Renaissance: 1500 - 1700

• Background info:

  • Period of new ideas
  • Willingness to change medieval ideas
  • Movement towards science over religion
  • Reformation takes place
• Key dates:

  • 1543 - Vesalius publishes 'On the Fabric of the Human Body'
  • 1628 - William Harvey publishes book about blood
  • 1660 - Royal Society starts
  • 1665 - Robert Hooke develops microscope
  • 1676 - Thomas Sydenham published 'Observationes Medicae'
• Key people:

  • Van Leeuwenhoek - saw 'animalcules'
  • Paracelsus - rejected 4 humours, used chemicals
  • Thomas Sydenham - 1660s/70s. Used observation
  • William Harvey - Discovered blood circulation, did dissection
  • Vesalius - studied anatomy, did dissection
  • Robert Hooke - developed strong microscope
• Key ideas (causes):

  • Religious (continuity)
  • Astrology (continuity)
  • Miasma (continuity)
  • 4 humours (continuity)
  • Animalcules (change)
  • Observation (change)
• Humanism - a way of thinking that broke away from religious and supernatural explanations
• Printing press - now non church-approved books could be published and widely distributed
• Royal Society - scientists who communicated and studied eachother's work. Published a journal (Philosophical Transactions)
• Key ideas (treatments):

  • Transference (change)
  • Chemical cures (change)
  • Humoural treatments (continuity)
  • Herbal remedies used new ingredients from abroad (change)
• Transference - theory that disease can be transferred from a human to something else
• Chemical cures - alchemy and new elements were used to cure illness instead of natural herbs
• Hospitals:

  • Now focused on curing
  • Many employed physicians
  • Many closed because of Reformation
  • Pest houses - only cared for plague victims
  • Most were still cared for at home
• Doctors/healers:

  • Physicians were taught new ideas too
  • Surgeons needed a licence and (rarely) did dissections
  • Apothecaries needed a licence and had new ingredients
• Key ideas (preventions):

  • Government took a more active role (change)
  • Lifestyle advice e.g moderation (continuity)
  • Purifying air (continuity)
• Great plague 1665 - returned, spread by fleas and rats
• Great plague causes:

  • Religious - God sent it as punishment
  • Supernatural - planet alignments
  • Miasma (main ideas)
  • Person to person
• Great plague treatments:

  • Most isolated/quarantines
  • Sweating out
  • Transference
  • Herbal remedies
  • Quack doctors
• Great plague preventions:

  • Religious and supernatural
  • Purifying air (pomander)
  • Plague doctors
  • Diet advice
  • Government - quarantine, crowds banned
  • Apothecaries provided remedies