Medicine - Early Modern Flashcards
(22 cards)
Why is the Renaissance so called?
Rebirth or rediscovery of knowledge from classical Greek and Roman times. Also an emergence of science based on direct observation and experimentation which challenged existing religious views.
How did Vesalius help to advance medical knowledge?
Believed doctors needed a proper understanding of anatomy. Performed dissections on executed criminals. Wrote illustrated book on anatomy called ‘The Fabric of the Human Body (1543)’. Showed some of Galen’s mistakes (no holes in heart). Encouraged others to question Galen.
Who was Harvey and what did he discover?
British doctor who challenged Galen’s ideas about blood circulation. Published ‘De Motu Cordis’ in 1628.
Why was Harvey’s discovery not immediately useful?
Heavily criticised. 50 years before his ideas were taught to students.
Describe how Pare found a better way to treat wounds.
Army surgeon who ran out of oil and made ointment instead (egg white, turps and rose oil). His patients recovered better. Also tied off vessels with threads instead of cauterisation.
List 4 medieval treatments that were still used during the Renaissance.
Bloodletting, treatments from other healers such as apothecaries or barber surgeons, superstition and religion (e.g. King’s touch to cure scrofula), quackery.
What was ‘burking’?
Named after William Burke and William Hare convicted in 1828 of committing ten murders in Edinburgh to supply fresh bodies to surgeons and schools of anatomy.
What did people believe caused the Great Plague in 1665?
Miasma, God, imbalance of humours, spread from other people.
List 4 treatments used against the Great Plague in 1665.
Bloodletting, prayers, lucky charms/superstition, carrying posies, victims quarantined - house locked, red cross on door.
Give 2 factors that improved doctors’ training during the Renaissance.
Doctors trained at College of Physicians set up in 1518 - read Galen but also studied recent medical developments. Dissections became a key part of medical training in 1700s.
How did John Hunter help to develop surgery?
Observed over 2000 dissections at anatomy school in London, became army surgeon and teacher (Edward Jenner was a student), learnt more about venereal disease, new approach to gunshot wounds.
Who provided hospitals after the dissolution of monasteries?
Charitable gifts by people, e.g. merchant, Thomas Guy founded Guy’s Hospital (1724).
How were people treated in these 18th Century hospitals?
Usually based on four humours. Towards end of 18th century some hospitals dispensed medicine to the poor free of charge.
What specialist hospitals were there?
St Luke’s Hospital (1751) and Bethlem in London for mentally ill, London’s Lock Hospital for venereal disease in 1746.
Florence Nightingale cared for injured soldiers during which war?
Crimean War 1853-1856.
How did Florence Nightingale improve hospital care?
She took 38 trained nurses with her, ensured all wards were clean and hygienic, water supplies adequate, and patients fed properly. Published book on nursing. Public raised £44,000 to help her train nurses, she set up the Nightingale School of nursing in St Thomas’ Hospital.
How were smallpox prevented before Jenner’s discovery of a vaccine?
Inoculation. Promoted in Britain by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who learnt about it in Turkey. Cut in arm and soaking it in pus from swelling of someone with smallpox.
Why was a new method needed?
Patients had to experience smallpox before becoming immune, some died. In 1751, 3,500 people died of smallpox in London alone.
How did Edward Jenner prove the link between smallpox and cowpox?
Noticed milkmaids didn’t get smallpox after contracting cowpox. In 1796 tested theory on small boy, James Phipps with pus from milkmaid with cowpox. Then injected him with smallpox. Published findings in 1798.
Why was there opposition to Jenner’s vaccination?
People worried about giving themselves a disease from cows, some doctors saw it as a threat to their older way of inoculation and livelihood, several deaths from vaccination - often because doctors weren’t as meticulous as Jenner.
How did Parliament support Jenner’s vaccination?
In 1802 Parliament gave Jenner £10,000 to open a vaccination clinic, and gave Jenner a further £20,000 in 1807. 1840 - free for infants, 1853 - compulsory but not strictly enforced. 1871 - parents fined for not having children vaccinated.
What were the limitations of Jenner’s discovery?
He didn’t know why it worked, couldn’t develop other vaccines, only possible after Germ Theory published in 1861.
