The Works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D., on Acute and Chronic Diseases: With Their Histories and Modes of Cure

The Works Of Thomas Sydenham, M.D., On Acute And Chronic Diseases: With Their Histories And Modes Of Cure — Thomas Sydenham. This edition presents an American 1809 edition edited by Benjamin Rush, introducing a biographical frame and a prefatory defense of Sydenham’s empirical approach. The work emphasizes two core aims of medical improvement: to describe diseases in a genuine, natural history and to establish a fixed, practical method of cure grounded in direct observation of symptoms, seasons, and patient progress. It treats disease as the result of immediate and conjunct causes, distinguishes acute from chronic conditions, and situates epidemics within an “epidemic constitution” of air and season. The text advocates a rational, indications-based practice over fixed “specifics,” and outlines a stepwise, regimen-based method—bleeding, purgation, glysters, and cordials—tailored to patient state. Expanded contents include Section I (acutes and epidemics) and Section II (epidemic constitution of London’s 1665–66), along with biographical sketch, editor’s preface, and practical notes on observed epidemics in 1660s London, patient histories, and remedies.