Impact Of The Renaissance On Medicine In Britain Flashcards
What was the Renaissance period?
Where people began to learn new things causing the church to loose their grip over people and medicine to start advancing after the 1400s
For Vesalius:
What was his discovery?
How did it challenge previous medical knowledge?
- Discovered organs in the human body and the anatomy was different to that of animals
- challenged previous knowledge as dissections actually were important and anatomy was key to knowing how the body worked
For paré:
What was his discovery?
How did it challenge previous medical knowledge?
- Discovered rose oil, egg white and turpentine cauterised wounds better than hot oil
- challenges previous knowledge as it wasn’t always necessary to burn a wound to cauterise it
For William Harvey:
What was his discovery?
How did it challenge previous medical knowledge?
- discovered that blood circulated the body and was driven by the heart
- challenged the belief of Galen that blood was constantly made in the liver as a fuel fast was burned in the body
For John Hunter:
What was his discovery?
How did it challenge previous medical knowledge?
Discovered the nature of disease, infection, cancer and circulation of the blood. He also trained surgeons
Challenges previous knowledge as dissections were important in helping him discover new things and tech other surgeons as well
For Edward Jenner:
What was his discovery?
How did it challenge previous medical knowledge?
Discovered the vaccine against small pox using cow pox
Challenged previous ideas as medieval people believed god diseased someone as a punishment and gift and curing/preventing disease went against this
For Thomas guys hospital,
What happened here?
How did it challenge previous medical knowledge?
Here, patients were cured and doctors there received training in med schools attached to the hospital
Challenged previous knowledge as people no longer had to pay for treatment as private people supported it
How did Vesalius make a change from medieval medicine?
He taught with dissections and his book (de humani Corporis fabrica) has information and diagrams from scientific observation
How did Vesalius proved Galen wrong and advanced medicine
-Dissected animals to show how Galen gained knowledge e.g. showing humans had a breastbone with 3 parts rather than 7 like the ape
Give 2 reasons oppositions were faced by Vesalius
He said Galen was wrong along with other well respected anatomists
Because when Vesalius tried to prove he was right to doctord who wanted to believe Galen, they would blame the body being dissected by Vesalius or that it may have changed since galens time
Give 2 impacts Vesalius made on medicine
-A book of all Vesalius illustrations (Compendiosa) was published in England to be used as a manual for barber surgeons in London
-he promoted human dissection for students to learn from in the future
So that people like fabricius and fallopius used dissection to learn about certain body parts
How did paré change the way bleeding in wounds was stopped?
By using ligatures to tie of the veins instead of cauterisation
What was an issue with paré’s ligature method?
Germs could still easily get into the wound through the ligatures and spread infection
How were ligatures themselves significant?
As the three main problems people tried to deal with were bleeding, infection and pain and ligatures dealt with bleeding
How was paré himself significant?
As people tried to deal with bleeding, infection and pain and paré dealt with both pain and bleeding as ligatures hurt less than cauterisation
Give 2 ligature methods of paré
- tied a ligature around individual blood vessels
- designed the bec de corbin to halt bleeding while the blood vessel was being tied of by the ligature
state paré’s method when it came to dealing with gunshot wounds. How did this benefit?
He used rose oil, egg white and turpentine over gunshot wounds when he ran out of hot oil. This caused patients much less pain and the wound healed quicker
State parés most significant impact he made and provide explanation
He translated vesalius’ writing into French and his books circulated around all of Europe. This is significant because it meant people were exposed to his work at a massive scale influencing hundreds of other doctors who could now understand vesalius’s writings
Explain the impact the charter house plague pit made on historians
They made historians realise that there were 2 outbreaks of the plague and that many of the skeletons affected had signs of malnutrition; 16% had tickets suggesting Black Death victims were already ill
What was galen’s belief about blood?
That it was part of the four humours, it was produced in the liver and there was 2 kinds of blood
What did William Harvey believe about blood?
He believed there was only one blood type in the body that’s circulating constantly and goes through the heart, changing colour when it gets oxygenated then deoxygenated
Why is William Harvey’s believe about blood significant?
As he directly contradicted Galen causing him to loose his job as royal physician and his research got stolen
Why didn’t people believe William Harvey?
As his ideas directly contradicted Galen and he was a surgeon which was considered a bad job
Give 3 examples of opposition faced by Harvey
- his critics thought he was mad to think blood circulated the body when he first published his findings
- Harvey couldn’t explain why blood was a different colour in the arteries to the veins
How did Harvey contradict the four humours?
As his idea of circulation challenged bleeding as a cure which meant it was impossible to have too much blood and was out of line with the four humours
Give 3 methods Harvey used to make his discoveries
- Dissection of the heart
- observed slow beating hearts of cold blooded animals to see how muscles worked
- tried to pump liquid through the valves the wrong way proving blood could only go one way
When did Harvey’s findings begin to make an impact?
50 years later when the university of Paris began teaching it to its medical students
Who was Thomas Sydenham?
Considered the English Hippocrates. He believed diseases had different characteristics and each had a unique treatment.
He advised physicians to build up knowledge based on experience by carefully monitoring symptoms and treatment
