en of his military conduct; nor are we told what rank he
obtained, when he entered into the army, or when, or on what occasion,
he retired from it.

It is, however, certain, that if ever he took upon him the profession
of arms, he spent but few years in the camp; for, in 1648, he
obtained, at Oxford, the degree of bachelor of physick, for which, as
some medicinal knowledge is necessary, it may be imagined that he
spent some time in qualifying himself.

His application to the study of physick was, as he himself relates,
produced by an accidental acquaintance with Dr. Cox, a physician,
eminent at that time in London, who in some sickness prescribed to his
brother, and attending him frequently on that occasion, inquired of
him what profession he designed to follow. The young man answering
that he was undetermined, the doctor recommended physick to him, on
what account, or with what arguments, it is not related; but his
persuasions were so effectual, that Sydenham determined to follow his
advice, and retired to Oxford for leisure and opportunity to pursue
his studies.

It is evident that this conversation must have happened before his
promotion to any degree in physick, because he himself fixes it in the
interval of his absence from the university, a circumstance which will
enable us to confute many false reports relating to Dr. Sydenham,
which have been confidently inculcated, and implicitly believed. It is
the general opinion, that he was made a physician by accident and
necessity, and sir Richard Blackmore reports, in plain terms, [preface
to his Treatise on the Small Pox,] that he engaged in practice,
without any preparatory study, or previous knowledge, of the medicinal
sciences; and affirms, that when he was consulted by him what books he
should read to qualify him for the same profession, he recommended Don
Quixote.

That he recommended Don Quixote to Blackmore, we are not allowed to
doubt; but the relater is hindered by that self-love, which dazzles
all mankind, from discovering that he might intend a satire very
different from a general censure of all the ancient and modern writers
on medicine, since he might, perhaps, mean, either seriously or in
jest, to insinuate, that Blackmore was not adapted by nature to the
study of physick, and that, whether he should read Cervantes or
Hippocrates, he would be equally unqualified for practice, and equally
unsuccessful in it.

Whatsoever was his meaning, nothing is mo