The Great Plague, Harvey and Pare

Bubonic plague terrorized Europe for centuries, with a significant epidemic striking England in 1665.
The official death toll in London for that year was 68,595, but the actual figure is estimated to be closer to 100,000, representing approximately one-fifth of the city's population.
The plague's arrival in London was not sudden; reports of cases had been circulating for over a year prior to the outbreak.
Wealthy individuals had the means to leave the city, increasing their chances of survival, while the poor found it more difficult to escape the cramped and unsanitary conditions that facilitated the disease's spread.
Houses where plague cases were identified were supposed to be sealed for 40 days, with the family confined inside, the door marked with a cross, and guarded by watchmen. However, fear of being locked in with the dying led many to conceal early cases.

Fever
Delirium
Painful swelling of lymph nodes in the neck, armpits, and groin (buboes)
Vomiting
Muscle cramps
Coughing up blood
Death typically occurred within a week of the first symptoms. Individuals could transmit the disease during the initial symptom-free period.

The peak of the epidemic occurred during the week of September 19-26, 1665, with 7,165 plague deaths recorded in London.
London appeared deserted, grass grew on the streets of Whitehall, and the court relocated to Oxford.
The keeping of dogs, cats, and other domestic animals was banned in the city, resulting in the destruction of over 4,000 dogs.
Boats ceased sailing on the Thames, and the Navy avoided London.
Porters nightly disposed of piles of corpses in large pits.
Rumors circulated of the bereaved and the ill throwing themselves into the pits alive.
Plague deaths increased rapidly in the spring of 1665; by June, 25% of deaths in London were attributed to the plague, and by August, this figure had risen to 75%.
By early 1666, the number of plague deaths began to decline, and the epidemic was largely over by the summer of 1666.
The last reported case of plague in London was in 1679, marking the end of the plague era that had devastated populations across Europe since the 14th century.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, people attributed the plague to various factors, including the alignment of planets or the appearance of a comet in December 1664.
Medical practitioners believed in the transmission of the illness through bad smells, leading to the use of nosegays and pomanders filled with medicinal herbs.
Some proposed floating a ship of peeled onions down the Thames to counteract the evil odors.
Some people placed their faith in amulets and charms or chewed tobacco to ward off the plague.
The plague was actually caused by infected fleas carried by black rats, a fact that was not discovered for centuries.
Rats were particularly prevalent in the cramped and dirty streets of the capital, where the poorest residents lived.

Circulation means the movement of the blood throughout the body which is caused by the pumping action of the heart.

During the early modern period people knew diseases were infectious and introduced quarantine to protect the uninfected.

Many modern medical treatments such as blood tests, blood transfusions and heart transplants would not be possible unless blood circulation was understood. (NOW)
Some scientists rejected Harvey's ideas because he couldn't prove it as there was no microscope good enough to see tiny capillaries that connect veins to arteries. (THEN)
Professor Marcello Malpighi discovered the capillaries using a microscope. (THEN, NOW)
Blood transfusions were attempted but failed because people didn't know about blood groups, which was later discovered in 1901. (THEN)
Blood letting continued because medical ideas were still based on the balancing of the Four Humours (THEN)
Although people continued to die of disease doctors did eventually learn about the Vesalius theory. (THEN, NOW)
Although Harvey's work wasn't immediately accepted he had in fact proved Galen wrong. (THEN)

Galen believed blood was free to travel anywhere in the body and passed from one side to the other through invisible holes.

Harvey proved that the heart circulated blood in a circle around the body in one direction.
Harvey revealed that the liver doesn't make blood and the heart pumps blood.
People were willing to listen to Harvey because Vesalius had already proved Galen wrong.
Harvey published his findings in the book 'Anatomical Account of Motion in the Heart and Blood in Animals'.

William Harvey (1578-1657) was an English physician who was the first to describe accurately how blood was pumped around the body by the heart. He lived in a scientific age and carried out experiments by dissecting live cold-blooded animals and observing human hearts.

Before Pare gunshot wounds were treated with boiling oil which was extremely painful and ineffective.
Paré discovered by chance that gunshot wounds healed better if they were treated with a 'soothing digestive' of egg yolk and rose oil. This was the first antiseptic cream.
Before Paré, the common way of sealing a wound was cauterisation (using a hot iron) which was extremely painful. Pare used ligatures instead which was invented in the Islamic Caliphate.
Ligatures were material tied to the blood vessel to stop blood loss.
Pare designed the 'crow's beak clamp' to halt bleeding while the blood vessel was being tied off with a ligature.
Unfortunately, ligatures did not reduce the death rate as dirty surgeons' hands and contaminated ligatures caused infections in the wounds being treated.
Paré developed artificial limbs and artificial eyes for injured soldiers.

Paré admired Vesalius' work on anatomy and translated Vesalius' work from Latin to French. This increased surgeons' understanding of anatomy.
Paré encouraged changes in the way surgeons worked, especially with amputations and wounds. He published his discoveries in his book 'Apology and Treatise' which encouraged this.

Paré made the first antiseptic cream. He treated wounds in war in 1537 and ran out of hot oil to clean wounds. He then mixed egg yolk with rose oil and applied it to wounds. This soothed the patient and stopped the spread of bacteria.

Before Vesalius the church had banned dissection of human bodies, Vesalius however stressed that students must explore the inner workings of the human body for themselves, believing that dissections were an important way for students to learn about the body.
Vesalius corrected 200 of Galen's theories.
The Medieval Church only accepted Galens ideas so anyone who wanted to challenge Galen was accused of heresy.
Vesalius's textbook 'Fabric of the Human Body' shows the complex formations of the muscles, nervous system, blood vessels, viscera, brain and skeleton.
Vesalius was able to correct 200 theories of Gallers, for example that jew is comprised of one bone, not wo Salle's animal studies had led him to believe