Neuropsychiatry Research and Education Group, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
J Med Biogr. 2024 May;32(2):239-247. doi: 10.1177/09677720221146546. Epub 2023 Jan 3.
William Butler (1535-1618) was a man without a medical degree who was styled as the 'greatest physician of his age'. He was famous in his lifetime, and in the latter stages of his career was involved with the royal court, attending to King James I and his son, Prince Henry. Butler was an empiricist who practiced confidently and compassionately in a time of limited medical understanding. He was also a man of contradictions: he was loved and respected by his contemporaries but could be cantankerous and obtuse; he was anti-establishment, complaining bitterly about the restrictive monopolisation of medicine sustained by the Royal College of Physicians, but advanced his career via connections within the aristocracy; he sometimes practiced orthodox Galenic medicine, but was at times highly unconventional in his treatments. Posthumously, despite some compelling historical studies of Butler, there has been a great deal of embellishment of his behaviour and practice. This biography draws from Butler's own letters, contemporary writers and modern scholarly literature. It aims to arrange these sources into a verifiable narrative of this singular physician's life.
威廉·巴特勒（1535-1618 年）是一位没有医学学位的人，却被誉为“他那个时代最伟大的医生”。他在世时就已声名远扬，在职业生涯的后期，他与王室有联系，为国王詹姆斯一世和他的儿子亨利王子服务。巴特勒是一位经验主义者，在医学知识有限的时代，他自信而富有同情心的行医。他也是一个矛盾的人：他深受同时代人的喜爱和尊敬，但也可能脾气暴躁、迟钝；他反对传统医学，强烈抱怨由皇家内科医师学院维持的对医学的限制垄断，但通过贵族内部的关系来推进自己的事业；他有时采用正统的盖伦医学，但在治疗方法上有时也非常非常规。尽管有一些引人注目的关于巴特勒的历史研究，但他的行为和实践还是被大量润色了。这部传记取材于巴特勒自己的信件、同时代作家和现代学术文献。它旨在将这些资料整理成一个可验证的、关于这位独特医生生平的叙述。
