Medicine

• Miasma


  Was still seen as a cause of disease by many people
• Four Humours


  Many scientists and medics were beginning to realise that the Four Humours could not explain all illnesses and diseases, but many members of the public still believed in the theory
• Religion


  Although people were now sceptical that disease was caused by God, many people still turned to religion to explain events like the Great Plague
• Thomas Sydenham


  • Helped to move medicine in Britain away from the classical ideas of Galen and Hippocrates
  • Refused to rely just on medical books
  • Made a point of closely observing symptoms and treating the disease causing them
  • Suggested that diseases were like plants or animals and could be organized into different groups
  • Did not believe that treatments for disease depended very much on the person themselves
  • Was able to show how to differentiate between things like measles and scarlet fever
• As lots of the public still believed the theory of the four humours, practices like purging and bleeding continued
• Transference


  The idea that an illness or disease can be transferred to something else
• Transference


  • Rubbing an object on a boil to transfer the disease
  • Sleeping in the same room as an animal in the hope that a fever will transfer to that animal
• Herbal remedies


  There were lots of new herbal remedies as this was during the age of exploration and people were exploring the New World and bringing back new spices and herbs
• Herbal remedies


  • Sarsaparilla - used to treat the "Great Pox" (Syphilis)
• Chemical Cures


  The practice of looking for chemical cures rather than relying on herbs, inspired by the Swiss Scientist Paracelsus
• Chemical Cures


  • Salts, metals, minerals, mercury, antimony
• Antimony in particular could be used to encourage sweating / vomiting
• Moderation


  In all things (food / temperature / exercise / alcohol)
• Cleanliness


  Both the home and the body
• Bathing became much less fashionable as syphilis had spread very quickly among people who used bathhouses
• Regimen Sanitatis


  People started paying attention to things like the weather and how this could affect disease or illness
• People were fined for not cleaning the area outside their house and there were projects to remove sewage or drain swamps
• Apothecaries / Surgeons


  • War leads to new surgical methods being used, also apothecaries now form into guilds so people have to complete an apprenticeship and carry a license to operate
• Physicians


  • Greater focus on observation and more opportunity to conduct dissections
• Hospitals


  In 1536 when Henry closes the monasteries this reduces the amount of available hospitals, but now people could expect visits from a trained physician rather than just monks and nuns
• Pest Houses


  Hospitals that specialise in one type of disease
• Andreas Vesalius


  • The most famous anatomist of the period
  • Studied at medical universities in Paris and Padua
  • In 1537 published "Six Anatomical Tables" showing detailed drawings and annotations of the human body
  • In 1543 published "On the Fabric of the Human Body" and found 300 mistakes that Galen had made concerning human anatomy
  • Showed that men did not have one fewer rib than women and that the human lower jaw is in one part not two
  • Encouraged doctors to carry out dissections themselves rather than relying on old texts
• Impact of Vesalius' work

  Made the study of anatomy fashionable and caused controversy by challenging Galen
• William Harvey


  • Studied medicine at Cambridge and Padua
  • Became royal doctor for James I
  • Encouraged students and doctors to carry out dissections to improve knowledge of the human body
  • Discovered that blood only flows towards the heart, disproving Galen's theory that blood was generated in the liver and distributed around the body
  • Proved that arteries and veins are linked together in one system and that the veins carry only blood
  • Proved that the heart acts as a pump
• Impact of Harvey's discovery

  It encouraged other scientists to experiment more, but the impact was limited because understanding the circulation of blood had little use in medical treatment at that time, and many doctors ignored or criticised him
• Factors driving change during the Renaissance period

  • Improved communications - the printing press
  • Royal Society - organizations that allowed people to share and debate ideas
  • Key individuals - such as Harvey, Vesalius, Leeuwenhoek, Hooke, Sydenham
  • Changing attitudes - the Renaissance was a time of breaking down old beliefs and re-thinking the way the world worked
• Quality of medical instruments restricted change, as new theories may have been very convincing but without proof they were just that, theories
• The attitude of the public, as they still believed in the four humours, meant many physicians stuck to their old methods
• Spontaneous Generation


  In the 1700s scientists were able to use microscopes to see microbes on decaying matter, but they thought the microbes existed because of the decaying matter, not that the microbes caused the matter to decay
• Pasteur's Germ Theory


  • Louis Pasteur observed microbes in wine and vinegar that turned both liquids 'bad'
  • In 1861 Pasteur came up with Germ Theory - he said there were microbes in the air that cause decay, and that the microbes could be killed by heating them
  • Pasteur coined the term "germs" because he could see the microorganisms growing or germinating
• Impact of Pasteur's Germ Theory

  • Inspiring others like Joseph Lister and John Tyndall to make links between microbes and disease
  • Limited impact as Pasteur's work had focused on food and not humans, and influential British doctor Henry Bastian still promoted the theory of spontaneous generation
• Koch and Microbes


  • Koch was a German scientist who was able to identify different germs that caused specific diseases
  • In 1882 he discovered the bacteria that caused tuberculosis and published his method to identify disease causing microbes
  • In 1883 he discovered the microbe that caused cholera and in 1884 he proved it was spread in water supplies
• Impact of Koch's work

  • Helped others study bacteria through his methods, inspired lots of other people who went on to discover other diseases, and helped change the way doctors work by studying the disease itself rather than just the symptoms
  • However, his findings especially in relation to cholera were largely ignored by the British Government and it wasn't until the 20th Century that Germ Theory really had a huge impact
• John Snow


  • A well-respected surgeon who observed the cholera epidemic in 1848-49 and wrote up his findings in "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera"
  • Said cholera was transmitted not by miasma but by dirty water
  • In 1854 created a "spot map" of cholera cases in Soho, London and realised a high number of deaths occurred around a water pump on Broad Street
  • Removed the handle from the pump and the outbreak went away, later inspections showed sewage had leaked into the well the pump used
• Impact and significance of Snow's findings

  • In 1855 he presented his findings to a House of Commons committee and recommended the government make massive improvements to the sewer systems to prevent future cholera outbreaks
  • It was not only because of Snow that the government took action, as the "Great Stink" of 1858 also led to action
  • There was opposition from the General Board of Health who still argued miasma caused cholera, and Snow could not show exactly what caused the disease until the work of Pasteur and Koch
• James Simpson


  • A surgeon from Edinburgh who was certain there was a better anaesthetic than laughing gas or ether
  • He and his friends tried inhaling a range of chemicals and after using chloroform the whole group passed out
  • Queen Victoria used chloroform in 1853 during the birth of her son, and Simpson was the first person to be knighted for services to medicine
• As a result of the success of chloroform, deeper and more complex surgeries became possible
• Problems with chloroform - too much could kill a patient, and it could affect the heart badly causing some otherwise healthy people to die
• Pasteur and Koch's work was important before the bacteria that caused cholera was isolated and before the importance of clean water was accepted
• Surgery - James Simpson

  A surgeon from Edinburgh who was certain that there was a better anaesthetic than laughing gas or ether, and discovered chloroform