Renaissance

• Renaissance means "re-birth", and there was a renewed interest in Classical thinking, architecture and art
• During the Renaissance, society became more secular and people were more willing to look for scientific explanations rather than religious or supernatural ones
• The Reformation in England led to a decline in the power of the Church
• Explanations for the causes of disease in the Renaissance

  • Religious
  • Astrology
  • Miasma
  • Four Humours
  • New ideas and discoveries
• Thomas Sydenham


  The "English Hippocrates" who refused to rely on medical books and instead closely observed patients and recorded their symptoms
• Sydenham correctly said that measles and scarlet fever were separate diseases
• Printing press


  Allowed new ideas about medicine to be spread more quickly
• Royal Society


  An influential group of scientists formed in 1660 that shared experiments and promoted scientific ideas
• Similarities in ideas about causes of disease between medieval and Renaissance periods

  • Most ordinary people still believed illness was caused by an imbalance of the Four Humours
• Differences in ideas about causes of disease between medieval and Renaissance periods

  • Religion no longer played a major part, people recognised disease was not a punishment from God
• Transference


  The theory that disease could be transferred to something else, like rubbing warts with an onion
• Alchemy


  An early form of chemistry that led to the new science of medical chemistry and the use of chemical cures
• Hospitals in the Renaissance period put a greater emphasis on curing patients, not just caring for them
• The number of hospitals decreased due to the closure of monasteries, where many were located
• Medical professionals in the Renaissance

  • Physicians
  • Surgeons
  • Apothecaries
• Many people still believed in humoural treatments like purging and bloodletting, even as new approaches emerged
• Andreas Vesalius


  An Italian physician who produced detailed anatomical drawings and found many mistakes in Galen's work

  
• William Harvey


  Discovered the circulation of the blood and disproved Galen's theory about how blood moves around the body
• Vesalius encouraged other doctors to carry out dissections, rather than relying on old books
• Vesalius laid the foundation for others to investigate the human body in more detail
• William Harvey


  Discovered the circulation of the blood, and published An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in 1628
• William Harvey's discovery


  • He said that the heart acted as a pump, pumping blood around the body in a one-way system
  • This disproved Galen's theory that blood was constantly being made in the liver and burned up by the body
• Factors that helped William Harvey's discovery

  • Individuals: Harvey's own abilities as a doctor and anatomist
  • Government: Harvey was employed by Charles I, which gave him credibility
  • Technology: He was inspired by modern inventions like the mechanical water pump
  • Scientific breakthroughs: Dissections were more commonplace
  • Attitudes in society: There was more interest in science and anatomy. People were looking for rational explanations for things
• Unfortunately, Harvey's discovery had a limited impact on medicine at the time
• Though his theory was correct, it offered no practical use in the treatment of disease, so many people ignored or criticised it
• Poor people had access to trained doctors
• The government also provided workhouses for those who were too poor to support themselves. These usually contained infirmaries where medical care was given
• As more people started to use hospitals, they became less sanitary (less clean)