GCSE History of medicine - `Renaissance Era (copy)

Renaissance era

1500-1700

Factors of renaissance era

• power of the church declined

• printing press

• science was more influential

• increase in humanism

• royal society

Power of the church declined

• people saw the importance of dissections- people began to dissect the dead and saw inaccuracies in the works of Galen.

• More secular society

• Reformation of the Church meant it was less popular

• People could spread new ideas and question the Church with less fear

• increase in humanism

Humanism

• as a result of more secular society

• People believed it was good to question things and look for explanations instead of settling.

• focus on direct observation

• questioned the Church- new ideas = advancement

The printing press

• invented in the 15th century (1440) by Johannes Gutenburg

• allowed people to spread information more easily

• took away power from the church

• allowed the spread of new ideas

• 1480 - 110 printers Europe

• 1600 - 151 cities had them

• 1500 - W. europe 20 million copies made

Royal society

• 1660

• Supported scientists and encouraged them to share their theories and to challenge each other to find new evidence and scientific explanations

• supported by Charles II increased the popularity and gave credibility

Royal Society first writing

• Philosophical transactions

• 1665

Changes in Medical knowledge - Renaissance

• Dissections are now legal - improved anatomical knowledge

• Fewer British hospitals- due to the reformation.Previously hospitals were attached to monasteries that had now been shut

• New weapons

College of Physicians is founded

• 1518

• improves training

Beliefs of causes - CONTINUITY

• imbalance of the four humours still even though many physician knew it wasn’t true they continued to treat using it as a basic principle because it was believed by the wider population

• miasma

• much of society was religious so there was still a strong belief that disease caused illness

Beliefs of causes - CHANGES

• factors outside the body such as temperature

• Small seeds in the air

• animacules- tiny animals that could only be seen through a microscope (now relates to bacteria)

Attitudes of society

• led to new medical ideas

• but these had little impact because the general public still believed that illness was caused by an imbalance in the four humours- so this continued to dominate medicine.

No alternatives

• even though there was evidence the old ideas were wrong, because there were no alternatives people still believed in medieval ideas

New technology

• invention of the micoscope

• small seeds seen in the air

• advanced scientific understanding

Science

• due to the rise of humanism, there was a more scientific approach

• Not much effect, however, because basic principles were still unknown and attitudes in society remained the same.

The treatment of illness

• Doctors still had little training

• Increase in trading and the new world meant that more herbal remedies were popular as they had spread throughout the world

• Bloodletting and purging

• Religious treatments should as pilgrimages, praying, use of astrology, and the supernatural were still popular

• Belief of the ‘Royal touch’ to cure scrofula

• wise women and apothecaries were still popular

Hospitals and industries

• Hospitals focused on treating patients

• Lots of towns had pharmacies

• Books were published on the treatment of illness

• Quackeries was a scam based on displays that lied to people about how they could cure disease

• Medicines were usually ineffective from quackeries

• Often gave their patients opium, which made them feel like they were improving but they were actually just getting an addiction

Private hospitals

• funded by wealthy people or private industries

• free

• specific wards for certain diseases

• not much changed

• most treatment still based on 4 humours

College of physicians

• 1518

• British doctors trained here

• most doctors believed 4 humours

• at university continued to learn theories from Galen and Hippocrates

• toward the end of the renaissance period, ideas from individuals such as Vesalius, Sydenham and Harvey were shared in universities

• had opportunities for direction and were taught to observe patients more.

Surgeons

• professional surgeons trained at university, but were expensive.

• Barber surgeons were unqualified

Key individuals

• Andreas Vesalius

• Thomas Sydenham

• William Harvey

Andreas Vessalius

• improved the knowledge of anatomy

• Found 300+ issues with Galen’s work

• anatomist

• studied in Paris

Where was Vesalius a lecturer

• University of Padua

Dissection

• Vesalius dissected criminals and found inaccuracies in the work of Galen for which he found opposition

• Dissection was now legal due to the lessening power of the Church

• Vesalius was able to carry out lots of dissections because he had a deal with a local magistrate meaning he had a very close view on the inner workings of the human body

Vesalius vs Galen

• Human jaw bone has 1 bone not 2

• Breast bone has 3 parts not 7

• Blood is diffused through the heart not through invisible holes in the septum

Vesalius’ writings

• Fabrica of the human body

• 1543

• 6 anatomical pictures

• 1538

Impact of Vessalius

• LONG TERM

  • importance of scientific observation

  • proved Galen to be wrong, allowing for new ideas and discoveries to do with medicine that contradict Galen

  • Galen’s book was used to teach all across England

  • People were encouraged to carry out there own dissections

Thomas Sydenham

• English Hippocrates

• Focussed/advocated for scientific observation rather than relying on textbooks

• Physician in London

• encouraged physicians to look at a patient’s symptoms and record them as a whole entity and treat them together rather than separately

• Moved away from classical ideas

• Classified diseases based on their symptoms

Thomas Sydenham - treatment

• treat disease as a whole rather than symptoms

• each disease was different

• quinine - cinchona bark popularised for malaria

What did Thomas Sydenham differentiate?

• Scarlet fever and measles

Thomas Sydenham- Writings

• Observationes Medicae

• 1676

Impact of Thomas Sydenham

• LONG TERM

  • Significant impact on how we diagnose and look at patients

  • Moving away from classical ideas made the industrial period's new ideas more easily accepted.

• SHORT TERM

  • Limited due to attitudes of society

Case study: William Harvey

• English physician born in 1578

• studied medicine in Padua

• particularly interested in physiology

• lecturer in anatomy

Who was William Harvey the physician of

• James I

• Charles I

Harvey vs Galen- how blood circulates

• Harvey challenged Galen’s view of how blood circulated around the body

• Harvey thought blood circulated around the body

• Galen believed it was made in the liver

Circulation of blood

• harvey proved Vesalius’ belief that the veins contained valves

• valves enable blood flow to the heart

• Blood could flow in only one direction

• Heart was a pump

Harvey’s experiments

• dissecting corpses

• trying to pump liquids in the other direction of the valves- not possible

• dissecting cold blooded animals as they have lower heart beats so the blood flow could be observed

• measuring blood flow to show that the same blood is pumped through the body

Harvey’s writings

• 1628

• An anatomical account of the motion of the heart and blood in animals

Impact of Harvey

• SHORT TERM

  • Not much

  • He was ridiculed

  • His ideas were not accepted because they denied the general belief and bloodletting

  • Counteracted the beliefs of many

  • Still a limited knowledge about why blood was needed and why blood in arteries and veins was different

• LONG TERM

  • The first stage toward blood transfusions being possible.

  • In 1901 the discovery of blood groups made it more possible

  • After Harvey died, a microscope that showed how capillaries linked veins and arteries was made

The role of technology in Harvey’s discoveries

• Mechanical pump gave William Harvey the idea that the heart was a pump for blood around the body

• Soon after his death, Harvey’s beliefs were proved by the new microscopes that showed how capillaries take blood between the veins and arteries

The Great Plague

1665

Cause of the great plague

• God

• Misalignment of the planets

• rotten waste caused miasma

• disease spread from person to person

treatment of the great plague

• prayers for the sick

• wearing of religious or magical charms

• herbal remedies such as posies

• bloodletting and purging

attempts to prevent the spread of the plague

• Strong smelling herbs in doorways

• posies to their nose

• chew tobacco

• Avoid contact with other people

• soak coins in vinegar

government actions

• Charles II and his government orders days or public prayer and fasting

• Mayor of London also tried to prevent the spread

  • Victims were shut in their homes for 40 days to prevent people from leaving so that they could spread illness

  • Events that attracted large crowds were banned

  • Animals were banned inside the city

• Rules were very difficult to enforce because there were few authorities to check and punish the behaviour of individuals

Improvement since the black death

• people recognised the link between dirt and disease

• governments more organised

• quarantines