Richard Lee.

(2) Elizabeth, born in 16 19 ; married Roger Sydenham, a distant cousin.

(3) Martha, born in 1622; married William Laurence.

It is noticeable that the Sydenhams, at least the sons, were a short-lived family. Only one beside Thomas, namely, William, lived to be over forty ; and in 1661 Thomas Sydenham, then thirty-seven years old, was the sole male representative of the family. The dates of death of his sisters are not recorded.

It may be convenient before going further to say something about the character and career of Sydenham's brothers, since they had a great influence upon the life of the physician, and must have helped to mould his character.

William, the eldest, was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, but does not appear to have taken a degree. He was not a literary man, but must have been a fair scholar, for a letter of his dealing with military matters addressed to Sir Lewis Dives, which has been preserved, is curiously full of Latin quotations. That he possessed great energy and also military ability is undoubted. During his military career he was spoken of by the Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary commander, as " a gentleman of approved courage and industry;" and he lived to be eulogised by Milton as one of the counsellors of Cromwell. Strongly disposed to the Parliamentary party by family ties, he became still more closely connected with the Puritans by marrying the daughter of John Trenchard, or

Warmwell, an important Dorsetshire gentleman who was a staunch supporter of the Puritan party, being an original member of the Long Parliament for Wareham and named one of the King's judges, though not actually a regicide. The influence of this strong and masterful character on his brother Thomas, who was nine years younger, must have been considerable.

Sydenham had before him another example of the Puritan soldier in his next brother Francis, who never went to the University, but afterwards became a daring and energetic officer, one of the most active leaders of the Parliamentary party in Dorset, though his particular services are with difficulty separated from those of his brother William. The early death of Francis Sydenham at the taking of Weymouth, where Thomas Sydenham was also present, was one of the sad events which cast a shade over the Sydenham family.

The further careers of these brothers will be noticed in the following pages. At the time we are now considering they were living the ordinary life of young country gentlemen, busy probably, for the most part, with farming and field sports ; though, if we judge by their subsequent life, setting an example of manliness and sincerity.

It was thus under the influence of a conscientious father, a pious mother, and manly elder brothers that Sydenham's boyhobd was passed.

We have already said something about the external 18 home of the Puritan gentleman's family; its connection with the Sydenhams did not last for many generations after our physician's time.

To anticipate a little, we may here state that the family estate passed on the death of the elder Sydenham to his grandson, William, the eldest son of Colonel William Sydenham, whose line became extinct with his death, in 1718. The estate passed out of the family in a not very creditable manner, which is thus related.

" This William Sydenham put up the estate at a private lottery. It was generally supposed that there was a trick designed, for it was contrived, or at least hoped, that the fortunate ticket would fall to the share of a confidant of the family, who they imagined would have been prevailed upon to return the estate for a small consideration. That ticket happened to be hers; but, to their great disappointment, she immediately afterwards married Doily Mitchell, Esq., who sold it to George Richards, of Longbredy, Esquire. But it being necessary that Mr. Sydenham and his two daughters (his sons having died during his lifetime) should make a formal surrender of the estate to the vendee, on their refusal they were committed to Dorchester prison about 1709, where they ended their days."