The Renaissance (C1500-C1700)

Question 1

What changed during the beginning of the Renaissance period?

Answer 1

Fewer people believed in supernatural or religious causes for disease and various new rational explanations for disease were suggested. The real change in this period was the reduced influence of the Church and a scientific approach to diagnosing illness.

Question 2

What ideas of disease were continued throughout the Renaissance period?

Answer 2

.The miasma theory continued to be believed by many to be the cause of disease.
. The Theory of the Four Humours continued to be an accepted explanation for disease although by 1700, very few physicians still believed in it.

Question 3

What was the changing influence of the Church?

Answer 3

.During this time, new religious ideas were challenged which made it more difficult for the Catholic Church to promote its ideas about science.
.People were still very religious but began to look for new explanations of disease.

Question 4

What was Thomas Syndenham?

Answer 4

. He worked as a doctor in London during the 1660s and 70s.
.He didn’t rely on medical books and observed the patients and recorded them in detail.
. He believed disease had nothing to do with the nature of the person who had it.

Question 5

When was the first printing press invented?

Answer 5

The printing press was invented around 1440 by Gutenberg by the start of the Renaissance period in 1500.

Question 6

What did the printing press allow?

Answer 6

. It meant that many exact copies of texts could be produced in a short amount of time.
. It help reduce the Church’s control of ideas and could no longer prevent the publication of ideas it did not approve of.

Question 7

What was the Royal Society and what were their aims?

Answer 7

The Royal Society aimed to further scientific understanding by carrying out and recording the results of experiments, sharing scientific knowledge and encouraging new theories and ideas.

Question 8

What happened from 1665 onwards in terms of the Royal Society?

Answer 8

From 1665 the Royal Society published a journal in which scientists could share their work and ideas. This meant that doctors and scientists could study, challenge and build on each others research.

Question 9

What did people continue to believe in the Renaissance and what did hospitals do? (1500)

Answer 9

By 1500, hospitals were treating more sick people and most travelers and pilgrims had their own apothecary to mix medicines and physicians frequently checked patients.

Question 10

What happened when hospitals began re-appearing?

Answer 10

. They were run by physicians and focused on treating the sick rather than religion.

Question 11

What were some continuing treatments and prevention methods?

Answer 11

They used/did:
. Traditional herbal remedies
. Healthy living
. Bleeding and purging
. Superstitions and prayer
. Cleanliness

Question 12

What were some things in which didn’t change during this period regarding apothecaries, surgeons and physicians?

Answer 12

. Apothecaries and surgeons were still not given university training and were still considered inferior to physicians and cheaper.
. Physicians were still trained at universities and training lasted for many years however, training was still based on learning from textbooks rather than practical experience.

Question 13

What were some things in which did change during this period regarding apothecaries, surgeons and physicians?

Answer 13

. Apothecaries and surgeons were better trained through being in guild systems.
. Physicians was better access to a wider variety of medical books and detailed drawings due to the printing press.

Question 14

Who was Vesalius and what did he do?

Answer 14

.Andreas Vesalius studied medicine in Paris in 1533 then became a professor of surgery om Italy.
. He carried out a large number of dissections on human bodies and many discoveries on how the body worked.

Question 15

Why was Vesalius important?

Answer 15

. He improved the understanding of the human body.
. He proved that some of Galen’s work was incorrect, which helped encourage others to question his theories.
. He encourage and inspired other medical professionals to carry out dissections and make further discoveries.

Question 16

Where was Vesalius’ work published?

Answer 16

. His work was widely published in England and throughout Europe and included detailed illustrations of the human body, which were copied into other medical textbooks.

Question 17

What factors did peole still believed were the causes of the Great Plague? (1665)

Answer 17

. people’s beliefs about the causes of the Great Plague were mostly the same as their beliefs about the causes of the Black Death. However, there were a few differences.

Question 18

What were some differences in ideas about the causes of the Great Plague?

Answer 18

. Miasma was by far the most commonly believed case
. Far fewer people believed it was caused by an imbalance of the four humours.
. People knew that disease could be passed from person to person.

Question 19

What did the government do to try and stop the Great Plague from spreading?

Answer 19

. Theatres were closed and large gatherings were banned.
. Dogs and cats were killed.
. Streets were regularly cleaned.
. Every day, carts collected the dead who were then buried in deep mass graves.

Question 20

What did people do to try and prevent the plague?

Answer 20

. Plague doctors worse costumes to prevent them catching the disease. The masks included sweet-smelling herbs to ward off miasma and the cloak was waxed so that nothing from the patient could be absorbed into it.

Question 21

What did people think attracted the Plague?

Answer 21

Birds were believed to attract disease so the mask was in the shape of a bird’s beak in the hope that it would cause the Plague to leave the patient.

Question 22

Who was William Harvey and how did he influence individuals of the Medical Renaissance?

Answer 22

. William Harvey was influenced by Vesalius and went on to influencing many others such as Sydenham.
. He studied medicine at Cambridge, then Padua.
. He carried out public dissections.

Question 23

How was William Harvey important?

Answer 23

. He proved that some of Galen’s theories were wrong.
. He improved knowledge on how the body worked and passed this knowledge on.
. His work gained publicity and inspired others to find out more.
. His scientific methods of observation and use of dissection had brought results and so were copied by others.

Question 24

Who was Louis Pasteur and what did he prove?

Answer 24

. He was a French chemist and he published the germ theory.

. He proved microbes in the air decay and he theorised that germs also caused disease but was unable to prove this.

Question 25

What is spontaneous generation?

Answer 25

some scientists thought that germs were produced from decaying matter.

Question 26

What did Louis Pasteur’s germ theory show?

Answer 26

. His germ theory showed that spontaneous generation was incorrect.

Question 27

Who was Robert Koch?

Answer 27

. He was a German doctor who was inspired by Pasteur’s work and began to study microbes.
. He proved that Pasteur’s theory was right, that microbes caused disease as well as decay.
. He identiified the specific microbes that caused Tuberculosis in 1882 and cholera in 1883.

Question 28

What was Pasteur’s influence on medicine?

Answer 28

Pasteur’s Germ Theory had very little impact on medicine on Britain to begin with as he was not a doctor and his work focused on food and drink, not disease.
. Most people still believed in the sponteneous generation theory, but there were some e.g Joseph Lister who did make the links between microbes and disease.

Question 29

What was Pasteur’s influence on medicine?

Answer 29

.Koch’s work had more of an impact in Britain than Pasteur’s had, and he inspired others to research microbes.
.However, it took time for doctors and British government to accept the Germ Theory of disease.