THE REVIVAL OF SCIENCE 131 



devoted his whole time to research in chemistry 

 and physiology. He it was who showed that, 

 in respiration, not the whole air but a part 

 only of the air breathed in takes an active part 

 in respiration, though he called this part "by 

 a different name, he meant what we now call 

 oxygen. "^^ 



Thomas Sydenham was one of the first phy- 

 sicians who was convinced of the importance 

 of constant and prolonged observation at the 

 bedside of the patient. He passed by all 

 authority but one — "the divine old man Hip- 

 pocrates," whose medicine rested also on obser- 

 vation. He, first in England, "attempted to 

 arrive at general laws about the prevalence 

 and the course and the treatment of disease 

 from clinical observation." He was essentially 

 a physician occupied in diagnosis, treatment 

 and prognosis. When he was but twenty-five 

 years old, he began to suffer from gout, and 

 his personal experience enabled him to write 

 a classic on this disease, which is even now 

 unsurpassed. 



^' Foster, Sir Michael, The History of Physiology, Cam- 

 bridge, 1901. 



