Medicine- Renaissance Flashcards
Printing Press:
Allowed ideas to be spread further and more quickly around Europe.
What was still holding back discovery on treatment of disease?
The fact that they had not yet discovered that germs played a part in causing disease.
Describe the work of Vesalius:
- Would ransack cemeteries for bones and bodies to dissect.
- Discovered spermatic vessels, and realised Galen made mistakes.
- Became a professor of medicine at Padua University and said students should preform dissections themselves.
- Published book “Fabric of the Human Body”, including high quality, annotated illustrations.
Describe the work of William Harvey:
- Discovered the principle of the circulation of the blood through the body.
- He calculated that it was impossible for the blood to be burned up in the muscles (as Galen had claimed).
- Published ‘Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood’, which scientifically proved the principle of the circulation of the blood. This book marked the end of Galen’s influence on anatomy.
What did Anton van Leeuwenhoek discover in 1683?
He discovered bacteria using a single-lens microscope, but no one realised their significance, or that they caused disease.
How did diagnosis and treatment develop from the Middle Ages?
- Methods of diagnosis in the Early Modern Age did not change from the time of the Middle Ages.
- Doctors were utterly unable to cure infectious disease, and were powerless in face of diseases such as the plague and syphilis.
- Generally treatment was a mixture of superstition and errors. Charles II was still asked to touch sick people, as it was said this would cure them of the ‘King’s Evil’.
What did people believe were cures for the plague?
- Pieces of paper with the letters abracadabra written in a triangle
- A lucky hare’s foot;
- Posies and perfume
- Smoking tobacco
- Dried toad
- Leeches
- A potion of rue, wormwood, vinegar and rose-water
- Pressing a plucked chicken against the plague-sores until the chicken died.
What did Edward Jenner discover?
In 1796, Edward Jenner discovered how vaccination could prevent disease.
- Found that infecting people with cowpox protected them from smallpox.
- Nothing came of this since no one knew why it did so.
Did public health change much since Medieval times?
-Early Modern towns were similar to Medieval towns. They did not have systems of sewers or water pipes. They were probably filthy. Garbage and human waste was thrown into the streets.
When did London begin to establish some public health provisions (during Renaissance period)?
During the 1665
What did they do to stop The Plague?
- Examiners and searches were appointed to check households for the plague.
- Constables employed to make sure people with the plague didn’t leave the house and spread the disease.
- Bodies buried at night in huge pits, mourners not allowed to attend.
- Quarantine
- Householders were ordered to collect all waste, which was then removed by ‘rakers’.
- Stray cats, dogs, rabbits and pigs killed.
What would a searcher do if they found someone with the plague within a house?
Shut up the house for a month, and its inhabitants had to stay indoors. They would also paint a red cross on the door to indicate someone within the house had the disease.
Who would people go to for medical treatment/advice?
country doctors, barber-surgeons , apothecaries (chemists) ,wise women, neighbours and local ‘witches’.
What does the word ‘Renaissance’ mean?
Rebirth.
The Great Plague of 1665:
-Plague returned around once every 20 years, the worst time being in 1665. Death toll in London= Around 100,000