Thomas Sydenham

English physician. During the Puritan Revolution, he served in the war against the Royalists as an officer of the Parliamentary faction led by Cromwell. After the war, he studied medicine at Oxford University and became a physician in 1648. After serving in the army again, he opened a practice in the Westminster district of London in 1656, but he was more interested in politics. He gradually devoted himself to medical practice, traveled to Montpellier in France to hone his knowledge and skills, and received his doctorate from Cambridge University in 1676, when he was over 50 years old. He investigated the clinical findings and course of each disease in detail and accurately recorded medical histories. Based on the nature of the disease, the state of the natural good's reaction to stimuli, and causal factors, he classified diseases into (1) abnormalities of humors, (2) acute and chronic, and (3) sporadic and epidemic, and concretely defined these concepts, arguing that doctors must accurately differentiate between many diseases. He was an empiricist based on clinical observation, and placed importance on natural healing, rather than on theory as the traditional physical and chemical schools had done. Although he was only a general practitioner, he gained the trust of many patients and became so well-known that he was praised as the "English Hippocrates." His writings included descriptions of gout, chorea, and pneumonia, and his main work was "Medical Observations" (Observationes medicae circa morborum acutorum historiam et curationem ) (1676).

[Akira Furukawa]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イギリスの内科医。ピューリタン革命の際、クロムウェルの率いる議会派の士官として、王党派との戦争に従軍した。戦後オックスフォード大学で医学を修め、1648年に医師となった。再度従軍したあと、1656年にロンドンのウェストミンスター地区で開業したが、政治への関心のほうが強かった。その後しだいに医業に専念するようになり、フランスのモンペリエに遊学して学識、技術を磨き、1676年50歳を過ぎてからケンブリッジ大学で学位を受けた。個々の疾病の臨床所見やその経過を詳しく調査して、病歴を正確に記載した。疾病の本質、刺激に対する自然良能の反応の状態、原因的因子などに基づいて、疾病を、(1)体液の異常、(2)急性と慢性、(3)散発性と流行性に分類して、その概念を具体化し、医師は多くの病気の鑑別を的確に行わなければいけないと主張した。臨床観察による経験主義で、自然治癒を重視し、従来の物理派や化学派のように理論に重きを置かなかった。一開業医にすぎなかったが、多くの患者の信頼を得てその名声は高くなり、「イギリスのヒポクラテス」と称賛された。痛風、舞踏病、肺炎などの記述があり、主著として『医学観察』Observationes medicae circa morborum acutorum historiam et curationem（1676）を残した。

［古川　明］

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