ABSTRACT
Many of the discoveries in pure science made in the latter half of the seventeenth century have proved of fundamental importance to the development of medicine. Linnaeus’ attempt to arrange various diseases in systematic order, like everything else from his hand, bore the stamp of genius, and gives him a position higher than many of his predecessors. Fortunately for the development of medicine the eighteenth century witnessed the awakening of a new consciousness of man’s responsibility to his fellow men. Franciscus Sylvius was born in 1614 at Hanover, and, after spending some years in study in various centres of learning, he came ultimately to Leiden as Professor of Medicine, at the age of forty-four; and he filled this post with distinction until his death in 1672. Both as chemist and physician Sylvius did good work, but his power and enthusiasm as a teacher was perhaps his greatest contribution to medicine.
