History medicine

• Andreas Vesalius


  1514-64, Surgeon, Professor of Surgery at the University of Padua in Italy
• Vesalius challenged ideas of Galen, realised some of Galen's findings were wrong as they were based on animal dissections
• Vesalius findings that contradicted Galen


  • Human breastbone has 3 parts, not 7 like in an ape
  • Jawbone was 1 bone not 2
• Vesalius dissected animals to show how Galen had gotten his anatomical knowledge wrong, and also did human dissections in public
• Vesalius' book "Fabric of the Human Body" (1543)


  Incredibly precise illustrations which were later used in other popular books
• Vesalius faced heavy criticism for challenging Galen, had to leave Padua, became doctor for Emperor Charles V
• Anatomists like Colombo and Fallopius followed Vesalius' proper dissection approach in the 16th century
• William Harvey


  1578-1657, studied medicine at Cambridge and Padua, doctor for King Charles I
• Harvey challenged Galen's idea that blood was produced in the liver and burned up by the body
• Harvey's discovery of blood circulation

  1. Studied human hearts and slow beating of cold-blooded animal hearts

  2. Proved blood was constantly circulated around the body driven by the heart's power as a pump

  3. Built on Colombo's artery theories and Fabricius' valves in veins
• Harvey was called "mad" and "circulator" and ignored for a long time, until microscope proved him right after capillary discovery
• Without understanding of blood circulation, modern blood tests, transfusion and heart transplants wouldn't work
• Ambroise Pare


  1510-1590, Surgeon to 4 French kings
• Pare's innovations in surgery


  1. Used a cream instead of hot oil to cauterise wounds

  2. Used ligatures to tie blood vessels during amputation instead of cauterisation

  3. Designed tools like bec de corbin to halt bleeding while tying ligatures

  4. Started designing false limbs for soldiers
• Pare's works on surgery were translated into English and given to the Barber Surgeons of London in 1591
• Pare passed on Vesalius' ideas and translated his work into French
• John Hunter


  1728-1793, Surgeon to King George III in 1776
• Hunter challenged old ideas, didn't think much of Galen, used clinical experience and placebo studies to prove cures like purging and bleeding were ineffective
• Hunter was Surgeon General of the Army in 1790, experimented on himself with gonorrhoea and syphilis
• Hunter's radical approaches

  1. Saved a man's leg with an aneurysm by tying off the artery above it rather than amputating

  2. Passed on and put to rest Pare's idea that gunshot wounds weren't poisonous
• Hunter encouraged experimentation and was a mentor to his student Edward Jenner
• Edward Jenner


  1749-1823, a student of John Hunter
• Jenner's discovery of vaccination

  1. Inserted cowpox into an 8 year old boy, then gave him a smallpox inoculation 6 weeks later and the boy got no scabs

  2. Tested this vaccination on 16 other people, inspired by the theory that milkmaids who had gotten cowpox were protected against smallpox
• Jenner faced criticism initially, but was later appointed physician extraordinary to King George IV
• Smallpox vaccination became mandatory in Britain in 1853, and Jenner's technique spread to Europe and America in the 1800s
• Renaissance Hospitals


  • More specialist hospitals
  • No longer funded by the Church, instead funded by private people, banks or private subscription
• Specialist hospitals


  • British hospital for Mothers and Babies (1749)
  • London's Lock Hospital (for STDs) (1746)
• Treatment was free but based on 4 humors still
• Dispensaries- poor given free medicine
• 1776- public dispensary of Edinburgh
• London hospitales treating +20,000 patients a year by 1800 bene questio-
• Thomas coramfoundling hospital- said children needed a clean enviRO meant meant to thrive
• 1811-surgeons had to attend at least 1 course on anatomy
• Renaissance changes: new lands discover translations of ancient text. printing press development of artistic rechnique argely church status diminished.
• THOS Just I iness Renaissance. French word Future meaning rebirth arched obse daina deve book
• Preventions/treatments


  1. Bedding aired with fire and perfumes

  2. Burial of dead after sun rise or before sunser

  3. Carge gatherings banned

  4. Victims quarantined with watchmen outside

  5. Women searchers

  6. Trade between infected towns stopped

  7. Women searches employed to examine sick + nose symptome

  8. Homeauners ordered to sweep outside

  9. Their names

  10. Chigurgeons to examine bodies

  11. Animals not allowed in streets

  12. Lord Have Mercy on Osi

  13. Plaque doctors with masks filled with theraic and max robes
• Types of Medical people

  • Apothecaries had little no medical training but sold medicines
  • Quacks-shay travelling salesmen who sold all sorts of medicines and cure-aus
  • Wise women-treatments often relied on superstition but they had extensive knowledge
  • Trained doctor-used new + traditional knowledg including of plants herba 4 numars
  • Barber surgeons-poorly trained people who could give you a haircut perform somaly operation
• THOMAS SYDENHAM-stressed need for careful observation. Used bleeding methods but advocard doing nothing. letting nature take its course developed 4 humans by doing cool therapy book medical observations (67
• 1518- college of physicians set up to train English doctors and distinguish between licensed and unlicensed doctors
• Coventry was cleaner and had more disciplined deaning laws than the typical Medieval down