Renaissance c.1500 - 1700

Question 1

What does the word renaissance mean?

Answer 1

The term ‘renaissance’ is derived from the French word meaning ‘rebirth’. It is used to describe this phase of European history because many of the changes experienced between the 14th and 16th centuries

Question 2

What was the world like during the renaissance?

Answer 2

Very religious
Increased interest
Increse in experiments

Question 3

Did people believe God caused illness as much as the did before?

Answer 3

At the beginning but the Catholic church had huge power
But
Protestants rose against - didn’t like catholic organisation

Question 4

How did people link illness to astrology?

Answer 4

Aligning of the planets

Question 5

How did people use astrology to diagnose illness?

Answer 5

Their star signs

Question 6

Did people think the four humours could make you sick?

Answer 6

Yes, although by 1700 it had been discredited, it was still believed by the wider population of Britain.

Question 7

How did the miasma theory begin to get more sophisticated in the renaissance?

Answer 7

2

Question 8

What new theory did Paracelsus come up with in 1526?

Answer 8

That cures needed to be developed that could attack disease

Question 9

What did Francesco’s On Contagion theorise in 1546?

Answer 9

That disease was caused by seeds in the air

Question 10

What was Thomas Sydenham’s big idea that he wrote about in 1676 and how was it different to the four humours theory?

Answer 10

That diseases belonged to families.
The nature of the patient had little to do with disease that was affecting them.
Laid the foundations for ending belief in the Theory of the Four Humours.

Question 11

What was Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek able to see in 1683?

Answer 11

Tiny “animalcules” in plaque scraped from teeth

Question 12

What year did the Royal Society publish pictures of ‘animalcules’?

Answer 12

1702, he published Philosophical Transactions with illustrations of weeds growing in water with “animalcules” around them.

Question 13

What ideas on prevention and treatment of illness did people have that were similar/the same/continued from Medieval times?

Answer 13

Treatments-
Bleeding, swearing and purging were all popular ways of “re-balancing the humours”.
Herbal remedies - certain remedies might help certain illnesses (e.g. using the colour of the herb)

Preventions-
if someone was born small or weak, this would explain early death.
Still practiced avoidance by never having too much of anything and having things in “moderation”.
Still followed regimen sanitatis, however by the end of the century, people just tried to move away from any particularly dirty areas all together.

Question 14

Was regimen sanitatis as popular as it had been in Medieval times?

Answer 14

No - bathing was thought to be a way to catch syphilis

Question 15

What new herbal treatments existed before of global exploration?

Answer 15

USing the colour of the herb that corresponded to the illness - 
saffron - jaundice
red wine - smallpox
cinchona bark - malaria
vervain - stomach worms

Question 16

What was medical chemistry/iatrochemistry?

Answer 16

Chemical cures

Question 17

When was Pharmacopoeia Londinensis published and what did it include?

Answer 17

The Pharmacopoeia Londinensis published in 1618 included details on 122 chemical treatments including mercury and antimony, which was shown to cool the body down if given in small doses.

Question 18

Who was Andreas Vesalius and what did he do?

Answer 18

Flemish dwarf

He studied medicine in Paris in 1533, which was a centre for humanist ideas about medicine.

Question 19

Name at least two precise mistakes of Galen, Vesalius corrected

Answer 19

accurate foundations of understanding of the human anatomy and how the body worked. N

Question 20

Who was William Harvey and what did he do?

Answer 20

studied medicine in Cambridge and Padua

taught the importance of dissection and learning from observation rather than ancient texts.

Question 21

Name at lease two mistakes of Galen Harvey corrected

Answer 21

proved arteries and veins were linked into one system
theorised blood passed from arteries to veins through tiny passages (what we now know are capillaries). He proved that the heart acted as a pump just as new mechanical fire pumps did.

Question 22

What was a pest house?

Answer 22

Where people would go if they had the plague

If there was disease present either the house would be quarantined for 28 days of people would be taken to a pest house.

Question 23

How did the role of apothecaries slightly change compared to Medieval times?

Answer 23

more professionalised and were organised into guild systems.
would first have to be an apprentice and learn to be a master of the craft.

Question 24

How did the role of physicians slightly change compared to Medieval times?

Answer 24

change from Medieval times when they would have diagnosed patients but not prescribed treatments now they presented cures

Question 25

What happened to hospitals after 1536 and why?

Answer 25

dissolution of the monasteries reduced the amount of hospitals in England. The oldest hospital in England, St. Barts, only survived because Henry VIII re-opened it himself in 1546.

Question 26

Give examples of how a large scale public health project usually relied on individuals

Answer 26

the government was still largely ineffective

Question 27

How did the government demonstrate better handling of the Great Plague in 1665 compared to 300 years earlier during the black death?

Answer 27

Public meetings, fairs and large funeral
Fires were burnt on street corners to purify the air.
Searchers and wardens were sent from house to house, searching for the disease.

Question 28

What was the Great Plague?

Answer 28

A serious outbreak of Plague which lasted from June to November 1665.

Question 29

What did people think caused the Great Plague?

Answer 29

An unusual alignment of Mars and Saturn on 12th November 1664 / God’s punishment.
Person to person -
Miasma
People thought the dunghills that were a feature of city life created a plague vapour that stayed in the soil while it was cold and was then released when the weather got warm!

Question 30

What was done to try to treat and prevent the Great Plague?

Answer 30

Sweat the disease out by wrapping in thick woolen cloths and lying by a fire.
Strap a live chicken to a bubo or lancing it with a chicken feather.
Exotic spices such as nutmeg which had arrived from the New World.
Quack doctors offered advice for money, usually pointless advice.
Prayer and repentance
(saying sorry to God).
Quarantine people who had the Plague.
Carry a pomander as perfume to drive away the miasma.
A heavy garlic and sage diet.
Public meetings, fairs and large funeral processions were banned by Royal decree.
Fires were burnt on street corners to purify the air.
Around 40,000 dogs and 200,000 cats were killed.
Searchers and wardens were sent from house to house, searching for the disease.

Question 31

Give four examples of William Harvey’s importance for medical progress

Answer 31

How blood circulates the body
He proved arteries and veins were linked into one system
He theorised blood passed from arteries to veins through tiny passages (capillaries).