Health and the People: 1500-1800 Early Modern Flashcards
When was the Early Modern Period?
Approx. 1500-1800 Overlapping periods the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason.
What trends and factors were active in this period?
Globalization, travel & discovery, colonization and empire, trading economies (mercantilism), The Protestant Reformation questioning religion, experimental science, technology including printing, nation states with centralised secular governments.
What was the Renaissance?
‘Rebirth’ – the period after the middle ages focused on a rediscovery of classical learning and values from art to science.
Who wrote the anatomy textbook ‘The Fabric of the Human Body’ in 1543?
Andreas Vesalius
Whose theories did the scientific approach of Renaissance doctors challenge?
Galen
What techniques were developed by the French barber surgeon Ambroise Paré?
Wound dressing and ligatures instead of cauterization
What did William Harvey discover?
That blood circulated around the body, veins contained valves and the heart was a pump. ‘On the Motion of the Heart’ was published in 1628
When were the first microscopes invented?
1590
What is a bezoar stone?
A stone from the stomach of a goat that was believed to be an antidote for all poisons. Pare did an experiment that proved it did not but it was still used in medicine for decades after.
When was the Great Plague?
1665
How many people died of the Plague in London?
About 15%. 68,596 deaths were recorded in the city, the true number was probably over 100,000.
Where were the earliest cases of the Plague in London 1665?
A parish outside the city walls called St Giles-in-the-Fields.
What time of year did the plague deaths peak?
The hot summer months
Who left London during the plague?
Anyone who could; King Charles II, lawyers, merchants, doctors.
What were some of the methods of Plague prevention issued by the King and Lord Mayor?
Quarantine, watchmen, searchers, marked infected houses, food provision, restriction of trade and movement, certificates of health, no public gatherings, fires and fumes to correct the bad air, no rotten food, burn infected clothes and possessions, fumigate houses.
