Renaissance Medicine

• What was set up in 1518

  College of Physicians
• In what year was the first British printing press set up

  1470
• Why was the printing press significant

  Church no longer had control over what was published

  New ideas could be spread or debated more easily

  Existing ideas could be questioned
• What was the Royal Society and when was it established 


  A prestigious scientific body founded in 1660 that was supported by King Charles II. It was important in spreading new ideas and getting people to trust new technology
• What did exploration abroad lead to

  New drug ingredients like guaiacum (believed to cure syphilis) and quinine from the bark of a cinchona tree
• What did the dissolution of monasteries lead to

  Free hospitals opened run by trained physicians and focused on curing illness
• What was a drawback of the printing press 


  Many people couldn't read these books
• Who was Vesalius and what did he do

  Church allowed him to dissect dead criminals and so he proved many of Galens Anatomy theories wrong (for example the jawbone ) this encouraged others to question Galen
• What did Versalius publish in 1543

  Fabric of the Human Body
• When was Vesalius born

  1514
• When was Six Anatomical Pictures published 


  1538
• Who was Thomas Sydenham

  Renaissance Physician who used detailed observations and accurate records of symptoms. He suggested that each disease was different and had its own symptoms
• What is Sydenham famous for showing

  That scarlet fever and measles were different
• What book did Sydenham Publish in 1676

  Medical Observations
• When was William Harvey born

  1578
• Who was William Harvey Royal Physician of

  James I and Charles I
• What did William Harvey discover

  That blood circulated around the body
• What book did Harvey Publish in 1628

  On the motion of the heart and blood
• How much of an impact did Harveys discoveries have on medicine

  Limited impact on diagnosis and treatment and not everyone believed in his theories and so purging still carried on despite Harvey proving it wrong
• When did the great plague hit London

  1665
• What was the London death toll of the Great Plague

  100,000 ( 20% of the population )
• Who was most affected by the Great Plague

  Doctors and priests as people went to them for aid
• How did people attempt to prevent the plague

  Prayer , Quarantine ( victims had a Red Cross on there door) , public places closed , mass graves away from houses
• How did people try to treat the Plague

  Remedies such as plague water , bloodletting and transference which included strapping a live chicken to the swellings
• Why did council pay for many cats and dogs to be killed during the plague

  Because they believed that they carried the plague
• What things continued from the medieval period

  Similar Treatments like purging and blood letting

  Apothecaries and barber surgeons

  Many used quack doctors as doctors too expensive

  Hospitals still basic