Renaissance Medicine

• During the Renaissance, medicine started to improve for the first time since the ancient era.

  This was a time of new discoveries and technology, where science played a much more important role.

  Galen’s work was properly challenged, medical understanding improved, but problems still remained.
• Features of the Renaissance

  • New Technology
  • Science v Religion
  • Art & Culture
• New Technology


  1. The first microscopes were developed

  2. The Printing Press was discovered

  3. Cannons, gunpowder and new weaponry caused new wounds for war surgeons to treat
• In the Middle Ages

  Religious ideas and the church held power over science
• During the Renaissance


  Science becoming increasingly important
• The ideas of the church and Galen were challenged
• Art & Culture


  • Period of cultural rebirth with classical art and architecture rediscovered
  • New ideas were added to this, creating a much more culturally developed society
• Opposition to Change

  Not everyone supported the work of individuals such as Harvey and Vesalius, in fact many people opposed the changes they proposed. This hindered progress as these new ideas were treated with suspicion.

  Those who supported Galen totally rejected his work, whilst people with conservative beliefs did not want to see the ancient works challenged, and refused to believe the findings of the experimental challenges.
• Surgery during the Renaissance

  • Some improvements thanks to the work of John Hunter & Ambroise Pare
  • No proper anaesthetics or antiseptics, so pain and infection were major problems
  • Surgery became a little more complex, but it was still dangerous and the fear of death remained
• Improvements in surgery during the Renaissance

  1. Use of opium and wine to numb pain

  2. Changes in the training and status of surgeons

  3. Opening of Royal College of Surgeons in 1813

  4. More regulations in place by the end of the Renaissance
• Aim of changes in surgery during the Renaissance


  To ensure that surgeons were better qualified and more well trained so the standard of surgery would improve
• Quack Doctors

  Quack doctors were salesmen who travelled around selling cures that they claimed cured disease. Their aim was to make money. Usually the cures did not work, weren’t tested and could be harmful.
• Miasma

  During the Renaissance, one of the main ideas about the cause of disease was Miasma (bad smells in the air). Therefore plague doctors stuffed their masks with sweet smelling herbs to tackle bad smells.
• Towns in the Renaissance

  • Dirty and unhygienic
  • Greater efforts to start to clean them up
• Government measures


  Imposed to help improve conditions in towns
• Hospitals


  • Developing
• Church


  Became less important than in the Middle Ages
• There were still epidemics, such as the Great Plague of London in 1665
• The Great Plague of London struck


  1665
• The Great Plague of London was the final severe outbreak of the Plague in England
• 100,000 people in London died, 25% of London's population, and other towns and cities were affected too
• Most doctors fled and many wealthy people left for country houses, but this only spread the plague further
• They did not know what caused the Plague or how to cure it, although they did use new methods such as putting red crosses on the doors of those infected
• Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)

  •The first person to properly challenge the work of Galen, by disproving Galen’s theories on human anatomy.

  •Carried out meticulous dissections and used scientific methods to prove his work, seen as founder of modern medicine.

  •Wrote his book ‘De Humani Corporis Fabrica’, sharing his ideas, which was one of the most influential books on anatomy.

  •His work paved the way for others to challenge Galen.
• Ambroise Pare (1510-1590)

  •A French war surgeon, Pare had a significant impact on surgery.

  •He devised an ointment out of egg yolk, turpentine and oil of roses that he used to seal wounds rather than cauterisation.

  •He also created ligatures (silk threads) to tie off blood vessels after amputations rather than cauterisation.

  •Pare also developed the first prosthetic limbs and his work proved safer, less painful and better at tackling infection.
• William Harvey (1578-1657)

  •An English physician, Harvey’s work focused on the heart and the circulatory system.

  •Harvey proved that the heart was a pump, which pumped blood around the body via the circulatory system.

  •He also disproved Galen, by finding that the source of blood movement was the heart not the liver.

  •Published his work in ‘De Moto Cordis’ (The Motion of the Heart)
• Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689)

  •Known as ‘The English Hippocrates’, Sydenham was recognised as a founder of clinical medicine and epidemiology.

  •He placed great emphasis on observation and the maintenance of accurate medical records.

  •Published a number of books, particularly around the study of different epidemics, studying scarlet fever and malaria.

  •Treatise on gout (1683) is considered his masterpiece.
• John Hunter (1728-1793)

  •A Scottish surgeon, Hunter was one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day.

  •Advocated careful observation and scientific medicine, becoming an expert on anatomy through dissection.

  •Renowned for his training of other doctors, including Edward Jenner who he worked with in discovering vaccinations.

  •Held a number of positions, including being George III’s surgeon.
• Edward Jenner (1749-1823) [also industrial era]

  •An English country doctor, trained by John Hunter, Jenner is famous for his pioneering work on vaccinations.

  •Jenner developed a vaccination for the deadly disease of smallpox, by using a weak strain of cowpox.

  •Eventually the government supported Jenner’s work and the vaccination helped to eradicate smallpox.

  •His work paved the way for other vaccinations to be discovered.