The Sydenham Society was a

medical Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

society instituted in

1843 Events January–March * January 3 – The '' Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms'' (海國圖志, ''Hǎiguó Túzhì'') compiled by Wei Yuan and others, the first significant Chinese work on the West, is published in China. * J ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

with the goal of improving the dissemination of medical text by means of

translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...

. The society was considered "defunct" in late

1857 Events January–March * January 1 – The biggest Estonian newspaper, '' Postimees'', is established by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. * January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating. * Ja ...

before being resurrected as the "New Sydenham Society" (1859–1907). It was named after the English physician

Thomas Sydenham Thomas Sydenham (; 10 September 1624 – 29 December 1689) was an England, English physician. He was the author of ''Observationes Medicae'' (1676) which became a standard textbook of medicine for two centuries so that he became known as 'The ...

(1624–89).

Prospectus

The prospectus of the Society by the time of its foundation in 1843 stated that: ''The Sydenham Society has been founded for the purpose of meeting certain acknowledged deficiencies in the diffusion of

medical literature Medical literature is the scientific literature of medicine: articles in journals and texts in books devoted to the field of medicine. Many references to the medical literature include the health care literature generally, including that of denti ...

, which are not likely to be supplied by the efforts of individuals. It will carry this object into effect by distributing among its members —'' ''1. Reprints of standard English medical works, which are rare and expensive.'' ''2. Miscellaneous Selections from the ancient and from the earlier modern authors, reprinted or translated.'' ''3. Digests of the most important matters contained in old and voluminous authors,

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

and foreign, with occasional biographical and bibliographical notices.'' ''4. Translations of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

medical authors, and of works in the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and other Eastern languages, accompanied, when it is thought desirable, by the original text.'' ''5. Translations of recent foreign works of merit.'' ''6. Original works of great merit, which might be very valuable as books of reference, but which would not otherwise be published, from not being likely to have a remunerating sale,—such as classified Bibliographies, and alphabetical Indexes to periodical publications and other valuable voluminous works.''

Translations

Sydenham Society Coat of Arms on Book Cover

The members of the Society produced several medical translations. As of 1856, membership in the society costed five dollars. Every year, the members received "three volumes, handsomely bound in a uniform manner in cloth, gilt edged". New members could acquire any previous volume for two dollars and fifty cents, or combinations of 3 volumes for five dollars. As of 2024, the works translated by the society have already fallen in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

and are available from online sources such as the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. The volumes edited by the society included:

Presidents

In the term 1849-1850, the society was presided by Sir James Clark. Presidents of the New Society included renowned physicians Charles James Blasius Williams, Thomas Watson,

James Paget Sir James Paget, 1st Baronet FRS HFRSE (11 January 1814 – 30 December 1899) (, rhymes with "gadget") was an English surgeon and pathologist who is best remembered for naming Paget's disease and who is considered, together with Rudolf Vir ...

, George Burrows, and Caesar Hawkins among others.

References

{{Reflist Medical associations based in the United Kingdom 1843 establishments in England Organisations based in London