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SYDENHAM.
This great man effected a real revolution in physic, and no one ever had a more just claim to the title of a restorer of true medical science. But his was the triumph, not so much of transcendent genius, as of good sense over vague hypothesis: to him the praise belongs of having been an accurate observer, who, endowed with great sagacity, conducted his researches with skill, and was guided by a sure method in all his investigations. In a word, no physician ever exerted so beneficial an influence over that branch of the art, to which all others are subservient, viz. its practical application. His claims to our admiration will appear the greater, if we reflect for a moment, that he lived at a time when chemistry, and the sect of the mathematical physicians, were in the highest vogue; and pause to consider the difficulties which he must have encountered, when he recommended to his countrymen to follow the footsteps of nature and experience.
Thomas Sydenham was born in the year 1624, at Wynford Eagle, in Dorsetshire, where his father, William Sydenham, Esq. had a large fortune. The house in which he was born was formerly a considerable mansion, but it is now converted into a, farm-house, and stands on the property of the present Lord Wynford.
