Renaissance: Treatment of Diseases Flashcards
How did the Renaissance Era allow medical knowledge to spread?
The printing press meant ideas could be spread faster
What did people believe the king’s touch could do?
Cure scrofula.
How many people a year visited London to be cured of scrofula?
3000 a year
What group often relied on superstition?
Wise women
What were apothecaries?
Places that sold medicines, potions - had little or no medical training
How was King Charles II killed?
Charles II - poisoned by mercury treatment for his kidney disease
How was King Charles II treated?
- Mercury
- Bloodletting
What treatment was passed down from generation to generation?
Herbal remedies
Name 2 examples of effective herbal remedies.
- Honey - can kill bacteria
- Willow tree - contains aspirin which dulls pain
What anaesthetic was discovered in the 1700s?
Opium
When did the Great Plague begin?
1665
How many people did the Great Plague kill?
GP: 100,000
How was the Great Plague mostly ended and when?
1666 - Great Fire of London burned down slums (most effected)
Name 4 actions taken against the Great Plague.
- Red cross on door of infected individuals
- Quarantine for 40 days and nights
- Collected bodies at night and made mass graves
- No animals allowed on streets
- Smoking a pipe warded off miasma - children made to smoke
- 1665 - Certificate of health offered by the government to travel
In June of 1665, what did the government make mandatory?
A certificate of health was needed to travel
How did hospitals differ in the 17th and 18th Centuries?
17th - care until death
18th - treatment and cure
What were dispensaries?
Clinics supported by charities
How did dispensaries help public health?
Allowed the poor to be treated with no charge
How did hospital wards change in the 18th Century?
Wards were developed for different diseases
How did hospitals help medical education?
Charity hospitals gave medical students the opportunity to shadow doctors
What belief were treatments in the 18th Century built on?
The Four Humours
What hospital opened in 1746?
Lock’s Hospital - STIs
What did Lock’s Hospital treat?
STIs
How was Middlesex Hospital unique?
Wards for pregnant women in 1747
What diseases increased child mortality rates in the 1720s?
Typhus and influenza
What was the Foundling Hospital?
Started by Thomas Coram in 1741 - cared for orphaned children
How many patients went to the hospital a year in 1800?
20,000
Why was John Hunter criticised?
Robbed graves at night to supply bodies for brother’s medical school
How was John Hunter influential?
1768 - trained hundreds of surgeons
What key individual did John Hunger teach?
Edward Jenner
How was John Hunter radical?
Ambitious - experimented on himself in 1768 to see if gonorrhoea and syphilis were the same disease
What did John Hunter’s dissections lead him to believe?
If blood supply was restricted above the aneurysm, it would encourage new blood vessels to grow
How did John Hunter influence surgery?
- Blood supply restricted above aneurysm -> made new blood vessels
- Tied off arteries to prevent amputation
What 3 texts did John Hunter publish?
- ‘Natural History of Teeth’ - 1771
- ‘Venereal Disease’ - 1786 - widely read
- ‘Blood Inflammation’ - widely read
How many specimens did John Hunter keep?
Over 3000 dried or taxidermied organisms, organs, fossils, etc
