The medical renaissance 1500-1700

Ideas on medicine in the Renaissance took on…

A scientific approach

Writing and knowledge

Scholars were paid to restore old texts and fix bad translations from the Middle Ages

Hippocrates and galen…

Became popular again

People began to focus on

Direct observation and experiments

Did people begin to question the church?

Yes

What new medical process allowed people to observe the body?

Dissection

Why were there fewer hospitals?

Henry Viii closed the monasteries

What new injuries were there

Gunshot wounds

What did Thomas Sydenham prioritise?

Treating patients and observing outcomes

What did Sydenham prove?

Scarlett fever and measles were different diseases

How did Sydenham classify diseases based on recording his findings?

Sorted them into different groups based on findings

What book did Sydenham publish and what did it do?

Medical Observations- described illnesses and how to treat them

When was Medical Observations published?

1676

What methods did doctors use in the Renaissance?

Old methods due to the lack of training and alternatives

What did people believe cured scrofula?

The royal touch

What was still prescribed due to the influence of religion and the supernatural?

Pilgrimages and prayers

What did hospitals now focus on doing?

Treating

What did Quack doctors do?

Gave patients false medicines like opium, causing addictions

When was the printing press invented?

1440

How did it aid the spread of ideas?

Books and ideas could be spread globally quickly

How did it reduce the Church’s influence?

They could no longer prevent the publication of ideas they didn’t approve of

What did the Royal Society enable?

Scientists to share scientific knowledge and carry out research.

When was Philosophical Transactions published?

1665

What was the Theory of Transference?

People believed rubbing yourself on another object could transfer a disease from you to them.

What were the lack of changes in the Renaissance?

Ideas were slow to be accepted, discoveries didn’t improve understanding of the causes of disease.

What was a continuity of Apothecaries and surgeons?

They were not given university training and were cheaper than physicians

What was a change to apothecaries and surgeons?

They were better trained, and you needed a license to be obtained after training

Continuity of Physicians

Trained at universities, training was based on textbooks not experience

Change in Physicians

Better access to many medical books, dissection became legal and they became experimental

Where did Vesalius study medicine?

Paris

When did Vesalius study medicine in Paris?

1533

Where did Vesalius become a professor of surgery?

Padua, Italy

What did Vesalius do?

Made the study of the human body fashionable and improved understanding of the human body

how did Vesalius influence dissections

he encouraged more to happen- the first one in cambridge happened in 1565

who else did Vesalius encourage to disprove galen?

Fabricius

what did Fabricius discover?

that veins contained valves- he told this to his student william harvey

When was vesalius’ book being used in cambridge?

1560

Who’s work did Vesalius prove incorrect?

Galen

How many mistakes did Vesalius find in Galen’s work?

300

what corrections did Vesalius make to Galen’s work

the lower jaw is one bone, not two, and the breast bone has 3 parts, not 7

When was ‘On the fabric of the human body’ published?

1543

When was the Great Plague?

June to November 1665

How many people died in london from the great plague?

100,000- one in five of the population

when did the deaths of the great plague peak?

september

In one week in september, how many people died due to the great plague?

7000

What was the Great Plague believed to be caused by?

Miasma, Religion, Transference, Astrology

Great Plague- Miasma

People believed it was in soils, and would emerge when the weather got warmer

Great Plague- Religious

This was less popular than in the Black Death, but they believed it was a punishment for wickedness

Great Plague- Astrology

There was an ‘unlucky’ alignment between saturn and jupiter in october 1664

Great Plague cause- transference

people thought disease spread person-to-person but there was no proof

How did people try and treat the Great Plague?

Herbal remedies, sweating it out by a fire, transferring it to a chicken

How did people try and prevent the great plague?

advice from physicians and other healers

Advice given by physicians in great plague

prayer, quarantine, pomanders, fasting

Plague doctor mask

It contained herbs in the beak

Plague doctor coat

coated in wax to stop pus and blood soaking into it

advice from other healers in the great plague

apothecaries sold plague water, some believed catching syphilis would prevent them getting the plague due to similar symptoms

What was a real difference between the Black Death and Great Plague?

Government Action

What did the Government do during the Great Plague?

Banned large gatherings, cleaned streets, collected the dead, killed dogs and cats

how many dogs and cats were killed

40,000 dogs and 200,000 cats

When was William Harvey around?

1578-1657

which book did harvey write

An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood

when did harvey publish his book

1628

Where did Harvey study?

Cambridge

Who’s doctor was Harvey?

James I

What public act did Harvey do?

Public dissections

What did Harvey discover?

that the heart pumped blood around the body

How did Harvey discover blood circulation?

Studied Vesalius’ theory and proved it was right by using dissected bodies

what did harvey discover was wrong with galen’s work in relation to the arteries and veins

they are linked together in one circulatory system, blood passes from arteries to veins

what did harvey discover was wrong with galen’s work in relation to blood and the heart

the same blood is being pumped round the body by the heart - new blood is not produced in the liver

what did harvey discover was wrong with galen’s work in relation to blood

veins only carry blood, not air too

how did harvey prove blood flows in one direction to the heart

he tried to pump liquids the other way and the valves prevented this

how did harvey prove arteries and veins are in one system

he tied a cord around someone’s arm to cut off blood flow, let it flow into the arm (arteries are deeper) and realised that veins swelled with blood when he didnt let it flow out

how did harvey prove the same blood is being pumped around the body by the heart

dissection, and he calculated how much blood went into arteries an hour

Why was Harvey important?

He proved Galen’s theory wrong and improved knowledge of the body, encouraging further experiments