Medicine in the Early Modern Age Flashcards
How did the development of new ideas during the renaissance lead to some medical progress?
- The reformation challenged the religion status quo - led individuals to question important aspects of their life such as the role of science and God
- Invention of the microscope - helped scientists and doctors to make and explain discoveries
- Creation of Caxton’s printing press - allowed ideas to spread quickly across Britain and Europe
- English people had become wealthier since the black death and spent more on education - improved literary rates increased the number of people accessing new scientific ideas
Why was progress in the renaissance limited?
Progress was limited as the cause of disease remained unknown
How did Vesalius improve the understanding of human anatomy?
- Vesalius dissected humans instead of animals. This gave him accurate knowledge of human anatomy and allowed him to prove that Galen was wrong in a number of ways
- Vesalius worked with skilled artists to ensure that his findings on the human anatomy were accurately documentary and easy for others to learn from
- In 1543 he published anatomical drawings in his book ‘On the fabric of the human body’
How did Pare use scientific method to improve treatments and surgery
- Pare was a french army surgeon for 20yrs, by experimented on wounded soldiers he discovered better ways to prevent bleeding
- Hot oil had long been used to seal wounds. Once, he ran out of oil and used his own mixture of egg yolk, turpentine and oil of roses which worked better
- To prevent bleeding after an amputation, he used ligatures to tie wound instead of cauterising them and this had a higher success rate
How did Harvey discover the circulation of blood which challenged previously accepted ideas?
- Since Harvey held important posts such as being doctor to king James and King Charles he was in a strong position to influence medical ideas in Britain
- Harvey discovered and proved that veins in the body had valves and that blood was pumped round the body by the heart beating constantly
- Harvey’s theory challenged Galen who taught that the liver produced blood as Harvey proved that the liver did not produce blood.
- This discovery questioned the value of the popular treatment of bleeding
Describe how people used old and new treatments
- Many doctors were reluctant to accept that Galen was wrong, so they continued to use similar treatments to the middle ages such as bloodletting and purging
- Doctors were still very expensive, so people still used other healers such as apothecaries or barber surgeons
- Superstitious and religion were still important - people thought the kings touch could cure scrofula
- Quackery
Similarities of the responses to The Great Plague (1665) to The Black death (1348)
- Many treatments for thee great plague were based on supernatural ideas, including wearing amulets and prayer
- Miasma theory - bad air was blamed, so streets were cleaned and posies carried
- Bloodletting was still used
Differences of the responses to The Great Plague (1665) to The Black death (1348)
Town and parish councils tried to stop the disease’s spread:
-Watchmen - prevented people entering and leaving infected houses to try and stop the infection from spreading
- It was observed that death rates were higher in poorer dirtier places, so areas where people crowded together were closed
- Bodies of plague victims were buried in mass graves away from houses
How did hospitals change?
- Most hospitals were funded by rich people through donations, legacies or private subscriptions. Church’s role in funding reduced
- In 1741 Thomas coren raised money to open the foundling hospital in London. It supported and educated vulnerable children until the age of 15. Demand was greater than places available
- Some aspects of hospital provision continued from the middle ages. For example nurses continued to be untrained and unskilled
- Hospitals continued to provide care for the most vulnerable
How did the establishment of royal colleges improved the training and status off surgeons and doctors?
1600: Royal college for physicians established
1700: Half of all practising physician had served an apprenticeship
1800: Royal college of Surgeons established. It examined a surgeons practising within 7 miles of London
1811: Compulsory for all surgeons to attend a one year course in anatomy before the qualified as a surgeon
1813: Surgeons had to work for at least one year in a hospital to qualify
How did doctor’s training and knowledge begin to improve in the renaissance?
- New weapons like guns and cannons we used in war. This meant surgeons had to treat injuries they hadn’t seen before, forcing them to quickly find new treatments.
- Explorations abroad brought new ingredients fro drugs back to England - quinine drug for malaria from cinchona tree
- Dissections became a key part of medical training in the 1700s
How did Florence Nightingale improve nursing standards?
Nightingale brought discipline and professionalism to a job that had a bad reputation at the time.
From a wealthy background, she became a nurse despite the opposition of her family.
Went out to the Crimean War to sort out nursing care in the English camp.
She made huge improvements in the death rate, due to improvements in ward hygiene.
When she returns home, she writes a book ‘Notes on Nursing’ and sets up a hospital in London.where nurses are given 3 years of training before they could qualify
In the 1700s what was widely used to prevent smallpox?
- Smallpox was greatly feared as it caused death, blindness and scarring
- Inoculation involved giving a low dose of smallpox to make a person immune to the disease
- Lady Montagu introduced it to England in 1721 and it became popular
Edward Jenner and vaccination
Jenner was a country doctor. He heard that milkmaids didn’t get smallpox, but instead a milder cowpox.
Jenner investigated and discovered people who had already had cowpox didn’t get smallpox.
In 1796 he took a small boy and injected him with pus from the sores of a milkmaid with cowpox.It gave James immunity against smallpox -became known as vaccination
Jenner was unable to explain why vaccination worked but it worked so well that the government made it compulsory
Why did vaccination face opposition?
- Inoculation doctors opposed it a sit threatened their business
- Many people thought that it was wrong to inject cowpox into humans
–Some saw smallpox as a punishment form God and believed prevention interfered with God’s will
-The Anti Compulsory Vaccination league was set up in 1866. it argued that it was the right of parents to decide if their children were vaccinated
