ALLEN, John.

First edition in English of Dr. Allen’s compendium of medical knowledge, first published in Latin in 1719. Intended as a practical guide for physicians, the Synopsis is set forth as a series of opinions derived chiefly from medical authorities of the time, including Continental names such as Boerhaave, Ettmuller and Baglivi, as well as English ones such as Morton, Sydenham, Willis, etc. Allen also frequently appeals to classical authorities, including Hippocrates, Celsus and Caelius Aurelianus. This diversity of thought is supposed to give the practitioner the best chance of settling on the right course of action, each opinion containing an examination of the symptoms, a theory of the cause and then the cure. Each smaller sub-section of text is then numbered for use with the ‘syllabus of diseases’ at the end, which is an alphabetical catalogue of symptoms giving the disease (or diseases) to which they might apply and the relevant place (or places) in the book. Sometimes this seems overly prescriptive, so that sneezing can only signify measles and heart pain only the plague, whereas other symptoms, such as reddish urine, could indicate gout, fever, pneumonia, scurvy, smallpox, etc. In some cases the reader is directed to a single opinion, removing the need for comparison, but in others two or more opinions are indicated, as is the case for scurvy, in which the first advises the use of mercury but the second forbids it. Allen’s equivocal approach must have been successful: the work went through three editions before this English translation.