Health and Medicine During The Renaissance / Early Modern Period (1500 - 1750) Flashcards
What does the word Renaissance mean?
Rebirth
How did ‘the Reformation’ help to improve health and medicine during the Renaissance?
It forced hospitals to hire trained people who were not Monks or Nuns
How did the ‘Printing Press’ help to improve health and medicine during the Renaissance?
Made the publication of books easier, faster and cheaper so new ideas were spread much more quickly
How did the Microscope help to improve health and medicine during the Renaissance?
It allowed scientists and medical men to look at things in more detail.
Who was Andreas Vesalius? Why was he important to the development of health and medicine during the Renaissance?
- He dissected the human body
- Published a book called the ‘Fabric of the Human Body’
- Changed people’s views on anatomy
- People started to believe him and other’s instead of Galen
His book was used to teach in Uni instead of Galen
What was the name of the book Vesalius wrote? When did he write it?
‘Fabric of the Human Body’
1543
Who was Ambriose Pare? Why was he important to the development of health and medicine during the Renaissance?
- Found a more effective way of cauterising wounds.
- He used ligatures to tie off wounds after amputation
- Helped develop artificial limbs such as hands and arms.
Who was William Harvey? Why was he important to the development of health and medicine during the Renaissance?
- Discovered how the circulatory system worked
- The heart was the centre of the body, not the liver, and it acted as a pump that moved blood around the body
- Realised it was impossible to have too much blood
- Proved Galen wrong
- Followed blood flow in someone’s forearm
- Tried to pump liquid the wrong way though veins and couldn’t
- Looked at lizards as they are cold-blooded so their heart beats more slowly
What was the name of the book Harvey wrote? When did he write it?
‘Motion of The Heart’
1628
Who was Thomas Sydenham? Why was he important to the development of health and medicine during the Renaissance?
- Created detailed descriptions of patients illnesses
- Encouraged doctors to form their own educated guess on what’s wrong with the patient
- Believed each disease had a separate and unique treatment
- Was the first person to write the description of Scarlet Fever
- Believed in leaving the body to fight as much of the illness alone as possible.
What did Edward Jenner discover and when?
Vaccinations
1796 - experiment
1798 - published findings
1802 - Acknowledged by parliament
What are vaccinations?
Using the dead or inactive germs of a disease or one similar to build up an immunity against a stronger form of the disease
What does inoculation mean?
Involved giving a healthy person a mild dose of the disease.
Dried scabs were scratched into the skin or blown up their nose to build up a resistance.
Who was Alexander Gordon? Why was he important to the development of health and medicine during the Renaissance?
- Realised that women treated by wise-women or midwives were less likely to get child bed fever than those treated by doctors.
- Noticed that hygiene stopped or slowed the spread of disease.
Who was John Hunter? Why was he important to the development of health and medicine during the Renaissance?
- Believed that as much healing should be left to the body as possible
- Spent a lot of time dissecting bodies which resulted in him being accused of ‘burking’
- Became known as the Father of Scientific Surgery
Why was surgery still so dangerous during the Renaissance?
- Never washed their surgical gowns as the more blood on it showed experience and was considered a badge of honour
- Didn’t use anaesthetic, instead used wine and opium, but incorrect dosages caused many deaths
- For most of the period, many still learnt from and followed Galen
What was ‘Quackery’ (quack cures)?
- People selling fake cures to the public knowing they didn’t work.
- Claimed they cured ‘everything’
- Mainly made of opium and alcohol.
What were hospitals like during the Renaissance?
- A lot were shut down after Henry 8th shut down all the monasteries.
- Those that continued to be used were owned by councils but still only cared for the elderly and poor.
How did public health improve during the Renaissance compared to the Middle Ages?
- They had ‘Rakers’ that would clean the streets
- The Great Fire of London cause all streets to be built wider
- Isolation was enforced when the Plague came around
- Henry 8th passed a law that banned slaughter houses in towns and cities
- He also allowed councils to impose tax to pay for sewers
Why was public health still very bad during the Renaissance?
- They never built the sewers
- There were multiple outbreaks of the plague
- Before 1750, the connection between dirt and disease had not been made.
- Gin had become a huge social and health problem.
When did the Great Plague happen?
1665
How many people did the Great Plague kill?
Over 100,000
What did people believe caused the Great Plague?
- Miasma
- God
- Movement of planets
- Humours
- Rotting waste
What did people do to try to prevent or get rid of the Plague?
- Quarantine
- Burn barrels of tar in the streets
- Chewed or smoked tobacco
- Burnt or smelt strong smelling herbs
- Dogs and cats were ordered to be killed
- Prayer
- Drank Plague Water, a quack cure
