Causes of illness and disease

• Causes of illness and disease

  Religious explanation:

  most people began to realise that god didn't send disease. however, in desperate times of epidemic (like the great plague), they still turned to religious explanations. now, humanism was on the rise - a way of thinking that believed humans could make up their own minds about the world
• Causes of illness and disease

  Astrology:

  though not as popular as before, people still believed that astrology influenced disease. some blamed the great plague on unusual planet alignments that had occurred in october and november of 1664.
• Causes of illness and disease

  Miasma:

  most people still believed that miasma caused disease. miasma could be caused by rotting food, decaying corpses, excrement, or any other dirty place.
• Causes of illness and disease

  Four humours:

  although some top physicians were now challenging galen's ideas, most ordinary people continued to believe that illness was caused by an imbalance of the humours. therefore, most physicians stuck to the theory of the four humours, even if they doubted it. patients were paying physicians to treat them, not to experiment.
• Causes of illness and disease

  fracastoro & leeuwenhoek:

  there were some new discoveries which began to suggest alternative causes of disease: an italian physician, girolamo fracastoro, theorised that disease was caused by seeds that spread in the air. these ideas were close to the truth but had very little impact at the time. a dutch microbiologist, antonie van leeuwenhoek, observed animalcules' under a microscope. however, he didn't know that these were bacteria or that they caused disease.
• Causes of illness and disease

  thomas sydenham:

  thomas sydenham, an english physician, refused to rely on medical books. instead, he believed that physicians should closely observe the patient and record their symptoms. in his book observations medicae (1676), sydenham said that illness was caused by something external, not internal factors (like diet or humoral balance). he also correctly said that measles and scarlet fever were separate diseases, although he couldn't identify the microbes that caused each.
• Causes of illness and disease

  Printing press:

  new ideas about medicine could be spread much quicker due to the invention of the printing press. books were no longer copied out by hand in monasteries, which meant that scientists could easily share new information with one another. it also meant that the church no longer had control over wat was published.
• Causes of illness and disease

  Royal society:

  the royal society was an influential group of scientists formed in 1660, sharing experiments and promoting scientific ideas. the society published a journal called philosophical transactions, which featured information and experiments from european scientists. members were encouraged to write their reports in english rather than latin to be more accessible. people were especially willing to take notice of the royal society when it was given a royal charter by charles II in 1662, showing the king's support and giving them more credibility.