Thomas Sydenham, Clinician.

In 1924 the world celebrated the passing of three hundred years since the birth of Thomas Sydenham, most noted of medical clinicians. It is fortunate that there becomes available an appreciation of this great man and some notes concerning his life in a form attractive equally to medical or lay readers. The distinguishing characteristic of Sydenham was his objectivity. He described the course, prognosis and treatment of disease in word pictures as accurate as paintings, disregarding largely the observations of the past. His description of gout is considered a medical classic. He adopted the extremely modern view that fever may be a wholesome process, representing an attempt of the human organism to rid itself of disease. The book is presented in the usual handsome format and style that characterize contributions from the Hoeber press.