Thomas Sydenham (1572–1649) was an English physician and natural philosopher. He is considered the greatest English physician of his time, and the father of modern neurology. His medical treatises include De Insomniis (first published in 1676). His 1691 book De Proprietatibus Rerum, being a collection of his lectures, is a major source of medical knowledge from the middle ages
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Sydenham's mother died when he was two years old, and his father married an older woman who soon proved to be unfaithful. As a result, he moved in with various relatives and eventually was raised by his aunt Elizabeth. Sydenham's father died when he was eleven years old, but he continued to live with his widowed stepmother for two more years after that.
He then moved to London to attend Westminster School where he studied under Isaac Barrow and John Woodward. In 1690, after graduating from Westminster School, he matriculated at Christ Church College in Oxford University. In 1694, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society where he met Thomas Willis who influenced him greatly by introducing him to the work of William Harvey.
In 1702, Sydenham became junior physician to Queen Anne who was confined to bed after falling from her horse in 1702. He remained in close contact with her during her confinement, and they became very close friends. Later that year she appointed him her personal physician and in 1703 Sydenham returned to Oxford where he worked closely with John Hunter in studying anatomy and physiology until 1708 when Queen Anne died.