A time of SOME changing ideas about disease, but treatment and prevention stayed the same.

Attitudes:

Humanism - a set of beliefs that included rejecting religious ideas and encouraging science and experiments

Secularism - the idea that religion should be kept separate from other aspects of life which led to the church gradually losing control and influence over education and medicine.

Technology:

New technologies - clock, microscopes and thermometers made it much easier to perform experiments

Eduction:

More people were able to afford education, and new universities such as Padua in Italy and Cambridge in England, which encouraged students to experiments.

Communication:

The printing press in 1440 meant that it was much easier and quicker to make books and made books cheaper, this also meant that the church no longer had control over book production and their control over ideas weakened, it also allowed scientist and doctors to spread their ideas through journals such as the Rocial’society’s journal.

The Royal Society

set up in 1660, it had a Royal charter given by King Charles II which was a document giving them permission and support, this gave the Royal Society credibility and raised its profile and popularity, this also meant that people supported them by donating money to fund a laboratory full of equipment. This allowed members to confirm their findings or research other findings. e.g. the microscope was used to confirm Van Leeuwenoek’s discovery of ‘animalcules’ in 1683

They had their own scientific journal, it was the world’s first scientific journal in 1665, this journal included letters, bookreviews and summaries of experiments and their findings. This was an important platform where scientist could share their work and it helps contribute to the spread f medical ideas.

The reports in the Journal was written in plain English and not latin, this was because their aim was to make the work accessile for everyone so scientists across Europe could read eacho ther’s research

They had a reference library, the society requested that all members provide a copy of any work or experiments that they submitted as this would be put in the reference library and made available to everybody and anybody to read and study

Ideas, Treatments and Preventions

God and Sin

Still taught by the church, but by the end of this period most people recognised that God did not send the disease, however during epidemics, people were so frightened that they did believe God had sent it as a punishment.

They still believed and taught in prayers, fasting and avoiding sin to treat disease, however they no longer used Catholic practises such as Catholic mass or pilgrimages, this is because England had become a Protestant country. Some people did still belive in the kings touch though.

To prevent disease, they prayed, avoided sin and repented but there were no flagellants as that was a catholic practise.

Four humours

Physicians stopped believing in unbalanced humours as it was completely disproved by 1700, however ordinary people still followed it and expected their physicians to use it when they went to see them, people believed that people were born with a strong or weak constitution which meant some were more likely to get unwell than others.

There were still some treatment being used that was associated with the four humurs theory, such as, purging, however, new chemical treatments were being used e.g. antimony in a small dose could cause sweating but in a large does would cause vomiting, bloodletting was still used as well as herbal remedies were used.

There was a new prevention idea of having a balanced lifestyle, this meant stopping yourself from getting unwell by avoiding the cols, strong alcohol and eating rich and fatty foods

Miasma

Still widely believed during 1400-1700, it was especially popular during epidemics like the great plague

To prevent, hygiene was very important, but public bathing had stopped as it associating with a nasty sexually transmitted disease, syphilis, so instead people kept clean by rubbing themselves with lining and changing clothes regularly, some people used regiment sanitatis given to them by physicians if they could afford it, and people kept a clean home decorated with sweet smelling herbs, people tried to keep streets clean as they were smelly.

Contagion - new!

This was the idea that seeds in the air caused disease, this was a rational belief as it used evidence

The was also associate with he belief that certain conditions of weather spread disease, and this was very popular, people used thermometers to record weather conditions

The only prevention was to move away from an area with a disease.

Ideas that were no longer used:

Astrology - became less popular after 1500

Digestion - the idea that diet could cause disease

New treatments:

Herbal remedies - some doctors matched the colour of the disease to the colour of the herbal remedy e.g. saffron for jaundice

Transference - the idea that you could transfer the illness to another object e.g. rubbing a wart with an onion

New remedies from the new world (North and South America) - cinchona park from Peru was used by Thomas Sydenham to treat Malaria.

Thomas Sydenham

He did not follow the work of Galen and the Hippocrates, instead he believed that disease came from outside the body

He did not follow medical books when diagnosing patients, instead he believed in closely observing symptoms and encouraged others to do the same

He treated the disease as a whole rather that individual symptoms and he believed that diseases could be classified.

He encouraged doctors to use herbal remedies to treat disease and he believed that the nature of the patient had little to do with their illness.

He helped set up the foundation of more scientific approach to medicine.

Healers and medical care:

Physicians

University educated, expensive

most were still trained using books and not practicals, however, some universities offered dissection as it was now legal more fashionablealthough it was difficult to get bodies for them.

Apothecaries

Still mixed remedies using herbal manuals, and were cheaper than physicians

They had new chemicals, sourced from the new world, and they had to have a licence

Surgeons

performed simple operation such as bloodletting, they were cheaper than physicians, they also had new techniques developed in war, they had to have a license.

Hospitals

They were still funded by charities, no longer run by the church

they admitted more infectious patients and provided medication and physicians

there were also special types of hospitals called pest houses where they would admit contagious people, e.g. plague and pox,

Home

where most people would receive medical care, often from women who would grow and mix their own herbs

many women acted as midwives and poor women sold their remedies in town

The plague 1665

London was badly hit and 100,00 died (20%) there were some new treatments for it but they didn’t stop it.

Ideas - Miasma (most popular), punishment from God, position of planets(not as popular), other believed it was a contagion

Treatments - transference (attaching live chickens to buboes), herbal remedies, making patients sweat, quack remedies

preventions - prayer, walking around with posies, smoking tobacco to clear air around, quarantines, banning public gatherings, cleaning streets to remove miasma, catching syphilis first to be protected.