Renaissance Flashcards
What was the Renaissance?
‘Renaissance’ means rebirth in French. The Medical Renaissance refers to a period when new ideas were beginning to influence medicine, breaking down old beliefs and challenging the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Did people believe God caused illness as much as they did before?
Many did still believe in God as a cause of illness, however the rise of humanism (which rejected the idea that God was responsible for everything) meant that people began to listen to science too.
How did people use astrology to diagnose illness?
People started using star signs. The lining up of the planets and stars on the day of somebody’s birth, would then determine what illnesses someone might then get.
Did people think the “four humours” could make you sick?
I.Less educated people kept believing in it.
II.By the end of the Renaissance, it had been proved wrong, but nothing concrete had come along to replace it. Therefore, doctors kept giving advice based on it - even though it was wrong!
How did the miasma theory begin to get more sophisticated?
I.In the case of the Great Plague, people believed that it had been caused by stinking rubbish and dunghills present in city streets.
II.People thought the bad vapour from the dung then travelled to people to make them sick.
What was Thomas Sydenham’s big idea that he wrote about in 1676 and how was it different to the Four Humours theory?
I.He argued that disease was something that attacked the body and not based on the humours that were present inside a patient.
II.He argued disease would be better understood if we saw how they were connected. Certain diseases belonged to families.
What was Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek able to see in 1683 because of his microscope and what did he call them?
He was able to see bacteria in plaque scraped from teeth. He called them ‘animalcules’ because they looked like tiny animals.
What ideas did people have that were similar / the same / continued from Medieval times?
I.Belief in miasmata causing disease stayed largely the same.
II.The belief that God caused disease changed a little but was still considered during big outbreaks like Plague.
III.Physicians still used the medical books of Galen.
IV.Astrology was still used.
