Renaissance Medicine: key individuals

Question 1

At what university did Andreas Vesalius become Professor of Surgery?

Answer 1

Padua (Italy)

Question 2

What was the name of Vesalius’s first book?

Answer 2

Six Anatomical Tables (1537)

Question 3

What was the name of Vesalius’s most famous book, published in 1543?

Answer 3

On the Fabric of the Human Body

Question 4

Why was Vesalius able to prove Galen wrong about the inside of the human body?

Answer 4

He carried out dissections on the bodies of executed criminals, not animals

Question 5

How many mistakes did Vesalius find in Galen’s work?

Answer 5

Around 300

Question 6

Give two examples of things Vesalius found about the human body that proved Galen wrong

Answer 6

Any two from:

The human jaw was made from one bone, not two

The breastbone has three parts, not seven

Men and women have an equal number of pairs of ribs

Blood did not flow into the heart through invisible holes

Question 7

By what year was On the Fabric of the Human Body being used at the University of Cambridge?

Answer 7

1560

Question 8

When was the first dissection carried out at the University of Cambridge?

Answer 8

1565

Question 9

Who was Vesalius’s student at Padua who went on to discover valves in human veins?

Answer 9

Fabricius

Question 10

Why was William Harvey seen as a credible voice on the human body?

Answer 10

He was King Charles I’s personal physician

Question 11

What did William Harvey teach his students about medicine?

Answer 11

It was important to observe the body and believe what they saw, rather than believing in Galen

Question 12

Who was William Harvey’s professor at Padua?

Answer 12

Fabricius

Question 13

How did William Harvey prove that blood only flowed towards the heart?

Answer 13

When he tried to pump liquids the other way, it did not work

Question 14

What did Galen claim about blood that Harvey proved wrong?

Answer 14

Blood was made in the liver, flowed through the body and was burned up

Question 15

What did Harvey prove about arteries and veins?

Answer 15

They were linked together into one system, connected by tiny passages (capillaries)

Question 16

How was William Harvey inspired to prove that the heart acted as a pump?

Answer 16

He saw fire engines that used mechanical pumps to provide water to put out fires

Question 17

Were William Harvey’s ideas used in universities while he was still alive?

Answer 17

No - they appeared from 1673 but he died in 1657

Question 18

What impact did Thomas Sydenham have on the diagnosis of disease?

Answer 18

He moved ideas away from those of Hippocrates and Galen

Question 19

How did Sydenham diagnose disease?

Answer 19

He observed symptoms and treated the disease causing them, rather than treating the symptoms separately

Question 20

What was the name of Sydenham’s book published in 1676?

Answer 20

Observationes Medicae

Question 21

What did Sydenham suggest about diseases in his book Observationes Medicae?

Answer 21

They could be organised into different groups

Question 22

How did Sydenham’s ideas clash with the Theory of the Four Humours?

Answer 22

The Theory of the Four Humours said that a patient’s disease was caused by factors unique to the patient, so treatments needed to be personal.

Sydenham said that the nature of the patient had little to do with their disease.

Question 23

Which diseases did Sydenham identify were separate?

Answer 23

Measles and scarlet fever

Question 24

What did Sydenham suggest as an alternative to “sweating out” a disease?

Answer 24

Airy bedrooms, light blankets and cold drinks

Question 25

What new substance from the New World did Sydenham use to treat malaria?

Answer 25

Cinchona bark (containing quinine)