Renaissance Medicine

• How was Renaissance medicine?

  • although Renaissance Era encouraged science, many still stuck in dated beliefs
• Great Plague 1665

  • killed around 1/4 of London's population
  • Bills of Mortality showed that most deaths occurred in the dirtiest, poorest places
  • councils took more organised action, victims were quarantined, red crosses on doors, crowds banned
• Hospitals

  • Westminster and Addenbrooke's Hospitals were founded by merchants/doctors
  • hospitals now promoted scientific care, training and service
  • often included medical schools
  • by 1800s, hospitals in London were treating 20,000 a year