renaissance

• Key Individuals:

  Thomas Sydenham (english hippocrates) - He observed patients’ symptoms, this enabled him identify the disease that needed to be treated.

  Vesalius Anatomist - Carried out dissections, found errors in Galen’s ideas (eg lower jaw = one bone, not two. Published in “Fabric of the Human Body” )

  William Harvey - discovered how blood circulated round the body
• Anatomy - The human body
• Diagnose - to look at symptoms to work out what disease a patient has
• Miasma - foul smells, thought to cause disease
• Quarantine - isolating ill person to stop spread
• Transference - rubbing an object on a wound to “transfer” illness from the patient
• Ideas about CAUSE of disease

  Time of discovery, scientific progress, experiments.

  - The Church had less control over life, so there was a chance for the spread of new ideas.

  - The printing press helped ideas to spread.

  -Royal Society allowed scientists to gather, share research This led to lots of new ideas: eg Better understanding of anatomy, for example blood circulated round the body

  -Existence of “animalcules”
• Ideas about CAUSE of disease

  Four Humours - This theory had been proved wrong by scientists. However, most people still believed it so most physicians continued to use old methods, eg bleeding.

  Miasma - This ides that disease spread by bad smelling air was still believed
• Approaches to TREATMENT and PREVENTION

  Treatment

  Transference – disease could be transferred to an object by rubbing it Lots more herbal remedies available from newly discovered lands of the New World The new science of chemistry resulted in lots of chemical cures. eg antimony used to treat typhus

  -Apothecaries and surgeons were better trained

  -Less hospitals available because many of these had been run by the monasteries, which were closed down by Henry VIII
• Approaches to TREATMENT and PREVENTION

  Prevention

  Ideas about cause of disease had advanced, but treatments were still not effective. So prevention still very important.

  -Cleanliness still important; though less use of public baths since arrival of syphilis Moderation avoiding too much alcohol, cold, food -To reduce miasma, homeowners in some towns had to pay a fine if they did not clean outside their homes
• Case Study: The Great Plague (1665)


  Disease continued to strike after 1348 (Black Death)

  – 1665 = bad year. More than 65,000 died in London Prevention Measures to help people avoid the Plague:

  • Prayer
  • Quarantine
  • “examiner” to check if anyone suffering in parish
  • “watchman” guard house of victims - Cross marked on affected house
  • Pomander carried to keep away miasma
  • Plague doctors wore special costume: - Bird design to “transfer” disease away from patient - Mask full of herbs
  • Public meeting, fairs, theatres cancelled
  • Carts travelled through cities to collect dead
• Examples of Change


  - Understanding that Four Humour theory was wrong (though it was still widely used)

  - Better understanding of human body

  -More remedies available from New World (newly discovered land in Americas)

  - Use of chemical cures
• Examples of Continuity


  - Belief in miasma as a cause of disease

  - Herbal remedies still popular

  - People still used humoural treatments (eg bleeding), because patients believed in them.