Renaissance Medicine

Question 1

Which years are covered by the Renaissance?

Answer 1

Circa 1500-1700

Question 2

Which centuries are covered by the Renaissance?

Answer 2

Sixteenth - Eighteenth

Question 3

What happened to the influence of the Church during the Renaissance?

Answer 3

It weakened

Question 4

What was the wide view of Miasma Theory in the Renaissance?

Answer 4

It was widely accepted.

Question 5

How widely believed was the Theory of the Four Humours in the Renaissance?

Answer 5

Continued to be accepted, though by 1700 very few physicians believed it.

Question 6

Why was Thomas Sydenham significant?

Answer 6

• He encouraged a more scientific approach to the theory of disease, suggesting disease was caused by external factors.
• He based treatment on the disease as a whole, rather than individual symptoms.
• Didn’t rely on medical books, but focused on observing the patient for diagnosis.

Question 7

When did Sydenham publish his book, and what was it called?

Answer 7

Observations Medicae in 1676

Question 8

How did the work of physicians change in the Renaissance?

Answer 8

• Physicians began to move away from using star charts
• Physicians stopped using urine charts for diagnosis
• Physicians carried out more direct observation and examinations of patients.

Question 9

What invention, that really took off in the Renaissance period, changed the way ideas were transmitted and communicated?

Answer 9

The printing press.

Question 10

When was the printing press invented?

Answer 10

1440

Question 11

How did the printing press affect the Church?

Answer 11

It lessened the Church’s control of the publication of books.

Question 12

What was the name of the Royal Society’s journal and when was it first published?

Answer 12

Philosophical Transactions. 1665.

Question 13

What was the role of the Royal Society?

Answer 13

To give scientists the opportunity to study, challenge, and build on each other’s research. Theories could be confirmed or dismissed, and news of findings could be spread quickly.

Question 14

When were animalcules discovered?

Answer 14

1683

Question 15

How had hospitals changed between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?

Answer 15

• Begin to treat more sick people, less used by pilgrims.
• Physicians would visit patients in hospital
• Most had their own apothecary to mix medicine
• No longer under Church control because of the dissolution of the monasteries, many hospitals closed
• Some charity hospitals were set up, but it wasn’t until well after 1700 that the number of hospitals returned to pre-dissolution numbers.
• Pest houses begin to appear

Question 16

What was a Pest House?

Answer 16

A hospital where people suffering from a particular contagious disease could go

Question 17

Where were most sick people cared for in the Renaissance?

Answer 17

At home

Question 18

What continuity was there between the Middle Ages and Renaissance in terms of prevention and treatment?

Answer 18

• Traditional herbal remedies
• Focus on keeping clean
• Bleeding and purging
• Superstition and prayer
• Healthy living

Question 19

What changed between the Middle Ages and Renaissance in terms of prevention and treatment?

Answer 19

• New herbal remedies had been discovered eg ipecac
• Theory of Transference
• Alchemy led to popularity of chemical cures
• Emphasis on removing miasma by draining swamps and removing sewage

Question 20

What was Vesalius’ book called, and when was it published?

Answer 20

On the Fabric of the Human Body. 1543

Question 21

What was Vesalius’ impact?

Answer 21

• Improved understanding of anatomy
• Led people to be more willing to question Galen
• Encouraged people to carry out dissections
• Led to the study of anatomy becoming fashionable
• His work was widely copied into textbooks

Question 22

What changes were there in the training of physicians between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?

Answer 22

• Better access to variety of textbooks
• Gradually became more practical and hands on
• Dissection was legalised

Question 23

What continuities were there in the training of physicians between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?

Answer 23

• Still trained at university, and the training lasted many years
• Training still based on learning from textbooks

Question 24

What changes were there in the training of apothecaries and surgeons between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?

Answer 24

• Both were better trained and in guild systems, where they were apprentices and journeymen before becoming masters
• A licence was needed to work as an apothecary and these were only issued once training had been completed.

Question 25

What continuities were there in the training of apothecaries and surgeons between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?

Answer 25

• Still not given university training and considered inferior to physicians

Question 26

When did the Great Plague break out?

Answer 26

1665

Question 27

What did people believe had caused the Great Plague?

Answer 27

• Mostly the same as beliefs about the Black Death, but some differences:
  1) Miasma by far most widely accepted
  2) Fewer people believed it was the Four Humours
  3) People knew it could be passed from person to person

Question 28

How did people try to treat the Great Plague?

Answer 28

Similar to the ways they tried to treat the Black Death. Some changes:

1) Theory of transference
2) Trying to sweat the disease out by wrapping up in blankets
3) Plague doctors would visit, dressed in bird masks to ward off the miasma

Question 29

How did the government’s role change between the Black Death and the Great Plague?

Answer 29

Far more involved.

• Theatres were closed and large gatherings were banned
• Dogs and cats were killed
• Streets were regularly cleaned
• Barrels of tar were burned in the streets
• Carts collected the dead, who were then buried in mass graves
• Households were quarantined, or sent to pest houses if necessary
• Days of fasting and public prayer were ordered

Question 30

When did William Harvey publish his book, and what was it called?

Answer 30

1628 - An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals

Question 31

Why was William Harvey so influential?

Answer 31

Was one of King James I’s doctors. Performed public dissections and encouraged doctors to observe and record patients symptoms, rather than relying on textbooks. He proved Galen’s ideas about the blood wrong.

Question 32

What did William Harvey discover?

Answer 32

That the heart acts as a pump, moving blood around the body.