Approaches to prevention and treatment Flashcards
What were continuities in prevention and treatment of disease?
Herbal remedies. The slight change was they became more exotic; coffee and cinchona bark was used for the first time.
Bleeding, sweating and purging remained popular treatments even as people lost faith in the idea of the Four Humours.
People still linked herbal treatments to the colour of humour. E.g. Yellow herbs were used to treat jaundice and red wine was used as a treatment for Smallpox.
The Regimen Santiatis was still followed but became less popular towards the end of the Renaissance.
What treatment and care in the community continued from Medieval times?
Before 1536, hospitals still offered a good diet and visits from a physician and/or apothecary.
How did treatment and care change?
People experimented with the arrival of coffee to cure depression and constipation.
In the second half of the Renaissance, people began to experiment with medical chemistry.
The Pharmacopoeia Londinensis published in 1618 included details on 122 chemical treatments including mercury and antimony, which was shown to cool the body down if given in small doses.
Pest Houses replaced Monastery Hospitals after 1536. Many towns and cities had one or more pesthouses accompanied by a cemetery or a waste pond nearby for disposal of the dead.
Upper class people far preferred treatment at home. Lady Grace Mildmay became famous for her home curing remedies.
What improvements were made in medical training?
Physicians were contracted to hospitals where they would visit patients and even, now, prescribe cures. This represented a change from Medieval times when they would have diagnosed patients but not prescribed treatments.
Physicians retrieved better training in universities and used more detailed textbooks that covered detailed descriptions of the human body and new forms of treatments such as medical chemistry.
From the 17th century onwards, learning became more hands-on and less about learning from ancient books.
What was the influence of the work of Vesalius?
Vesalius published “The Fabric of the Human Body” in 1543 which demonstrated the correct structure of the muscles, ligaments and bones in the human body. He corrected the mistakes Galen had made in Ancient times.
