Medicine- Early Modern

Question 1

What did the invention of the printing press enable?

Answer 1

when new ideas were written down, they could quickly be copied many times and communicated to people across Europe.

Question 2

What did Vesalius specialise in?

Answer 2

anatomy

Question 3

What did Vesalius do?

Answer 3

• performed many dissections- to find out how the body worked
• Proved Galen wrong - (i.e. found out the human jaw is made from 1 bone not 2)
• 1543- wrote “the fabric of the human body” which had very accurate, detailed facts and drawings

Question 4

Why was Vesalius significant?

Answer 4

• He proved Galen wrong, inspiring others to question him
• The accuracy and detail of his book helped future surgeons

Question 5

What did Pare do?

Answer 5

• Ran out of hot oil when working on the battlefield. Instead of cauterising wounds he made a mixture of rose oil, egg yolk and turpentine, which led to faster, less painful healing
• Used Galen’s ideas and used ligatures to tie blood vessels to stop bleeding

Question 6

Why was Pare significant?

Answer 6

• showed that new methods, such as his ointment, could be more successful than ideas that had been followed for centuries
• In the longer term, ligatures would be useful. However, fully implementing them required the discovery of germ theory, allowing them to be sterilised

Question 7

What was a problem of Pare using ligatures?

Answer 7

There was no knowledge of Germ Theory, so they were often unclean, leading to infection

Question 8

What did Harvey do?

Answer 8

• Dissected frogs, which showed that blood is pumped around the body by the heart, not burned up by the body, as Galen said
• Discovered role of valves in blood vessels
• Wrote “An anatomical account of the motion of the heart and blood”
• Physician to James I

Question 9

Why was Harvey significant?

Answer 9

• it was another example (after Vesalius) of Galen’s work being proved to be incorrect. This encouraged other doctors to continue to question and challenge ancient ideas.
• led to doctors attempting blood transfusions

Question 10

What was surgery like at this time?

Answer 10

• Not a lot known about preventing infection
• No reliable pain relief, although wine and opium were used. However wrong amounts could be fatal
• Training was more formal, John Hunter trained many surgeons
• Royal College of Surgeons- prevented people practising surgery without a license. 1811- they had to do 1 course in anatomy and 1 in surgery. 1813- had to have 1 year experience in hospital

Question 11

What did Jenner do?

Answer 11

In 1796, Jenner took cowpox pus from a milkmaid, Sarah Nelmes, and smeared it into a small cut in the arm of eight-year-old James Phipps. Phipps became mildly ill with cowpox. Next, Jenner gave Phipps pus from a smallpox victim and James did not become ill.

Question 12

Why were Jenner’s ideas opposed?

Answer 12

• Some members of the Church believed that disease was sent by God, so the vaccine interfered with God’s will.
• The vaccine worked by giving people an animal disease. Some people felt that this was not safe and that vaccinated people would grow horns.
• Jenner did not know about germs. Because of this, he could not fully explain how his vaccine worked.

Question 13

Why was Jenner significant?

Answer 13

Jenner’s vaccine meant people could be protected against a deadly disease.

Question 14

What were hospitals like?

Answer 14

• There was an increasing number of hospitals in the 17th and 18th centuries.
• The monasteries had been closed down so towns needed to open hospitals to take their place.

Question 15

What were the treatments in hospitals?

Answer 15

usually based on the four humours, so bloodletting and purging were common.

Question 16

What were quack doctors?

Answer 16

Quack doctors were unqualified and often claimed to be selling miracle cures. They sold potions that supposedly contained all kinds of mysterious ingredients. These remedies did nothing to help people recover.

Question 17

Who was John Hunter?

Answer 17

Army surgeon who made major contribution to surgical knowledge and advanced scientific methods. He used animal and human dissection to make discoveries about infections, cancer, blood circulation and the nature of different diseases.

Question 18

What was significant about treatments?

Answer 18

New ingredients and herbs became more available due to an increase in global trade. Vaccines also a big success.

Question 19

What did the government do about the plague?

Answer 19

• introduced a quarantine for all ships coming into London.
• If a household contained someone infected with the plague, the people were locked inside and a red cross was painted on their door.
• Searchers were employed to walk the streets, enter plague houses and identify the cause of death.
• Ordered cats and dogs to
  be killed.
• people were ordered to light fires in the streets to create smoke to mask the miasma

Question 20

what did people believe caused the plague?

Answer 20

Miasma, the four humours and God were still believed to be the main possible causes

Question 21

what were “cures” for the plague?

Answer 21

Bloodletting and purging were widely used, showing that the four humours were still believed to cause disease.

Question 22

What impact did the plague have?

Answer 22

The Black Death of 1348-1349 killed more people than the Great Plague of 1665-1666.
This was in part due to a more organised government response in 1665-1666.
There have been no more significant plague outbreaks since 1665-1666.

Question 23

What did plague doctors wear?

Answer 23

leather cloaks and masks containing herbs, to avoid them smelling the streets.
gloves and hats so none of their skin was exposed to the air.

Question 24

Why was Hunter significant?

Answer 24

responsible for the training of other doctors. These included Jenner.

keen to encourage other surgeons to follow careful scientific methods when developing their practice. He argued that this would help surgeons to improve their methods and lead to better outcomes for patients.

Hunter wrote several books, including The Natural History of the Human Teeth. These helped other doctors to learn from Hunter’s scientific method.