Medicine Flashcards
What did Galen believe?
The Four Humours theory - illness was caused by an imbalance in blood, black bile, yellow bile and water. The “hot” humours cause sweating, and the “cold” humours cause depression.
Why were Galen’s ideas popular?
They were popular because they were fitted with Christian ideas - they referred to God as the “creator”. The population was very religious at the time, so they agreed with this.
What was alchemy?
They searched for the “elixir” of life. They tried to change base metals into gold. They were monks and priests (well-educated). They produced hydrochloric acid and nitric acid.
Why were zodiac charts important?
Doctors believed the movement of the stars educated people. By the 1500s, the European physicians had to calculate the position of the moon before carrying out surgery. Each part of the body had a certain sign. Procedures were only safe at certain times.
How did the medieval church influence medical knowledge?
Nobody went against the Church. It was central to people’s lives, and they encouraged people to pray for deliverance from illness, forgiveness, and to prepare for the afterlife. They thought going on a pilgrimage to a holy shrine would cure you.
What was a positive influence of the church on medical knowledge?
They set up schools of medicine, where it would take 10 years to train.
What was a negative influence of the church on medical knowledge?
Many texts arrived in Arabic, based on Galen’s writing. Galen’s writing was based on animals, so it was not tailored to human bodies.
What happened to Roger Bacon for going against the church?
He was a lecturer at Oxford University, who was arrested around 1277 for spreading anti-church views.
What did William Harvey do?
He published On the Motion of the Heart in 1627. He experimented on animals and he discovered the circulation of blood. He worked on cold-blooded amphibians since their blood circulates slowly, he proved the heart worked as a pump in a one-way system. He showed Galen was wrong - the heart was the centre of the body, not the liver.
What was the reaction to William Harvey’s work?
Capillaries were only observed 60 years later, and Galen’s conservative supporters rejected his ideas as it challenged ancient, religious texts.
What did Andreas Vesalius do?
He thought anatomy was the key to understanding the body. He published On the fabric of the human body in 1543. The Church didn’t allow the dissection of humans, so he took bodies from graves and gallows.
What did Ambroise Pare do?
At the Siege of Milan in 1536, during the Italian War, he ran out of hot oil for cauterising wounds. He used a mixture of egg yolk, turpentine and oil, which was more effective and less painful. He used ligatures to tie off after amputation instead of cauterising and found wounds healed faster.
What did Louis Pasteur do?
He was the first to establish the link between germs and disease, arguing that micro-organisms were responsible for diseases, and that effective vaccines could targeted thee. His first work was on chicken cholera, and this lead to the 1880 rabies vaccine.
What did Robert Koch do?
He linked particular germs to diseases, developing bacteriology. He identified the ballicus that caused TB and cholera. He also developed a dye to stain bacteria.
What did Paul Erlich do?
He developed Salvarsan 606 in 1910, the first effective treatment for syphilis. He designed “magic bullets”, carefully designed drugs targeting specific germs that had no effect on the rest of the body.
