Physician Thomas Sydenham, son of a gentleman,
observed epidemic diseases of London over successive years, thus
founding epidemiology. He also furthered clinical medicine by
emphasizing detailed observations of patients and maintaining
accurate records. He wrote a treatise on gout and identified
scarlet fever. He introduced a cooling method of treating
smallpox. But he still relied on the big three treatments: blood-
letting, purging, and sweating. Blood-letting was to draw off bad
blood so that it could be replaced by a better fluid. Another
treatment used was cupping, whereby a vacuum was created by heated
glass cups to draw blood to the surface of the skin. John Locke
performed one of the first successful operations on a kind of
abscess of a man's liver. It was common for people who felt ill to
take a laxative and rest at home.
In 1690, physicians opened the first dispensaries, which gave
treatment and medicine together, to take business away from their
rivals: the apothecaries. London's apothecaries were released in
1694 from jury service and serving as constable, scavenger, or
other parish or ward office because it was necessary that they be
available to attend the sick at all times. Peruvian bark which had
quinine as its alkaloid had been introduced as a proven cure for
the ague, a fever with chills usually due to malaria, in 1653. The
English ceased to believe in holy wells, but went to spas such as
Bath for treatment for disease.
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