Renaissance Medicine - c1500 - 1700

Question 1

Which new ideas developed during the renaissance?

Answer 1

Increased wealth in England meant more money spent on education.
The Reformation (challenged position of the catholic church)
New technology - microscope, printing press

Question 2

What was the impact of the reformation?

Answer 2

Reformation led to individuals questioning the church’s teachings.

Question 3

What examples of continuity are there in the Renaissance about the causes of disease?

Answer 3

Miasma theory, religious explanations (especially during epidemics) and astrology (though becoming less popular)

Question 4

What examples of change are there in the Renaissance about the causes of disease?

Answer 4

Fewer people believed that God sent disease as punishment. 4 humours were discredited and not believed by most physicians by the end of 17C.

Question 5

What helped to start the change?

Answer 5

Thomas Sydenham - believed in closely observing symptoms of a patient rather than relying on books.
Printing Press - enabled ideas to spread, contributing to the decline of the church
Royal society - founded in 1660 to discuss new scientific ideas including medicine

Question 6

What examples are there of continuity in approaches to treatment and care in the Renaissance?

Answer 6

Balancing the 4 humours - bloodletting/purging
Herbal remedies were used
People tried to remove bad air
Treated by apothecaries and barber surgeon to those who could not afford a physician.
Women cared for sick at home.

Question 7

What examples are there of change in approaches to prevention, treatment and care?

Answer 7

They began looking for chemical cures

Hospitals began to actually treat people with wounds and curable diseases.

Question 8

What was thought to be the cause for the Great Plague?

Answer 8

Punishment from God, astrology, imbalance of 4 humours, miasma. (jewish people no longer blamed)

Question 9

Which prevention/treatment methods were used to avoid the Great Plague?

Answer 9

Praying, quarantining, fasting, smoking tobacco to ward off bad air.
Local authorities banned public gatherings
Dogs and cats killed
Searchers appointed to monitor the spread.
Cleaning of streets

Question 10

Which preventions to combat the Plague showed evidence of understanding?

Answer 10

Watchmen prevented people entering and leaving infected houses to stop the spread.
Gatherings were banned.
Observed death rates were higher in dirtier, poorer areas, promoting cleaning of streets.

Question 11

Why did medical knowledge and training improve during the renaissance?

Answer 11

Apothecaries and surgeons were better educated during this period due to decline of church and reformation in the 16th century.

Wars meant that there was new wounds which required better surgery

Printing press allowed ideas to spread

Physicians inspired to challenge ideas of Galen

Question 12

Who was Vesalius?

Answer 12

Lecturer of surgery at the University of Padua. In 1543 he published On the Fabric of the Human Body.
He dissected a large number of criminals.

Question 13

How did Vesalius prove Galen wrong?

Answer 13

He dissected humans not animals, allowing him to prove Galen wrong in a number of ways. e.g. human breastbone has 3 parts not 7 as in apes. Corrected 300 of his mistakes.

Question 14

What was the impact of Vesalius?

Answer 14

Anatomy became central to the study of medicine
Medical students were encouraged to learn from dissections not reading books.
His work was heavily copied and appeared in many other texts. Inspired other anatomists.

Question 15

What did Vesalius have limited impact on?

Answer 15

Treatment. Doctors still didn’t know the cause of illness from Vesalius’s discoveries so weren’t able to treat illness.

Question 16

When was William Harvey around?

Answer 16

1578 - 1657

Question 17

How did William Harvey develop medicine?

Answer 17

Discovered and proved (with the help of Fabricius) that human veins had valves.
That blood was pumped around the body by the heart beating constantly.
Theory challenged Galen who taught that the liver produced blood, thus challenging the popular treatment of bloodletting.

Question 18

Impact of Harvey’s discovery.

Answer 18

Not immediately useful. Blood transfusions did not happen until 1901.
Work rejected by conservative physicians who supported Galen.
Yet his theory encouraged other scientists to experiment on actual bodies.

Question 19

Who was William Harvey?

Answer 19

Doctor to both James I and Charles I. Strong position to influence others.

Question 20

What was the impact of Harvey’s book?

Answer 20

Published ‘On the Motion of The Heart’ in 1628 - not all were convinced, including own patients who refused to be treated by him.

Question 21

What was the impact of the microscope in 1590?

Answer 21

Microscope helped scientists to make and explain discoveries.

Question 22

What was the impact of the printing press?

Answer 22

Printing press allowed ideas to spread throughout Europe.

Question 23

What was the impact of the increased investment in England on education, due to increased wealth?

Answer 23

Improved literacy increased the number of people that could access new scientific ideas.

Question 24

What was the impact of Vesalius on medicine?

Answer 24

He showed that human anatomy was different from animals. He therefore, encouraged human dissection.

Question 25

What was the impact Harvey had on medicine?

Answer 25

Encouraged scientists to experiment on actual bodies.

Question 26

What was the impact of Sydenham on medicine?

Answer 26

He relied on observing symptons and treating the disease causing them as oppose to the medieval method of treating each symptom individually. Led to a more scientific approach to medicine.

Question 27

Why did individuals such as Harvey have a limited impact on medicine?

Answer 27

Many Physicians still wanted to learn from the work of Hippocrates. Harvey was criticised by other physicians and a number of patients at his practice fell away. Not until 1650 was his work taught in most Universities.

Question 28

What is the Royal Society of Medicine renaissance?

Answer 28

The Royal Society was an influential group of scientists formed in 1660. Its members shared experiments and promoted scientific ideas.