The Renaissance

Question 1

What are the changes in beliefs?

Answer 1

• fewer people believed in supernatural or religious causes
• theory of miasma carried on
• four humours also continued but by 1700 less people believed in it
• influence of the church decreased (and how god created disease to punish)

Question 2

Who is Thomas Sydenham?

Answer 2

• Worked as a doctor during the 1660s and 70s
• didn’t rely on medical books when making a diagnosis but observed patients and recorded symptoms in detail
• based the treatment on the disease as a whole and not the individual.
• influenced many doctors after his death

Question 3

What was the printing press and its influence?

Answer 3

• invented around 1440 by Gutenberg and by 150 there were hundreds.
• it meant that many exact copies of text could be produced in a short amount of time
• helped reduce the churches control and could no longer prevent the publication of ideas it did not approve of
• therefore doctors books and ideas could be shared more effectively and much faster across a wider area.

Question 4

What is the Royal Society?

Answer 4

• The Royal society aimed to further scientific understanding by carrying out and recording the results of experiments.
• It sponsored scientists to enable them to carry out research.

Question 5

Describe the hospitals

Answer 5

• By 1550, hospitals were treating more sick people and were being used less by travellers and pilgrims.
• most had their own apothecaries and physicians
• in 1536, the dissolution of monasteries in England by Henry the VIII caused most hospitals to close.
• some free hospitals were set up but it wasn’t until well into 1700 that the number increased
• most pest houses began to appear (where people with contagious diseases could go for care)
• when the number of hospitals increased, they were ran by physicians.

Question 6

Who is Vesalius?

Answer 6

• Studied medicine in 1533 and became a professor of surgery in Italy
• Carried out a large number of dissections on human bodies

Question 7

What is the importance of Vesalius?

Answer 7

• Improved understanding of human body
• He made the study of anatomy central to medicine
• Proved some of Galen’s work was incorrect
• Inspired other medical professions to carry out dissections and make more discoveries.
• His work was highly published in Europe

Question 8

Describe the great plague of 1665.

Answer 8

• Causes;
  
  • miasma was the most common belief
  • less people be lived it was the humours
  • people knew it could be passed along
• Treatments;
  
  • people tried to pass it onto animals
  • people thought they could sweat it out so they made many fires
• Government action
  
  • large gatherings were banned
  • dogs and cats were killed
  • streets were cleaned regularly
  • barrels of tar were burned
  • carts collected the dead
  • a household was blocked up if a member had it
  • fasting and prayers

Question 9

Who was William Harvey?

Answer 9

• studied medicine
• one of James I doctors
• discovered the process of blood circulation

Question 10

What was the importance of William Harvey?

Answer 10

• He proved some of Galen’s theories were wrong
• Improved knowledge of how the body worked
• By 1700 his work was taught in schools
• His work gained publicity
• He highly inspired others
• His discoveries left many unanswered questions which encouraged more experiments

Question 11

Describe the discovery of blood circulation.

Answer 11

• Harvey proved Versailles was right about how the blood flowed towards the heart, he did this by using pumps that showed blood only flowed one way
• He also proved that blood is no produces by the liver and absorbed in the body
• Harvey was influenced by new technology
• He discovered that arteries and veins were part of one system and blood was pumped by the heart