Pages 17-21 of Medicine A5 booklet (The impact of the Renaissance in Britain)

Question 1

What was the Renaissance?

Answer 1

It means rebirth and it began in Northern Europe in the mid 15th century. It was a time when old ideas were challenged, mostly challenging the Catholic church. It was the beginning of what became known as the Scientific Method.

Question 2

Whose theories did people start to challenge?

Answer 2

Galen and other classical scholars.

Question 3

What two inventions were there during this period?

Answer 3

The microscope and Caxton’s printing press in 1451 which spread ideas rapidly.

Question 4

What were the biggest killer diseases?

Answer 4

Fever, consumption, teeth, gripping in the guts and convulsions.

Question 5

Who was Vesalius? (Early Modern)

Answer 5

Professor of Surgery and Anatomy in Padua.

Question 6

What did Vesalius challenge?

Answer 6

Galen’s work on human anatomy and developed far more accurate views of the inside of a human body by dissecting humans, rather than animals, and using scientific observation.

Question 7

What did Vesalius research?

Answer 7

The best places for blood-letting.

Question 8

Which book did Vesalius publish?

Answer 8

He published De Humani Corporis Fabrica which changed attitudes to medicine. It explained how different systems in the body worked, such as the skeleton, muscles, nerves and veins.

Question 9

How did Vesalius’s ideas reach England?

Answer 9

Through new books and by English surgeons and physicians training in European medical schools. Barber surgeons in London used his ideas as a manual.

Question 10

What opposition was there to Vesalius?

Answer 10

Some physicians in England were resistant to changes and many people couldn’t afford to be treated. The Catholic church still supported and encouraged the use of Galen’s work. Some people said that the differences in the anatomy to Galen’s ideas were because of that particular body.

Question 11

Who was Ambrose Paré?

Answer 11

A French barber surgeon considered the father of modern surgery.

Question 12

Where did Paré train?

Answer 12

At the famous Hotel du Dieu in Paris before becoming an army surgeon.

Question 13

What did Paré run out of at the Siege of Milan in 1536?

Answer 13

He ran out of oil so couldn’t cauterise wounds. Instead he mixed egg yolk, turpentine and oil of roses to dress wounds. It was less painful and more successful.

Question 14

What did Paré use to tie off wounds after amputations?

Answer 14

He used ligatures rather than cauterising which healed better.

Question 15

What did Paré invent?

Answer 15

The “crow’s beak clamp” to stop bleeding of blood vessels.

Question 16

What did Paré develop?

Answer 16

Artificial limbs.

Question 17

Where did Paré write down his findings?

Answer 17

In his book Les Oeuvres, in 1575 and became famous. It was used by Barber surgeons in England and even by the Queen’s surgeon William Clowes.

Question 18

What opposition was there to Paré?

Answer 18

Some physicians in England were resistant to changes and many people couldn’t afford to be treated. The Catholic church still supported and encouraged the use of Galen’s work.

Question 19

What did artists like Da Vinci do?

Answer 19

Went to great lengths to study the human body so they could better represent it in their drawings and paintings. They began to study accurately drawn humans. Artists began to illustrate medical books which helped spread understanding.

Question 20

When was the book on all of Galen’s findings published?

Answer 20

1525 in Greek and Latin.

Question 21

Why was the medical world split in two?

Answer 21

The physicians who read books still believed in Galen’s ideas whilst the surgeons who explored the human body were learning by experiments and experience.

Question 22

Where did William Harvey study medicine?

Answer 22

At the university of Padua in Italy.

Question 23

When did Harvey return to England and who did he work for?

Answer 23

1602. He worked at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and was a physician to Kings James I and Charles I.

Question 24

What was Harvey’s most famous book called?

Answer 24

On the motion of the heart which challenged the work of Galen and the ancients and challenged medicine forever.

Question 25

What did Harvey discover?

Answer 25

He discovered that blood pumped around the body in a circular motion. His discovery was as a result of experimentation and observation on cold blooded amphibians whose slow blood flow allowed him to see the blood pumping.

Question 26

What did Harvey prove?

Answer 26

He proved that it was impossible for the body to produce too much blood and that the heart worked as a pump and blood flowed in a one way system.

Question 27

What opposition did Harvey face?

Answer 27

Supporters of Galen rejected the findings. They said as Harvey couldn’t see the capillaries they didn’t exist. It was 60 years later that capillaries were seen.

Question 28

What did many people think about Harvey?

Answer 28

That he had “crack pot” ideas and he was a quack.

Question 29

Why was Harvey’s discovery useful in the long term?

Answer 29

It was useful for understanding things like heart and kidney disease.