Renaissance Medicine

Question 1

How did new inventions help medical progression?

Answer 1

Printing press meant that new ideas could be spread easier.

Question 2

What did Pare do?

Answer 2

Promoted the use of ligatures, made prosthetic limbs for amputees, healed gunshot wounds, was a war surgeon.

Question 3

How did Pare learn to heal gunshot wounds?

Answer 3

He was a war surgeon who traditionally poured boiling oil onto wounds. One day, he ran out and improvised with lotion (made of rose and egg whites etc.) which worked!

Question 4

Did Pare have an impact?

Answer 4

Yes! His book were translated into French from Latin which allowed many barber surgeons to learn from him and improve their own practice ; earned him the title of ‘the most famous surgeon in Europe’.

Question 5

What did Vesalius do?

Answer 5

He dissected human bodies (proved Galen wrong as he only dissected animals) and wrote ‘Fabric of the Human Body’ which contained beautifully illustrated drawing of the human body.

Question 6

Did Vesalius have an impact?

Answer 6

Yes and no. Barber surgeons started to read and learn from his work and his discoveries were used as a basis for finding new treatments in the future. However, people at the time were reluctant to accept his ideas.

Question 7

What did Harvey do?

Answer 7

Wrote book ‘De Motu Cordis’ which suggested that blood circulated around the body one way only. He was a doctor/surgeon to King Charles I. He also disproved Galen’s ideas that blood was made in the liver and ‘used up’.

Question 8

Did Harvey have an impact?

Answer 8

Yes and no. He could not prove how or why blood circulated around the body and not many people accepted his ideas - took 50 years before his ideas were taught in University of Paris. However, thanks to Harvey, blood transfusions and heart transplants etc. are now available.

Question 9

How did surgical knowledge improve?

Answer 9

John Hunter invented ground-breaking surgeries, other than amputations (e.g. cutting of a tumor). Royal Society attempted a blood transfusion based on Harvey’s work on blood circulation.

Question 10

How did types of treatments improve?

Answer 10

Herbal remedies more common as people could read books on specific herbs. New treatments from abroad e.g. tobacco for the plague.

Question 11

How did types of treatments stay the same?

Answer 11

Patients still being bled or ‘purged’ based on the Humours.

Question 12

How did doctors training improve?

Answer 12

People starting to question superstitious treatments (suggests better training). Royal Society discussed new ideas and challenged Galen. John Hunter trained hundreds of doctors. Some hospital reading ideas from PHV and teaching them.

Question 13

How did doctors training stay the same?

Answer 13

Most doctors still focused on teachings of Hippocrates and Galen.

Question 14

What were quacks?

Answer 14

Unqualified salesmen who would sell ‘cure-alls’ that didn’t work. These pills could kill people or make them very ill.

Question 15

When and where did the Great Plague happen?

Answer 15

In 1665 the outbreak swept across the whole of London.

Question 16

What was the cause of the Great Plague?

Answer 16

Same as the Black Death! Fleas spread bacteria from rats to humans.

Question 17

How many people died from the Great Plague?

Answer 17

100,000 people - 1/5 of London’s whole population.

Question 18

What were some believed causes of the Great Plague and other diseases?

Answer 18

Punishment from God, astrology (alignment of stars and planets) and miasma.

Question 19

How did authorities try to prevent the spread of the Great Plague?

Answer 19

Paying ‘women searchers’ to identify symptoms, quarantining plague victims by making them paint red crosses on their doors and burning bodies that were infected.

Question 20

How did the Great Plague end?

Answer 20

Rats developed a greater resistance to fleas. Ended when Great Fire of London happened so they assumed that was what had finished it!

Question 21

What were three features of a plague doctor?

Answer 21

Mask-nose cone filled with sweet-smelling herbs (miasma), amulet to protect from evil (superstition) and a long stick to avoid contact with patient.

Question 22

How did people try to treat plague victims?

Answer 22

Using remedies made by women, apothecaries and quacks.

Question 23

How did the Great Plague spread?

Answer 23

London was overcrowded so it easily spread from one person to another. Working-class slums were filthy so many people people contracted disease from rats living in waste.

Question 24

How did the closing of monasteries impact the change of hospitals?

Answer 24

Independent hospitals funded by independent people forced to open - they no longer had to listen to the Church! They dismissed the ‘care not cure’ attitude and the idea that God punished people by making them ill; people took new scientific approaches to medicine.

Question 25

How did hospitals change during the Renaissance?

Answer 25

Poorer people could get medicine for free at pharmacies. No. of patients increased from 4,000 to 20,000 a year. Specialist hospitals opened which included hospitals for maternity, orphans, mental illnesses and STIs.

Question 26

How did hospitals stay the same during the Renaissance?

Answer 26

Most doctors training came from books and lectures. Treatments still mostly based on four humours e.g. purging. Religion still has massive impact on medicine e.g. helping the sick. Most patients were rich and could pay doctors that needed income.

Question 27

What did John Hunter do?

Answer 27

Showed a real interest in dissection and anatomical research - would rob graves and dissect the corpses. Was an army surgeon (Surgeon-General in 1790). Wrote books on his discoveries e.g. Natural History of the Teeth.

Question 28

What were some of Hunter’s surgical methods?

Answer 28

Instead of amputation, he tied off arteries to restrict blood flow. Did experiments on himself e.g. injected himself with gonorrhea and syphilis to see if they could exist in the same organ - took him 3 years to recover.

Question 29

What were some short-term impacts of surgical progression from the role of Hunter?

Answer 29

He was admitted to the Company of Surgeons to train many young surgeons. Named Surgeon-General of army in 1790.

Question 30

What were some long-term impacts of surgical progression from the role of Hunter?

Answer 30

Made discoveries about the nature of disease, infections, cancer and circulation. His books showed theoretical knowledge about anatomy which helped the surgical profession.

Question 31

How did Hunter convince the public that his theories on anatomy were correct?

Answer 31

Displayed a huge collection of anatomical specimens in a museum which was open to the public.

Question 32

What did Edward Jenner discover?

Answer 32

People with cowpox could not catch smallpox. Tested theory on an 8 year-old boy by injecting him with cowpox and then inoculating him with smallpox - no infection followed!

Question 33

Why was Jenner’s discovery so successful?

Answer 33

Tested his theory on 16 other patients and none of them catch the disease (1796).

Question 34

Why was Jenner’s theory unpopular to begin with?

Answer 34

He couldn’t explain how it worked, so people struggled to accept it. People also profited from inoculation and didn’t want to lose any money.

Question 35

What was the impact of Jenner’s work?

Answer 35

In 1802, the government funded £10,000 for Jenner’s research (shows they started funding medical causes). By 1853, smallpox vaccination became compulsory. The royal family also used it which made it popular amongst the public.

Question 36

What was one of the 18th century’s biggest killers?

Answer 36

Smallpox!

Question 37

What is inoculation?

Answer 37

When you deliberately infect yourself with a small amount of a disease, in order to avoid a more severe case later on!