Medical Renaissance Flashcards
What was the Renaissance
Cultural movement where people questioned accepted truths and experimented with new ideas
The Medical Renaissance refers to…
A period when new ideas were beginning to influence medicine
Between which years was the Renaissance period
1500-1700
Which event in 1533 reduced the influence of the Church?
The English Reformation
What was humanism?
Movement that promoted a return to classical thinking and extending human knowledge + understanding of the world
What cause of disease did physicians no longer believe in, but the public did?
Four Humours
Who created microscopes, allowing first bacteria sighting?
Antony van Leeuwenhoek
What was bacteria initially referred to?
Animalcules
What was Thomas Sydenham’s nickname?
The English Hippocrates
What 2 things did Sydenham suggest were important when diagnosing?
Closely observing the symptoms
Treating the disease that caused them
Which two diseases did Sydenham identify as separate diseases?
Measles and scarlet fever
Which textbook did Sydenham publish?
Observationes Medicae
Sydenham’s textbook became the standard medical textbook for how long?
Two centuries
When was the printing press invented?
1440
When was the Royal Society formed?
1660
What did King Charles II give the Royal Society in 1662?
A royal charter
Why was the royal charter important for the Royal Society?
Gave them credibility
What was the name of the scientific journal the Royal Society published?
Philosophical Transactions
What was transference?
New renaissance treatment that believed a disease could be moved on to something else
During the Renaissance many new herbs came from where?
New World / the Americas
The growth of alchemy, led by _____, led to which type of treatments?
Paracelsus
Chemical cures
Why did people take small doses of antimony?
To sweat
Why did bathing become less popular?
Syphilis had spread through bathhouses
What happened to homeowners that didn’t clean the street outside their home?
They were fined
What was a punishment for minor criminals, that aimed to prevent miasma?
Removing sewage / cleaning streets
What did surgeons + apothecaries need to practice their trade?
A license
What were apothecaries organised into during their training?
A guild system
What did trainee physicians have more access to?
Medical textbooks
What were individual copies of anatomy pictures called?
Fugitive sheets
Which 1536 event led to the closure of many hospitals?
Dissolution of the monasteries
Which new type of hospital catered only for people suffering from plague?
Plague houses
How many errors did Vesalius find in Galen’s work on anatomy?
300
When did Andreas Vesalius publish his book?
1543
What was Vesalius’s book called?
On the Fabric of the Human Body
Why was Vesalius able to carry out lots of human dissections?
He was able to use the bodies of executed criminals
What did Vesalius discover about the jawbone?
It was one bone not two
Who disproved Galen’s work on the circulatory system?
William Harvey
Which piece of technology inspired research on the heart?
Mechanical water pumps
Why did better anatomical understanding have a limited impact?
Didn’t affect causes or treatments; was purely theoretical
When did the Great Plague arrive in England?
1665
How many died of the Great Plague in London?
100,000
What method was used to treat the plague by those who believed in transference?
Strapping a chicken to the buboes
Why did physicians wear masks full of herbs during the Great Plague?
To protect against miasma
What type of fake doctor took advantage of the plague by selling fake cures?
Quack doctor
Which three animals did the government order to be killed to prevent the spread of the plague?
Cats, dogs and pigeons :(
What impacts did the printing press have?
Information more widely available and books became cheaper
Increased literacy rates
Church no longer controlled books
Who was Thomas Sydenham?
A well respected doctor in London in the 1660s and 1670s
Sydenham theorised that diseases could be organised into…
Different groups
Sydenham encouraged his students to…
Observe their patients
Create detailed records of symptoms
Treat the disease identified - treatments not based on the humours
What was Sydenham’s approach to treating smallpox, instead of the popular “sweating” method?
Prescribed airy bedrooms, light blankets and cold drinks
What treatment for malaria did Sydenham popularise?
Cinchona bark
(Contains quinine which is still used to treat malaria today)
What was the aim of the Royal Society?
To promote and carry out experiments to further the understanding of science
What was the Royal Society’s motto?
“Nullius in verba”
(“Take nobody’s word for it”)
The Royal Society offered funding for…
And encouraged it’s members to write their reports in…
Translations of European scientific texts
English not Latin, and in straightforward language to make it accessible
Herbal remedies continued to be popular - how did their use change slightly?
Chosen for their colour or shape
Eg yellow herbs like saffron used to treat jaundice
What was the standard treatment for syphilis and who was it popularised by?
Mercury (despite being toxic)
Paracelsus
Why did surgeons still have a low success rate?
Continued problems of infection, blood loss and pain
Explain why there were changes in the way ideas about the causes of illness were communicated in the period
You may use: the printing press, the Royal Society
Paragraph 1: changes due to printing press becoming widely used, ideas could be spread quickly + freely, scientists could build on each others’ ideas
Paragraph 2: creation of Royal Society encouraged scientists / doctors to prove and disprove ideas, doctors able to theorise about possible causes
Paragraph 3: key figure eg Vesalius, Harvey, Sydenham
How did treatments change or remain the same in the Renaissance period
Public still believed in 4 humours, many treatments still including bleeding, purging or sweating
Herbal remedies still popular, but now chosen for colour or shape
New herbal remedies from America
New idea - transference
How did alchemy develop in the Renaissance period
People began to look for chemical cures
Inspired by Paracelsus who experimented with metals as cures
How was miasma prevented in the Renaissance period
Homeowners had to clean streets
Projects to drain swamps / bogs
Removing sewage and cleaning up litter was done by minor criminals
Bathing less popular (syphilis)
How did medical care improve during the Renaissance period
Education for apothecaries and surgeons increased
Battlefield wounds meant more surgery was necessary
Surgeons and apothecaries needed a license
Why did surgeons still have a low success rate
Infection, blood loss and pain
Why were physicians now allowed to dissect
Legalised due to decline in church’s power - but still difficult to get supply of corpses
How did hospitals change in the early 16th century
Records show people went with wounds / curable diseases and left soon, suggesting they got better
Physicians visited hospitals
Why did number of hospitals decrease after 1536
Henry VIII disbanded monasteries and convents
When did Vesalius publish On The Fabric of the Human Body
1543
How did Vesalius contribute to medicine
Carried out dissections
Discovered the jawbone was one bone
Found 300 mistakes in Galen’s work
Wrote that anatomy professors should carry out dissections
Why was Vesalius controversial
Many traditional physicians were angry he’d criticised Galen
They said the differences he’d found were down to changes in the human body since Galen’s time
What were Harvey’s contributions to medicine
Taught his students to observe the body rather than believing classical texts
Challenged / disproved Galen’s ideas about blood and circulation
Used human dissection and observed heartbeats of cold blooded animals
Questioned value of bloodletting
What was Harvey’s book called and when was it published
On the Motion of the Heart and Blood
1628
What was the most immediate impact of Harvey’s theories
Encouraged other scientists to experiment on real bodies
Why did Harvey’s work not have much impact on treatments
It was not practically useful but laid foundation for future discoveries
When did the Great Plague break out in Britain
1665
How many people in London were killed by the Great Plague
100,000 - a fifth of the city’s population
What were the believed causes of the Great Plague
Unusual alignment of planets in 1664
Punishment from God
Most popular theory was miasma
What treatments were used during the Great Plague
Quarantining households with plague
Patients were wrapped in thick cloth and laid by a fire to sweat the disease out
Transference - eg strapping a live chicken to a buboe
Prayer
What prevention methods were used during the Great Plague
Wealthy people may move to countryside to avoid catching plague
Prayer and repentance
Various diets suggested
Pomanders carried to prevent miasma
What was different in the government’s approach to the plague vs the black death
More organised governmental approach
Plague victims and their families quarantined for 28 days (with watchmen)
Bodies buried in mass plague pits
Mass events eg plays or games banned
Trade stopped
Cats, dogs and pigeons killed
How did the Great Plague end
The rats developed resistance to the disease so their fleas didn’t need to find human hosts
How many hospitals were left at the end of the Renaissance period
5
