Beginnings of Change Flashcards
What happened to Galen’s work in the Renaissance
- people began to question his work or first time
- continued to be studied
What happened to Christianity during Renaissance
- 16th century - Protestant Christianity spread to Britain during Reformation
- Catholic church influence reduced - no control over medical teaching
When was the printing press invented
1440s
Who invented the printing press
Johannes Gutenberg
Importance of printing press
- books could be quickly/easily copied
- didn’t have to be copied out by scribes (monks)
- ideas could be shared faster - old could be questioned/discussed, new could be widely discovered
Vesalius - work
- judge recognised his work - allowed him to dissect criminals
- criminal dissection findings contradicted Galen
- encouraged students to do own dissections
- made surgery/anatomy relevant
Vesalius - discoveries
- 1536 - discovered spermatic vessels
- 1539 - human bodies quite different to animals - contradicting Galen
- no holes in septum of heart
Vesalius - writing
- 1543 - ‘Fabric of the Human Body’
- high quality illustrations of body
- first public disagreement of Galen - encouraged other disagreement
About Paré
- learned surgery as apprentice to brother in Paris
- became French army surgeon
Paré - work
- ran out of hot oil for cauterisation (people thought gunshot wounds were poisonous - used only white + cream of rose oil, wounds quickly healed
- retrieved Galen’s ligature method - tying blood vessels
- designed ‘crow’s beak clamp’ to hold bleeding when tying ligature
- designed false limbs for soldiers
Paré - writing
- 1561 - Anatomie Universelle
- 1575 - Works on Surgery
- includes many translations of Vesalius - most surgeons didn’t speak Latin
What prompted Harvey’s work
- 16 - went to medical school in Padua
- tutor ‘Fabrius’ taught him about valves in veins
- Harvey returned to London fascinated - wanted to more about heart, specifically if heart was like water pump
What did people believe about blood before Harvey
Galen taught blood was regnerated
Harvey - work
- dissected cold blooded animals (lizards) with slower heartbeats to see how they work
- pushed metal rods down veins to prove blood circulated 1 way
- measured amount of blood pumped by heart to measure amount in body
What medical process did Harvey’s work aid
1901 - blood transfusions
Harvey - writing
- 1628 - published about movement of heart
- people lost patience + rejected ideas as he couldn’t prove arteries and veins connected by capillaries
Why did people continue to use medieval methods in Renaissance
- reluctancy to change
- whilst printing press was big development, most people couldn’t read/write
Medieval methods still used in Renaissance
- bloodletting/purging
- herbal remedies from apothecaries / barber surgeons - doctors expensive
- superstitious + religion - King’s touch curing scrofula
New Renaissance treatment methods
- Quacks sold medicines that didn’t work - College of Physicians licensed doctors to stop quackery
- 1700s - electricity used in some medical treatments, rarely effective
When did Great Plague hit London
1665
Similarities in Great Plague + Black Death response
- superstitious treatments - lucky charms, amulets, prayers, fasting
- bloodletting - worsened things (wounds to become infected)
- flagellants
- belief in miasma - carried herbs/flowers
- cleaned streets (gong farmers this time)
New responses to Great Plague
- victims quarantined when detected by examiner - house locked with red cross on door, watchmen made sure they didn’t leave
- crowded places (pubs) closed
- mass graves for plague bodies away from houses
- wild animals roaming London killed
What did people think ended Great Plague
Great Fire of London - sterilised parts of London by burning down houses
Why were there so few hospitals in Britain until 18th century
- 1530s - dissolution of monasteries, Henry VIII closed down most monasteries
- most hospitals had been set up + run by monasteries