Sydenham

• English physician Thomas Sydenham was working as a general practitioner in London.
• Sydenham put together detailed descriptions of common diseases at the time, including cholera, dysentry and measles.
• He was able to differentiate different diseases due to his careful observation of the patients and their symptoms.
• He then differentiated diseases into species in the hope that treatments could become more precise.
• Sydenham's book ‘Medical Observations’, was published in 1676 and would be used as a standard textbook for over 200 years.