Renaissance - (1500-1700) Flashcards
Changes in Ideas (big changes)
1) Four Humours - Started to be challenged and very few physicians still believed this by the end of the 18th century.
2) Anatomy - with the rise of Vesalius and improved scientific research (better understanding of rational causes of disease + royal society + printing press) we understood the body and infection more.
3) Urine - due to improved understanding of digestion, physicians stopped using urine as an indicator of an illness.
4) Physicians carried out more direct observations of the body and symptoms.
5) Fewer people relied on star charts or astrology to explain illness and diagnose
Little Change
1) THE CHURCH - most people now recognised that God did not send disease and that - book copying was taken out of the Monks’ hands with the introduction of the printing press meaning that ideas that the Church previously supported more decreased in popularity i.e. Galen. Rise of HUMANISM questioned the role of God in every aspect of life, although people were still very religious and religious preventions and treatments specifically during epidemics like the Great Plague were still considered.
2) The use of medical books and old teachings were mostly discarded with a new approach to diagnosis by physicians, especially with the influence of T. Sydenham.
INDIVIDUAL: Thomas Sydenham
Doctor from London
- He didn’t rely on medical books when making a diagnosis but observed and recorded a patient’s symptoms in detail.
- He was instrumental in the ‘new’ idea that a disease had nothing to do with the nature of a person.
- Disease was caused by external factors, not by the human body.
- Based treatment on whole of symptoms and didn’t treat individual side-effects of the disease.
TECHNOLOGY: Printing Press
The printing press, invented in 1440.
- Exact copies of text could be produced quickly, and by anyone who had access.
- It helped reduce the control of the Church
- Books by a large variety of scientists and doctors could be shared more effectively and much faster across a wider area - therefore new ideas spread and developed, evolving medical professionals’ understanding of science and medicine.
INDIVIDUAL: Paracelsus
Swiss scientist and medical professor who theorised that disease was something separate from the body, which needed to be attacked - increasing popularity of alchemy.
INDIVIDUAL: Robert Hooke
Microscopes - His book ‘micrographia’ was the first important work on microscopy, i.e. the studying of objects through a microscope. It includes detailed illustrations of specimens Robert studied under microscopes that he designed himself.
Humanism
- Love of learning
- New interest in classical studies
- Rejected the Church’s views
- Believed that the human mind can form it’s own understanding when understanding the truth about the world.
ROYAL SOCIETY
Aimed to further scientific understanding by carrying out experiments and recording outcomes before evaluating… They shared each other’s scientific knowledge and newer theories and findings which they built together, encouraging new theories and ideas.
1665 - Philosophical Transactions
King Charles II granted a Royal Charter to the society. He was very interested in science and his approval of the society helped it to gain credibility.
Sponsored experimentation and research.
Hospitals
1500 - treating more sick people and less travellers and pilgrims. Most had their own apothecaries in which they mixed medicines and herbal remedies.
1536 - Henry VIII caused most hospitals to close but by the 1700s the number of
pre-dissolution hospitals returned.
When hospitals did re-appear they were run by physicians focused on treating the sick rather than by religion.
Pest Hospitals
Places that people with specific (contagious) diseases could go and receive particular care.
INDIVIDUAL: Vesalius
Studied medicine in Paris - carried out a large number of dissections on human bodies and made many discoveries about how the body worked.
PROVED around 300 MISTAKES BY GALEN - helped others move away and question traditional ideas.
Inspired others to carry out dissections and investigate their discoveries.
On the Fabric of the Human Body - his work was widely published including detailed drawings of the human anatomy.
INDIVIDUAL: William Harvey
Studies medicine at Cambridge and became a lecturer of anatomy.
Carried out public dissections and was one of James I’s doctors.
Encouraged doctors to observe symptoms rather than rely on standard text books.
- He proved that Vesalius was right using dissected bodies to prove that blood only flowed one way.
- Proved that blood was not produced in the liver as Galen had thought (radical).
- He was influenced by new technology like water pumps.
- Discovered that arteries and veins were all part of the circulatory system and that the heart pumped blood around the body.
The Great Plague 1665
First serious outbreak of plague in England since Black Plague - many similarities in people’s beliefs.
The Great Plague Causes
- MIASMA
- Few people believed in Four Humours
- Contagious
The Great Plague Treatments
- Theory of transference = people tried to ‘transfer’ the disease to something else such as a chicken.
- Sweating the disease out = people were wrapped in thick towels and made to sit by a fire.
- Apothecaries mixed many herbal remedies or ‘quack’ doctors.
