RG change+continuity

• Treatment+Care: (P)

  1. Surgery - Due to growing dissection (declining power of church), anatomical knowledge improved and surgeons became

  2. Herbal Remedies - The New World brought new herbs/spices like quinine which cured Malaria, spread of basic cures for scurvy spread. 3. Hospitals - small growth of some specialist, hospitals, e.g. pox houses, which focused on treating the sick.
• TREATMENT AND CARE (NP) Hospitals - Hospital care remained the same (continuity) due to the Dissolution of Monasteries which closed the majority of church run hospitals, setting back progress
• New Treatments (NP)


  Alchemy and Transference treatments grew in the Renaissance but did not work, with the chemical mercury actually making King Charles II more ill!
• Old Treatments (NP)


  • The use of the Four Humours
  • Purging
  • Bleeding
  • Supernatural treatment
  • Religious cures Remained common throughout the period, especially during the Great Plague and in treating King Charles II
• (NP) Care - most sick people continued to be cared for at home or by wise women, whilst Physicians remained expensive for most
• Medical Knowledge (P)


  • Vesalius: Improved anatomical knowledge and proved Galen wrong
  • Syndenham: Observationes Medicae used in medical training for 200 years, challenged Galen's ideas and encouraged direct observation
  • Harvey: Challenged Galen, proved blood circulation and encouraged dissection and experimentation
  • Royal Society: Printed and translated scientific/medical books and encourage experimentation and released Philosophical Transactions
• MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE (NP) These discoveries of Vesalius, Sydenham, Harvey and the Royal Society did almost nothing to improve medicine in the Renaissance
• MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE (NP) Whilst the discoveries of those like Harvey took 50 years to become part of medical training or were treated with suspicion
• MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE (NP) Despite dissection being made legal, most physician training was based on textbooks by Galen until the later 17th century
• Life expectancy remained around 40 years old, clear proof that medicine had not progressed in the Renaissance (continuity)
• Despite the considerable growth of medical 'knowledge' during the scientific revolution, little of this actually impacted on medicine during the period, it just laid the foundations for later
• Prevention and Public Health (P)

  • Public Health - Efforts were made to clear miasma (sewage and draining bogs), most effort made in response to Great Plague for example quarantine of those with the Plague & plague pits buried the dead away from towns
  • Moderation - Rich encouraged to continue to follow Regimin Sanitatis to keep healthy
• PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH (NP) Public Health - Renaissance towns like London were still filthy places this is why the Great Plague spread so quickly as there were rats. Also, the government did little to help improve public health, only during the Great Plague
• Prevention (NP)


  • Removing Miasma
  • Linked to superstitious ideas
  • Four humours
  • Prayer All remained popular ways to prevent illness, especially during the Great Plague
• Ideas on the cause of disease (P)

  • Sydenham and Harvey encouraged direct observation of the sick, alongside making notes on symptoms rather than using simply textbooks
  • Urine Charts were no longer used due to scientific developments
• CAUSE OF DISEASE (NP) In the Renaissance they were NO CLOSER to finding the correct cause of disease, despite scientists seeking to make discoveries
• Beliefs about cause of disease (NP)

  • Religious Ideas - during the Great Plague, people still blamed God!
  • Miasma-Remained a common theory, especially during the Great Plague and due to the poor living conditions
  • Four Humours - These ideas remained popular with physicians, even Charles II was diagnosed and treated using the Four Humours. The majority of people and physicians/healers still believe traditional ideas of the middle ages.