Topic 2 : Renaissance Flashcards
(18 cards)
Progress from Medieval period - ideas about causes of disease
Unchanged
Remained :
Four humours
God/ supernatural
Miasma
Progress from Medieval period - Treatment and Prevention
SIMILAR
Middle Ages :
- Praying
- Herbal remedies
- Cleaning environment
- Bleeding
- Isolation (plague)
Renaissance - same as Middle Ages with additional :
- Vaccination
- Inoculation
Progress from Medieval period - Caring for the sick
Middle Ages :
- monks in monastery hospitals
- priest
- wise women
- barber surgeon
- physician
Renaissance :
- no monasteries because of the reformation
- wise women
- barber surgeons
- physicians
- quacks
Progress from Medieval period - Hospitals
Middle Ages :
- Didn’t treat illness but cared for the sick
Renaissance :
- began to use modern methods to cure patients not just care for them
- hospitals for the mentally ill (Bedlam + Bethlem )
- sometimes local people/ charities came together to pay for the construction
- sometimes had medical school attached, gave future doctors training
- Christian’s believed they needed to do good deeds in the community leading to the hospital boom.
Progress from Medieval period - knowledge of the body
Middle Ages :
- limited because there was no human dissection
- based of galens research (experiments on animals)
Renaissance :
- human dissection permitted ( Vesalius worked on executed criminals )
- printing press meant more books/ artists
- Galens ideas challenged
What was Harvey’s Theory
‘Blood moves in a constant circle and is driven by the heart’
Harvey how he made his discoveries
Studied human hearts through dissection and observed the slow beating of the heart in cold blooded animals.
He experimented by trying to pump liquid the wrong way through valves in the veins, proving that blood could only go
round one way.
Harvey’s discoveries
- blood only moved round one way
- heart was the centre of the body not the liver
- proved it was impossible for the body to have too much blood.
Impacts of Harvey
SIGNIFICANCE IN THE LONG TERM
Took 12 years to publish his book ‘On the motion of the Heart’ because his ideas were so revolutionary and he wanted to make sure he understood every aspect of how the blood worked in the body.However he still did not know why the blood circulated.
When Harvey published his book in 1628, his critics said he was mad to suggest that the blood circulated. Many other ignored his ideas. Some even rejected his theory because he was contradicting Galen who had been the authority figure for a long time. Some reacted very hostile to Harvey. They called him a ‘quack’
How did Veslius made his discoveries?
Carried out dissections on executed criminals
What discoveries did Vesalius make ?
That Galen was wrong about several aspects of dissection e.g. the jawbone was 1 bone not two.
Impact of Vesalius ?
Faced heavy criticism for saying Galen was wrong and not just blaming the dissected body as other doctors did
In 1543 published illustrated textbook ‘The Fabric of the Human Body’
Work was published by an Italian printer and was sold to barber-surgeons in London and Vesalius’ work
found an audience in England - inspired by his work.
Although his work did not lead to any medical cures, it was the basis for better treatments in the future. He also showed others how to do proper dissections.
Parè discoveries
French Barber Surgeon
CHANCE - During a French battle, Pare ran out of hot oil and was forced to improvise. Pare used just the Roman remedy cream to soothe the patients. Pare’s patients slept well and their wounds healed quickly. Pare then wrote a book about treating wounds in new and better ways in 1545.
Also used ligatures to seal a wound better than cauterising however this took to long and caused infection, going deep in body, turned to making artificial limbs.
Black Death and Great Plague comparison
Killed 30% of England , killed around 100,000 of London population
Still believed it was from miasma or punishment from god
Still had no cure , religion still had a large part in treatment
People beginning to make a strong connection between dirt and the disease
MORE ORGANISED APPROACH
-authorities paid women searchers to check, people locked in houses with a cross on their door and watchmen outside
- bodies burned in mass plague pits
Hospital Boom
Christians began stressing the importance of showing their faith through more than just attending church –
they needed to do good deeds in the community. Attitude to disease were changing too. People began abandoning the idea that disease was a punishment for sin.
Between 1720-1750, 5 new general hospitals were added to London and 9 more throughout
the country.
John Hunter
Used scientific method and observation. Even experimented on himself.
Radical approaches e.g. man brought in with aneurysm on knee joint. Didn’t amputate instead cut off blood supply above the knee to encourage new blood vessels and he walked out 6 week later.
Inoculation benefits and negatives.
Benefits
- People were able to build up resistance to the disease
- Profitable
Negatives
- religious objections - challenge god
- could still pass the disease
- the poor couldn’t afford it
- could give a large dose killing them
Edward Jenner
Experimented on boy - injected with cowpox from milkmaids, allowed him to recover before giving his smallpox but he was immune. - didn’t understand why
Opposition
- doctors benefited from inoculation
- physician carried out his technique incorrectly and the patient died
-1802 given £10,000 by Parliament and the Royal family was vaccinated (3 years after he published)
