CHAPTER 11 SUMMARY
Willis has become legendary for his cures; however he has kept them secret from all of his colleagues. Willis set out to organize the remedies he has developed over the years into a single book. He creates a rational science of drugs, based on corpuscles and anatomy. Willis maintained a belief that physicians need to learn the “mechanical means of the working of medicines in our Bodies” in order to prevent the ignorant and vilest people from harming the physick. Rational therapist, as Willis called it was the last book he would write. Despite the shortcoming of rational therapeutic, it also displayed Willis as the best as a sharpened eyed anatomist and an extraordinarily observant physician. Willis and his assistant Edmund King made unprecedented study in the stomach, lungs and other organs. Willis approached his death as he had always hoped he would with his rational soul still in charged.
Locke came to Oxford in 1652, he showing none of the genius that his fellow students, however by the end of the decade he begin to transform himself from a dilettante to a natural philosopher. Locke earned a place in the Oxford circle carrying out experiment and later developed an expertise in botany. When Locke wasn’t carrying out medical research, he was speculating in the hidden works of the body. Locke believed that the inability to agree was brought on because people did not understand the nature of thought itself, which lead him to the notion of “imperfection of words.” Locke decided that he and his friends had to get past these simple obstacles of language and thought one in order to truly understand anything. He took on the task of starting an essay that he referred to as “incoherent parcels.” After formulating his essay Lockes’ perception the world changes giving it new life and clarity. Locke was most intrigued and influenced by a physician named Thomas Sydenham. In Sydenham’s company, Locke became convinced that all causes in medicine were beyond human understanding.
Sydenham was a school mate of Wills but they had little in common. Willis came from royalist stock while Sydenham grew up in a Puritan Dorset. Willis fought for Charles I, while Sydenham fought for Parliament. Like Willis Sydenham chose medicine but steered clear of Willis Oxford Circle. After leaveing Oxford to join his bothers in London, Sydenham began practicing medicine on the less fortunate. As Sydenham saw patents by the hundred he begin to see patterns. He noticed that clusters of symptoms took the same course through different people. Sydenham found that diseases such as malaria follow the same course no matter who it claimed. He found ways to distinguish fevers, building up lists of linked symptoms that separate one diseases from another. His huge practice allowed him to gauge how well different kinds of remedies worked.
Sydenham experiments with different types of treatments outraged other physicians, but Sydenham would not change his medicine. “It is my nature to think where others read, to ask less whether the world agrees with me than whether I agree with the truth; and to hold cheap the rumor and the applause of the multitude.”
Critique:
The Neurologist Vanishes is a complicated chapter because it ends one era while beginning another. Willis is now a well accomplished physician; however his life has come full circle. He has become the Galen of the time and now his ideas are be scrutinized upon. Willis is now the giant whom shoulders are being stood upon just as the other that came before him. However I am sadden to learn that Willis becomes a distant memory and never a legacy for all of his contributions in the scientific community.
Now we begin to learn about the old and new free thinking characters of the time. I most thoroughly enjoyed reading about their style of breaking the mold. It was very engaging to lean about Sydenhams against the grain approach to practicing medicine. I like the fact that he used the actuality of life in treating his patients in lieu of the theoretical. In spite of whom it inhibited, he was able to look at the disease and see its pattern. Sydenham just seemed like a no nonsense type of person who didn’t get caught up in the how or why of medicine. Instead he focused on the healing aspect whether it is natural or chemical. “Nature by itself determines diseases, and is of it herself sufficient in all things against them.”
Locke too is a radical thinker who begins to question the establishment. He ventures into this journey by analyzing how language is spoken and interpreted. This new path to enlightenment has able him to hear that all the past intellectual discussion has been bullshit. Locke can now see that no one really knows what the other is truly saying or what themselves are attempting to convey. This awakening is truly revolutionary maybe even treason. Locke’s new insight spirals into numerous essays on topics that are taboo for its time. I really like this about Locke because it makes me think of how good it feels when one is truly allowed to be expressive. In comparison to doing the opposite, which usually leave a deep sense of regret?
Information on Thomas Willis:
www.cerebromente.org.br/n06/historia/willis
Information on John Locke:
www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Locke
www.oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/locke
Information on Thomas Sydenham:
www.nndb.com/people/344/000098050/
www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1369015
5 comments:
Chapter 11 was very appealing. I was content to know that “Willis’s cures had become legendary” but found it strange that “some of them he still kept secret, even as countless physicians and apothecaries tried to extract the recipes from him” (237). Why would he hide his cures? As admirable as Willis was I felt discomforted by the fact that in his last book “he simply presented his wonderfully imagined stories as fact” and did not bother to back up his claims with experiments (238). Did he become as pompous as to ignore his past? Rational Therapeutics involved Willis’ “unprecedented study of the stomach, lungs, and other organs” (238). Willis was a “giver” throughout his life and I was pleased to hear that “he left hundreds of pounds to charity” upon his death (238). What a truly remarkable person! He also made the brain and nerves “a subject of modern scientific study” as well as “redefined the soul” (240). After all of his triumph, how is it that the reputation of this man began to fade soon after his death? Like kinkylady, I am disheartened to learn that Willis becomes a distant memory and never a legacy for all his contributions to the scientific community.
I found it interesting that Sydenham studied patterns and found that “the same clusters of symptoms took a nearly identical course through different people” whether it was the sickness of a Socrates or the sickness of a simpleton; it made no difference (244). He found it necessary “that all diseases be reduced to definite and certain species, and that with the same care which we see exhibited by botanists… classifying diseases as if they were thistles and lilies” (244). I enjoyed that Sydenham “was willing to accept his ignorance rather than invent some ornate explanation” about the ways that nature healed people (244). His “radical, practical medicine” was unusual making it difficult for those around him to accept his way. Though he refused to get caught up in the why and how of medicine, his research was honest in the sense that he did not try to resolve it through basic ideas and envisioned thoughts.
Many philosophy classes have explored Locke’s argument that the mind is empty at birth, “let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters without any ideas” (251). This idea says that through our senses, ideas entered the mind and furnished it. It is interesting that Locke believed words did not refer to the essence of things “but were merely labels people pasted onto collections of related ideas in their own minds” (251). I believe we are all born without knowledge and over time slowly learn the accepted concepts of society. If you really think about it, who’s to say that the color blue really is blue? Also, ones idea of the color blue may be completely different than the idea of blue by another. And what about someone who is blind and never has seen the color blue? These answers must all be rationalized through agreement by others and recognized as the norm.
More information on Lord Ashley:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRashley.htm
More information on Anthony Wood:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9077379/Anthony-Wood
More information on Thomas Sydenham:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9070686/Thomas-Sydenham
More information on John Locke:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/
Chapter 11 proved to be a very interesting chapter since it finished discussing Willis’s life and then continued on with how Willis influenced other scientists and philosophers, especially John Locke. I agree with Kinkylady that it’s sad Willis is not as revered and remembered as the poets and kings buried at Westminster Abbey. It is somewhat disheartening that he has become a distant memory since he made significant contributions to scientific development and especially the neurocentric age. As Zimmer said, “Willis’s doctrines of the brain and the soul became part of the bedrock of modern Western thought.” Someday, if I ever get to travel to England I want to visit Westminster Abbey and visit his grave specifically!
This chapter also introduced a physician I have never heard of before, Thomas Sydenham who I found to be extremely observant. Sydenham can be considered observant since he noticed with his hundreds of patients the same symptoms and he was then able to classify diseases based on the specific symptoms. I think Sydenham was a good physician because he did not treat a disease as the “unique disturbance of an individual” like Galenist doctors. I think his radical methods of practicing medicine were just what the people, especially the poor needed during that time period of immense sickness. Also, I was amazed at John Locke’s new method of analyzing how language is spoken and interpreted like Kinkylady. And again, I really enjoyed this chapter and I learned a lot.
This site provides some biographical information on Thomas Sydenham: http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1989.html
While, this site is pretty cool it has "Brainy Quotes" and specifically quotes from Thomas Sydenham: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_sydenham.html
This chapter was both intriguing and bittersweet in that I share Kinkylady’s sentiments regarding Willis. Like his predecessors, Willis’ contribution to the development of neuroscience functioned as a cornerstone to its further proliferation. And just as his work replaced the fundamental statutes of Galen and Aristotle, Locke replaced Willis’ ideals with his own.
I found the contributions of John Locke very interesting because, up until this point, I associated him with his work regarding religious tolerance. I found it fascinating that he was able to integrate past perceptions of rational thought to develop his own: one of complete autonomy and independent of God. His philosophy on the continuous pursuit for knowledge was quite reminiscent of Descartes’ Cogito. Also, it was interesting that Locke was the product of both Willis’ and Sydenham’s teachings, which were completely parallel to one another.
The discussion on Sydenham was remarkable, as well. As the “English Hippocrates,” his innovative approach to the practice of medicine is still reflected in its exercise today. However, modern medicine fuses the methodologies of both Sydenham and Willis in that it is dependent on both clinical interactions with patients and theories of disease mechanisms derived from biomedical research. Moreover, doctors now also take into account the generalized characteristics of disease and its effect on an individual basis.
For more information on:
1) Hippocratic medicine: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/563096_3
2) John Locke as a physician: http://www.jstor.org/view/00335770/dm994750/99p19242/0
3) Thomas Syndenham: http://www.sydenham.org.uk/thomas_sydenham.html
I agree with everybody that it was sad to believe that over time people unintentionally forget an important person who made a difference in the people’s lives. At the same time, that person may have progressively affected us in the way we think and act without even knowing. That is to say Willis’s life and his contributions to scientific development has slowly disintegrate over time. However, I didn’t expect that he would keep a secret of the cures he developed. That is because I think that every scientists, philosopher, and physician should share what he or she has discovered to help the lives of other people. And so, their discoveries may perhaps, help solve the unanswered questions around us. But of course, that is not to say that sometimes things are better left unsaid according to people's personal reasoning for not releasing the information that they discovered.
In this chapter, a physician named Thomas Sydenham is also mentioned. However, I have never heard of his contributions in the developmental of science in the past. I found him interesting in the way he diagnosed his patients. He is considered to be a very observant physician who is customary to what physician would perform nowadays. I like the idea at how he approaches a problem since he first observes the root of the problem without jumping into further conclusions. In contrast, other physicians during his time would offer unusual cures to a sick person without even thinking through the problem first, therefore making the patient even be in harm in some circumstances. Following that, the physician would make assumptions to a particular symptom he has encountered before, and then he associates that symptom in treating a patient ‘s illness without even observing and diagnosing the patient first.
Related Links:
The Works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D.
http://books.google.com/books?id=8qYEAAAAYAAJ&dq=thomas+sydenham&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=JYChdGbmeU&sig=Ab6sQcfhtYp0FKZL-hq1lmzSV0I#PPR19,M1
Thomas Sydenham
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Thomas_Sydenham
A portrait in history: Dr. Thomas Willis
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3725/is_199905/ai_n8842299
“…let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters without any ideas” (251). Although, I have seen John Locke’s argument many a time, I am always intrigued by people’s responses to it. ‘Burd’ said she believed that humans are born without knowledge, and that knowledge is acquired through experiences. As for me, I firmly tread the line in between the two extremes of tabula rasa and being born with all knowledge. I feel as though, there are certain innate behaviors that one possesses, which of course are present from birth, while on the other hand, there are also learning opportunities as life itself progresses.
Even as I, like the others, lament Thomas Willis’s exit from the scene of scientific discovery, I find myself to be a little annoyed by a number of his assertions on the human anatomical processes that were based merely on his imagination. I realize that some initial imagination is necessary to begin understanding and explaining these processes, however I maintain that imagination be limited to nothing more than a hypothesis or perhaps to bridge gaps between two results – a mere “X relates to Y” in this way. Actual data or appropriate scientific experimentation is necessary to validate any theory.
Thomas Sydenham appealed to me as somewhat of an uncouth scientist, and for some reason I feel as though the traditionalists of his time felt the same way about him. Yet, I admire his willingness to stay true to his methods and pursue science in a revolutionary way, making great strides in the field. “It is my nature to think where others read, to ask less whether the world agrees with me than whether I agree with the truth; and to hold cheap the rumor and the applause of the multitude.” It is this attitude of Sydenham that takes me aback. This, to me, is true science: the passionate pursuit of truth, a quest for thorough understand of life itself.
In case the hyperlinks do not work, please visit the following websites for more information on –
Tabula rasa
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Locke.htm”>tabula rasa
Thomas Sydenham
http://www.enotes.com/public-health-encyclopedia/sydenham-thomas
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