part 2: impact of the renaissance Flashcards
(20 cards)
renaissance era
- means rebirth
- time for continuity and change
- period witnessed a widespread rebirth of the learning and knowledge from classical period
- influenced world today
- idea of better education
- printing press meant word could be spread quickly
ideas about medicine, myths and magic
- faded
- thought about how body worked based on direct observation and experimentation
why was there a change?
- new books discovered
- that stated anatomy and dissection were very important
- encouraged many to examine body
- as a result many questioned galen’s thinking but work continued to be studied
change in religion and result
- protestant Christianity spread through britain
- reduced influence of catholic church in many aspects including medicine
- religion still important but church no longer had control over teaching
andreas vesalius
- 1514 -1564
- stole body of executed criminals and studied it
- pioneered use of visual aids for teaching anatomy
- one of first doctors to perform human dissections
- discovered how human anatomy was structured
- wrote the Fabric of the Human Body in 1543
- criticised galen’s ideas and corrected his mistakes
vesalius book
- wrote the Fabric of the Human Body in 1543, presenting exact descriptions and illustrations of skeleton, muscles, nervous system, blood vessels
vesalius short term impact
- book quickly improved knowledge about anatomy in europe
- helped change attitudes, doctors realised there was more to learn
- helped change training
- triggered other research into anatomy
vesalius long term impact
- other doctors followed example and started to challenge traditional ideas in other areas of medicine
- turning point, most students encouraged to gain hands on experience and discover things themselves
- accuracy of the anatomical knowledge and drawing in his book so other medical advances could happen
what old ideas did vesalius challenge?
galen’s beliefs as he looked at animals e.g lower jaw has 1 bone not 2, no holes in septum of the heart
william harvey
- born 1578
- studied both animals and humans
- realised that he could observe living animals hearts in action and findings would apply to humans
- gave doctors a map of human body from ideas shown in books
what discoveries did harvey make, how, what old ideas did he challenge?
- blood was pumped around the body in a double circulatory system
- carried out comparative dissections on humans and animals then calculated volume of blood in body and realised it was impossible for liver to produce that
- challenged galen that believed all blood came from liver and two kinds of blood flowed through different systems of blood vessels
harvey impact
- short term, reduced use of blood letting
ambroise pare
- french barber surgeons born 1510
- surgery still a low status profession
- army doctor
pare army discovery
- gunshot wounds often became infected but didn’t understand why
- treatment was to burn skin by pouring hot oil onto it
- pare ran out of oil so had to make up his own salve which worked better as caused less pain and healed better
- unaware of why it worked due to no knowledge of germs
pare amputations
- improved treatment of amputations
- blood vessels burned to stop bleeding before
- developed a technique to tie them off with threads called ligatures
- reduced chance of death from shock but increased risk of infection as surgeons hands often unclean
pare old ideas challenged, improvement in health long or short term?
- old ideas about stitching and wound healing
- long term, discoveries on a small scale
- took until 19th century for blood groups and transfusions to be discovered
opposition to change vesalius, pare, harvey
vesalius: didn’t have immediate impact on diagnosis or treatment of disease
pare: resisted by doctors who felt a surgeon shouldn’t be listened to, only when he became surgeon to king of france was he accepted
harvey: long time before doctors used his theories in their treatments, continued to perform bloodletting even though harvey proved reasoning to be wrong
renaissance developments in medicine
- printing press
- invention of microscope
- new ideas from exploration
pare significance
- short term: showed
that new methods could be successful than old ideas - long term: ligatures become useful, especially after discovery of germ theory and carbolic acid
harvey significance
short term: another example of galen’s work proved incorrect, encouraged doctors to continue to question and challenge ancient ideas
- long term: significant in development of successful blood transfusions
