s:;7 



SYDENHAM, FLOYER. 



SYLBURG, FREDERIC. 



868 



but circumstances, it is added, for a time put a stop to this plan. At 

 last, towards the close of the session of 1839, on the elevation of Mr. 

 Spring Kice to the peerage, he was offered his choice between the 

 chancellorship of the exchequer and the government of Canada ; and 

 accepted the latter. He was sworn into his new office before the Privy 

 Council on the 29th of August; he left England on the 13th of Sep- 

 tember, and landed at Quebec on the 19th of October. Of his admi- 

 nistration in Canada, which was highly successful, Mr. Scrope has 

 published a very full narrative, which was drawn up by Mr. Murdoch, 

 the civil secretary. la August 1840, the governor-general was raised 

 to the peerage by the title of Baron Sydenham, of Sydenham, in Kent, 

 and Toronto, in Canada. But on the 4th of September 1841, while 

 in a weak state of health, he had the misfortune to be thrown from 

 his horse, which stumbled and fell upon him, and to sustain a fracture 

 of the principal boue of his right leg, besides other serious injuries; 

 and his death followed on Sunday the 19th of the same month. The 

 most remarkable quality that Lord Sydenham possessed was great 

 decision of character, arising from clearheadedness and self-reliance. 

 His activity, zeal, and extensive information also made him an excel- 

 lent man of business, and his attractive manners added to his value 

 as a partisan. 



SYDENHAM, FLOYER, was born in 1710, and was educated at 

 Wadhain College, Oxford, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1734. 

 Having undertaken the laborious and unproductive task of translating 

 Plato into English, he issued proposals for publishing his work by 

 subscription in 1759, accompanied by a 'Synopsis, or General View of 

 the Works of Plato.' The subscribers were few, and some, it is said, 

 failed in their engagements ; and after a life of labour and want he 

 died in old age (April 1, 1787), imprisoned for a debt contracted at 

 the eating-house which he frequented. Melancholy as was his end, it 

 was honoured in its results ; for in consequence, "one of the members 

 of a club at the Prince of Wales Coffee-House proposed that it should 

 adopt as its object some means to prevent similar afflictions, and to 

 assist deserving authors and their families in distress;" and this was 

 the origin of that valuable institution, the Literary Fund, from an 

 account published by which the above quotation is taken. Sydenham 

 is therein characterised as " a man revered for his knowledge, and 

 beloved for the candour of his temper and gentleness of his manners." 



Between 1759 and 1780 Sydenhatn published translations of the lo, 

 Grenter and Lesser Hippias, Banquet, Rivals, Meno, First and Second 

 Alcibiades, and Philebus, with notes : these are collected in three 

 quarto volumes. These versions were afterwards included by Thomas 

 Taylor in his complete translation of Plato, 1804, revised, and with a 

 sclectron of the notes. Taylor complains, while paying tribute to 

 Sydenhain's natural powers, that from early prejudices, and the 

 pressure of distress, he was unequal to the reception and explanation 

 of "Plato's more sublime tenets. His translation however of other 

 parts, which are not so abstruse, is excellent. In these he not only 

 presents his reader faithfully with the matter, but likewise with the 

 genuine manner of Plato." (Introduction.) 



Sydenham's other works are 'A Dissertation on the Doctrine of 

 Heraclitus, so far as it is mentioned or alluded to by Plato,' 1775; 

 ' Onomasticon Theologicum, or an Essay on the Divine Names, 

 according to the Platonic Philosophy.' 



SYDENHAM, THOMAS, one of the most distinguished of English 

 physicians, was the son of a country gentleman at Winford Eagle in 

 Dorsetshire. He was born there in 1624, and was admitted a commoner 

 of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1642. The occupation of that city as a 

 garrison by Charles I. interrupted his studies for a time; but he 

 returned to Magdalen Hall when Oxford was given up to the 

 parliamentary forces, and in 1648 he took the degree of Bachelor 

 of Physic. 



It has been stated that Sydenham served for some time in the royal 

 army during the commotions of the civil war; but this assertion rests 

 on no good authority, and all Sydenham's connections belonged to the 

 republican party. His elder brother William was a colonel in the 

 parliamentary army, and rose during the commonwealth to the 

 highest posts. It was also through the interest of his party that 

 Sydenham obtained, about 1648, a fellowship of All Souls' College, in 

 the place of a person who had been ejected for his royalist opinions. 

 He pursued his studies at Oxford for some years, and is eaid by the 

 famous French surgeon Desault to have visited Montpellier, where 

 there was a medical school, which then enjoyed a very high reputation. 

 Subsequently he quitted Oxford, and having taken the degree of Doctor 

 of Medicine at Cambridge, he became a licentiate of the College of 

 Physicians, and settled in London. 



He soon rose to the top of his profession, and between the years 

 1660 and 1670 had a more extensive practice than any other physician. 

 This success must have been entirely due to himself, for, from some 

 cause of which we are ignorant, the College of Physicians as a body 

 were hostile to him; while his known relations to the republican 

 party would cut off court patronage or favour. After suffering for 

 many years from the gout, he died on the 29th of December 1689, at 

 his house in Pall Mall, and was buried in the aisle of St. James's 

 church, Westminster. 



In 1666 Sydenham published his first work, which consisted of 

 observations upon fevers. An enlarged edition of this treatise 

 appeared under a new name in the year 1675. This second edition 



contained his remarks on the small-pox and on other eruptive fevers, 

 and is remarkable not only for the singularly accurate description of 

 symptoms, but also for the recommendation of a practice directly 

 opposed to the heating and stimulating plan of treatment which then 

 universally prevailed. Remarks on the epidemic diseases of London 

 from 1675 to 1680 ; a treatise on dropsy and on the gout; and a tract 

 on the rise of a new fever, were his principal other publications. 



From the nature of their subjects, we cannot here enter upon an 

 examination of these works ; but it is worth while, in the case of a 

 man who acquired such high eminence as Sydenham, to inquire what 

 were the causes to which he owed his great celebrity. He was not a 

 learned man, and his works, written by him originally in English, 

 were translated into Latin before publication by his friends Dr. 

 Mapletoft and Mr. Havers. He constructed no brilliant theory, and 

 indeed was not always consistent in following that which he adopted. 

 Were we to reckon Sydenham among the followers of any particular 

 school, it would be among those of' the chemical physicians, who 

 sought foj the causes of disease in a supposed fermentation and 

 chemical decomposition of the fluids of the body. Sydenham's 

 method of treating small-pox however, though so great an improve- 

 ment on the practice which then prevailed, was in opposition to the 

 theory which he had embraced. But his chief merit consists not so 

 much in ft is method of treatment, which is not uufrequently defective, 

 as in his singular talent for observation. The pictures which he has 

 drawn of diseases are so accurate, that in many instances it would not 

 be possible to improve upon them. He betook himself to carefully 

 noting the symptoms of disease, aud the encouragement of his friend 

 Locke assured him that his was the right method of seeking for 

 truth. This it is which constitutes his merit, that, in an age of 

 .brilliant theories, he applied himself to questioning Nature herself; 

 justly thinking that though "the practice of physic may seem to flow 

 from hypotheses, yet, if the hypotheses arc solid and true, they in 

 soine measure owe their origin to practice." By treading in this path, 

 Sydenham has gained a name which will last; while many, his supe- 

 riors in learning, perhaps his equals in genius, are forgotten, or remem- 

 bered only as instances of the misapplication of great gifts to little 

 purpose. Sydenham's works have passed through various editions, 

 both in this country and on the Continent. The edition entitled 

 ' Opera Medica,' published at Geneva, in 2 vola. 4to, in 1716, is prefer- 

 able to the English editions. The translation of his works by Dr. Swan 

 is well executed ; the best edition of it is that of Dr. Wallis, in 2 vols. 

 8vo, published in 1789. 



SYDNEY. [SIDNEY.] 



SYLBURG (Latinised SYLBURQIUS), FREDERIC, was born in 

 1536, in the village of Wetter, near Marburg, whence he generally 

 calls himself Fredericus Sylburgius Veterensis. His father was a 

 farmer in middling circumstances ; but the son received a good edu- 

 cation, and during the time he spent at the University of Jena, he 

 chiefly devoted himself to the study of Greek under Rhodomannus. 

 Afttr the completion of his academical course, he had the management 

 of several public schools, first that of Lich, in the county of Solms, and 

 then that of Neuhaus, near Worms. But he had no particular liking 

 for the business of teaching, and his occupation took up all the time 

 which he wished to devote to literary labours. Accordingly he gave 

 up his post, and entered into a connection with the printer Andrew 

 Wechel, of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, for whose establishment Sylburg 

 undertook to edit Greek works. He continued at Frankfurt until 

 1591, when he went to Heidelberg, and formed a similar connection 

 with the printer Hieronymus Commelin. In both places Sylburg, who 

 had the superintendence of the printing of all Greek works, as well as 

 the preparation of them, performed these duties with the utmost 

 accuracy, and showed an extraordinary critical talent in the notes 

 which accompanied almost all his editions. He thus gained great 

 celebrity, and the Landgrave of Hessen munificently rewarded him 

 with an annual pension from the funds of the University of Marburg. 

 Further particulars of his life are not known. He died at Heidelberg, 

 on the 16th of February 1596, as is stated on his tomb-stone, which 

 still exists at Heidelberg. 



Sylburg was one of the most eminent and most industrious Greek 

 scholars of the 16th century, and the greatest men of the age, such 

 as Casaubon and De Thou, entertained a profound admiration for 

 him. He was a worthy contemporary of Henry Stephens, whoso 

 Thesaurus of the Greek language contains many articles by Sylburg. 

 The editions of Greek writers by Sylburg are still very valuable, and in 

 critical accuracy they are not inferior to those of Stephens, although 

 they are not so beautifully printed. Some of his editions have never 

 yet been excelled. His first publications were new editions of some 

 elementary Greek grammars which were then generally used. In 

 1583 he published, at Frankfurt, in one volume, folio, his edition of 

 Pausanias, with notes by hiinsrlf aud Xylander, and an improved, 

 reprint of the Latin translation by Romulus Amaseus. It also contains 

 a dissertation by Sylburg, ' De Grammaticis Pausanias Anoujalis.' The 

 whole was reprinted in 1613. Between 15S4 and 1537 he published 

 at Frankfurt a complete edition of Aristotle, hi 11 parts, or 5 vols. 

 4to. This edition only contains the Greek text with the various 

 readings, and is still one of the very best and most correct editions of 

 all Aristotle's works. In 1 585 he edited four discourses of Igocrates 

 (ad Dernonicum, ad Nicoclem, Nicocles, contra Sophistas), 8vo, Frank- 



