Renaissance medicine

• Scientific learning

  Increased due to the Renaissance in the mid-16th century
• Because of the Reformation (mid-16th century)


  The church's power declined
• 16th century religious revolution


  Led to the establishment of the Protestant church
• Some scientists and new thinkers started to challenge old ideas
• Humanists

  Had ideas about the causes of disease and illness
• There was much continuity of ideas about the causes of disease and illness
• For most, diagnosing, preventing and treating illness remained the same
• Beliefs about the causes of disease and illness

  • Imbalance of the four humours
  • Miasma (developed further)
• The theory of the four humours had been discredited by 1700, but most still believed it
• Miasma

  Diseases were spread (and contagious) due to small seeds that spread through the air
• Because of the change to more scientific thinking/learning, there were new medical ideas/discoveries
• The four humours were discontinued: factors outside the body (e.g. temperature) caused illness, rather than four humours inside the body
• Animalcules

  Tiny animals that could only be seen using a microscope (we now call them bacteria)
• These ideas had little impact, and the general public continued to believe in the four humours
• The printing press was invented in the 15th century
• Printing press

  Books could be printed rather than handwritten, making it easier to create books and allowing more people to access them, so new ideas spread more easily
• Vesalius

  The most famous anatomist during the Renaissance, who corrected over 300 mistakes Galen had made
• Dissection had previously been seen as extremely indecent and blasphemous, but as the Church's power was decreasing, they were no longer banned
• Vesalius was able to carry out a large number of dissections because a local magistrate allowed him to use the corpses of criminals
• Vesalius' book was used to train physicians in England and across Europe, and doctors were encouraged to carry out their own dissections and carefully observe the human body, rather than relying on old books
• The invention of the printing press meant the church no longer had control over what was printed and published, and physicians and scientists could now publish their ideas and challenge people like Galen
• The Royal Society

  Founded in 1660 in London to support scientists carrying out experiments, debate new ideas and share new discoveries
• The Royal Society began to issue its scientific journal 'Philosophical Transactions' in 1665, which is still going today
• Sydenham

  Believed that to diagnose an illness, a doctor needed to closely observe symptoms and treat the disease that was causing them, rather than relying solely on books
• Sydenham encouraged scientists to move away from the ideas of Hippocrates and Galen towards scientific ones
• Fracastoro

  Developed an early theory of contagion, believing that disease was caused by seeds that could multiply quickly and spread in three ways: contact, direct, and through the air
• Despite innovations, some ideas from the medieval period continued, and there was some continuity of treatments
• For most of the Renaissance, doctors were confined to studying the books of Hippocrates and Galen, but the printing press meant different ideas were becoming more available
• Towards the end of the Renaissance, the ideas of Hippocrates and Galen were challenged by Sydenham, Vesalius and William Harvey, and the training of physicians took a more scientific approach
• Wealthy people continued to pay for doctors/nurses to look after them, while most people continued to seek remedies from apothecaries, and women continued to play an important role in caring for the sick
• During the Reformation, Henry VIII closed the monasteries, and the local authorities took over hospitals, which were now funded by charity and run by physicians
• There was very little change in the treatments of illness during the Renaissance, with bloodletting and purging still common, and an increase in the use of new ingredients from overseas exploration
• Superstitious and religious beliefs, such as being touched by the monarch, were still seen as cures for skin diseases like scrofula
• William Harvey

  Carried out experiments to show that the same blood is pumped repeatedly by the heart, and discovered the heart acts as a pump moving blood around the body
• The microscope was a key technological development that transformed medical knowledge during the Renaissance
• During the Great Plague of 1665, there had been very little change in medical understanding, and attempts to prevent the spread of the plague were similar to those used during the Black Death
• The government took actions such as quarantining victims and families, banning large crowds, and killing animals, but these were difficult to enforce due to a lack of authorities
• what did versalius do?

  • improved existing understanding of anatomy
  • his contribution to medicine shows a significant change in scientific thinking and osbervation
  • he changed the ideas of galen
• versalius' improvements of galen

  galen based his ideas of dissections of animals like monkeys, dogs and pigs. versalius noticed and corrected:

  • human jaw has 1 bone not 2
  • human breastbone has 3 parts not 7
  • blood "diffuses" through heart, not through invisible holes in the septum
• versalius' book

  on the fabric of the human body, published 1543