The King's neurologist

摘要

Andrés Piquer Arrufat (1711–72) was one of the most important European physicians of the 18th century, whose contributions made him an early precursor of modern psychiatry and neurology. At the time, the notions from Galenic medicine were still prevalent, but he cultivated a new approach that was being developed during the 18th century, based on rational empiricism, that emphasised clinical observation. He was strongly influenced by the works and ideas of the Dutch physician Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738), the pioneering empiricism of Francis Bacon, and the works of Thomas Sydenham in England in the 17th century.1