RENAISSANCE

• How did beliefs of causes change?

  - fewer people believed in supernatural causes

  - after the dissolution ofthe monasteries the influence of the church declined
• Continuity of cause beliefs?

  - miasma was becoming more popular

  - four humours theory continued to be accepted although by the 1700s few physicians believed in it
• When was the printing press invented?

  1440
• What was the significance of the printing press?

  - quickly spread new ideas

  - reduced church's control of ideas

  - new discoveries could be shared more effectively
• What did Thomas Sydenham do?

  - He proposed the idea of there being many different diseases and that each one should be identified

  - influenced some of the changes in physicians work
• How did the work of physicians change in the 1500-1700s?

  - fewer people believed that astrology was a cause

  - due to improved knowledge of digestion, physicians realised that urine wasnt a good indicator of disease and stopped using charts

  - physicians carried out more direct observations and examinations of their patients rather than relying on the patient describing their symptoms
• How did hospitals change in 1500-1700?

  - the dissolution of the monasteries caused most hospitals to close

  - more pest houses began to appear

  - fewer travellers and pilgrims were using hospitals
• How did prevention change in 1500-1700?

  - more emphasis on removing miasma through draining swamps and removing sewage and rubbish

  - people changed clothes more regularly

  - Freud's theory of transference led to people trying to rub objects on themselves to transfer the disease.
• How did treatment change in 1500-1700?

  - alchemy caused chemical cures using metals or minerals to become popular

  - new herbal remedies for explorations e.g Drakes circumnavigation were proved to be effective.
• How did understanding of cause and the body change in 1500-1700?

  - Vesalius was given permission to carry out many dissections on humans which improved knowledge and inspired medical professionals to make further discoveries

  - his work (including detailed and accurate diagrams of the body) was published and copied into other medical textbooks with the help of the printing press.

  - William Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood in the 1600s.
• How did apothecaries and surgeons change in 1500-1700?

  - better trained

  - a licence was needed to work as an apothecary or surgeon after complete training (still no uni training)
• How did physicians change in 1500-1700?

  - there was better access to a wider variety of medical books due to the printing press

  - gradually, new ideas of anatomy led by Vesalius inspired more physicians to become more experimental

  - dissection was legalised but it took time to become commonplace.
• When was the great plague?

  1665
• Beliefs of cause of great plague?


  - miasma was most common

  - fewer believe in 4 humours as understanding of causes was improved e.g Vesalius and transference theory

  - rest were mostly the same as the Black Death e.g god
• How did people treat the great plague?

  - quarantine

  - herbal remedies

  - theory of transference

  - idea that disease could be sweat out- making themselves very warm.

  - plague doctors treated the infected- costume and mask with smelling remedies to help prevent catching it.
• How did people prevent the great plague?


  - local councils were ordered by the king to stop the plague from spreading to:

  - ban large gatherings and theatre

  - kill dogs and cats

  - tar burned in streets

  - carts collecting bodies and brought to mass graves

  - pest houses or 28 days isolation

  - days of fasting and public prayer ordered.
• When did Harvey discover the circulation of the blood?

  1628
• What did William Harvey do?

  - After researching Vesalius' theory that blood flowed towards the heart (contradicting Galen), he carried out dissections.

  - He proved that blood could not be produced by the liver and absorbed into the body as Galen had thought.

  - He discovered that arteries and veins were part of one system and that blood was pumped around the body by the heart.
• Why was Harvey's discovery so significant?

  - By 1700 his work was taught in medical schools

  - by proving Galen wrong, people were inspired to question other theories leading to increased knowledge.

  - more dissections were carried out