Renaissance Flashcards
When was the Renaissance?
1400s - late 1600s
What was the Renaissance?
Means ‘rebirth’ in Italian
A term that describes a period in history that flourished.
It bridged the time between the late Middle Ages and the early modern period.
People started to question what they were told about medical knowledge (the works of Hippocrates and Galen.)
How did the Renaissance spread?
Before the Renaissance books were an expensive this meant that knowledge was restricted to a few people who could afford and access books.
A new invention made in 1451, the printing press, allowed people to spread their knowledge and discoveries.
Who was Vesalius?
He did disections of human bodies himself.
He carried out his own research to locate the best place for bloodletting.
From his dissections he began to realise that there were many mistakes in Galen’s writing when he compared with his own observations to the human body.
Why were Galen’s ideas wrong?
Because they were based on animal dissections rather than human ones.
For example the breast bone in the human being has three parts, not seven as in an ape.
What impact did Vesalius have at the time?
He promoted dissection as a way to discover more about the body.
He encouraged people to question Galen and not believe everything they were told.
What did Vesalius do?
He wrote the fabric of the human body (1543)
The illustrations by Leonardo da Vinci and were very precise.
He focused on different parts of the body such as muscles, nerves and veins etc.
What long term impact did Vesalius have?
In the later half of the 16th century, many copies of the serious original book came to England, where they influenced and inspired English surgeons.
His work overturned centuries of belief in Galen’s study of anatomy.
His studies were the basis for better treatments in the future.
Who was Ambroise Paré
He first learned surgery as an apprentice to his brother.
He then became a French army surgeon.
He had lots of experience.
What did Paré discover about gunshot wounds and bleeding?
Paré felt opposed to the use of boiling oil to heal gunshot wounds.
During a French battle in 1537 he ran out of hot oil, instead he used the cream of rose oil, egg white, and turpentine to heal the wounds.
This cream was soothing to the soldiers wounds.
He also used ligatures, silk threads used to close blood vessels.
He did not realise that this could carry infections into the wound.
However it was a better method than burning oil.
What findings of Galen did William Harvey prove wrong?
Galen said new blood was constantly made in the liver and used as fuel that was burned up in the body.
Harvey proved the blood was pumped around the body by the heart.
How did Harvey prove his theory?
By dissecting human hearts and operating on live, cold blooded animals.
What else did Harvey prove about circulation?
He proved that blood could only flow one way by trying to pump liquids past the valves in the veins but it did not flow.
When was the Great Plague?
1665
What did people think caused the Great Plague?
People still believed it was a punishment from God for their sins.
Or it was caused by the movement of the planets or miasma.
