Early modern period

• Secular


  Non-religious
• Alchemy


  An early form of chemistry trying to turn one metal into another
• Royal charter


  A document from the monarch granting a right or power to a paticular group of people
• Humanism


  A belief system characterised by the belief that humans could make up their own minds
• New World


  North and South America
• Journeyman


  An experienced member of a profession who did not yet have his own business
• Renaissance


  The revival of European art and literature under the influence of classical models
• Pneuma


  'breath of life' Galen thought it was your breath and life force
• Quack doctors


  someone with no medical training who sold services as a doctor or apothecary
• Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689)


  Nicknamed the English Hippocrates, well respected doctor in London, encouraged doctors to observe the symptoms of a patient before giving a diagnosis, thought disease was like plants and animals
• Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)


  famous anatomist who published books based on dissections of executed criminals - 'Six Anatomical Tables' showed different parts of the body labelled in 4 languages, 'On the Fabric of the Body' showed errors made by Galen, encouraged professors to carry out dissections and made study of anatomy fashionable
• William Harvey (1578-1657)


  Dr to James 1 with keen interest in dissection he relies on careful observation of the anatomy, his book an account of the motion of the heart and blood in animals could be considered modern physiology. His work encourages experiments on actual bodies.
• List the three main beliefs of the causes of the plague

  A punishment from god

  Alignment of mars and Saturn

  Miasmata
• What was miasma


  The belief that bad air or bad smells spread disease.
• What did physicians recommend to prevent/ treat the plague


  Prayer, repentance, quarantine, carrying herbs for foul smelling air, different diets
• What did apothecaries offer to stop the plague


  They offered plague water to treat the disease and also remedies from English and new world herbs
• What key development took place in the 1520s


  The theory of the four humours was overturned and disease is looked at as a separate entity from the body
• What key thing happened in 1660


  The Royal Society is founded and they begin publishing their journal in 1665
• What theory was made in 1628


  Harvey suggested that blood circulated around the body
• Religious causes of disease


  A belief that Illness is caused by god and is a punishment from god
• Supernatural causes of disease

  Astrology and the positioning of the planet
• Was the four humours theory still in use


  Although was more rejected many doctors still used it for the basis of medical understanding
• What was transference


  The idea that disease or illness could be transferred to an object or animal
• Why did herbal treatments increase


  Because new herbs began coming in from the new world
• What materials were used in chemical cures


  Salts, metals and minerals including mercury
• What was regimen sanitatis?


  A set of instructions on how a patient maintains a healthy lifestyle
• What became less popular after the regimen sanitas was released?


  Bathing became less popular due to links between bath houses and syphilis
• How did wars and new technology affect medicine?

  New wounds became more common so surgeons skills increased
• How did hospitals change in the early modern period


  They became more focused on treating rather than just rehabilitating