Observe the Disease: Sydenham's Natural-History Method for the Chiropractic Clinician

Observe the Disease: Sydenham's Natural-History Method for the Chiropractic Clinician

"No botanist takes the bites of a caterpillar as a characteristic of a leaf of sage." — Thomas Sydenham

In 1676 Thomas Sydenham, a London physician and former Civil War officer, published a slim book of observations on the fevers, epidemics and acute diseases of his city. His request to physicians was radical for its time. He asked them to set theory aside, to describe each disease as faithfully as a botanist describes a plant, and to follow its natural history through the seasons. He became known as "the English Hippocrates," and his method laid the foundation of modern clinical description.

This textbook presents key passages from the Observationes Medicae, and from Sydenham's later writings on gout, hysteria and chorea, in R. G. Latham's classic translation. The commentary is written for chiropractors. Each historical description is linked to modern diagnosis, red flags and appropriate referral. The book then applies Sydenham's method to everyday chiropractic practice: the natural course of spinal pain, classification, prevalence and pretest probability, watchful waiting, and the clinical record as a tool for learning.

Inside this book:

• Seventeen texts from Sydenham with 28 chapters of commentary
• Natural history, classification and prognosis of spinal pain
• Red flags, referral pathways and recognition of serious pathology
• Case vignettes, 140 review questions and a self-assessment examination
• Recording forms, a glossary, a chronology and quick-reference tables

Written for chiropractic students, practicing chiropractors and other manual clinicians, it teaches the discipline of careful observation, the first skill of safe clinical reasoning.

Part of the Chiropractic Clinical Reasoning Series from PCC PRESS.