renaissance medicine

• the renaissance was a time of new ideas and fresh thinking where people began to challenge old beliefs and there were many new developments in doctors’ knowledge and skills
• in the renaissance there was a rediscovery of knowledge from classical greek and roman times
• doctors gainer access to the original writings of hippocrates and galen which led to greater interest in the four humours theory and treatment by opposites
• the renaissance also saw the emergence if science as we know it from the magic and mysticism of medieval medicine. people thought about how the human body worked based on direct observation and experimentation
• this was partly because many of the new books that had been found said that anatomy and dissections were very important which encouraged people to examine the body themselves, and to come to their own conclusions about the cause of disease
• people began to question galen’s thinking and that of other ancient doctors, however his writings continued to be studied
• many doctors in the renaissance trained at the college of physicians, which had been set up in 1518, where they read books by galen but also studied recent medical developments.
• dissections, showing how the body actually worked, also became a key part of medical training
• the college of physicians encouraged the licensing of doctors to stop the influence of quacks, who sold fake medicines. some of these physicians made important discoveries about disease and the human body
• new weapons like cannons and guns were being used in war which meant doctors and surgeons had to treat injuries they hadn’t seen before, forcing them to quickly find new treatments
• explorations abroad brought new ingredients for drugs back to britain, including guaiacum (drug for syphilis) and quinine (drug for malaria from the bark of the cinchona tree)
• in the 1530s, henry viii closed down most of britain’s monasteries and since most hospitals had been set up and run by monasteries, this led to the closure of a large number of hospitals causing negative impacts on health
• the monastic hospitals were gradually replaced by some free hospitals which were paid for by charitable donations. unlike the monastic hospitals run by monks, these new hospitals were run by trained physicians who focused on treating disease
• versalius and sydenham believed that direct observation was the best way to learn about the body. they encouraged people to gain practical experience and to use dissection to understand anatomy
• versalius (born 1514) was a medical professor in italy. he believed that successful surgery would only be possible if doctors had a proper understanding of the anatomy
• versalius was able to perform dissections on criminals who had been executed which let him study the human anatomy more closely
• he wrote books based on his observations using accurate diagrams to illustrate his work.
• examples of versalius’ books were ‘six anatomical pictures’ (1538) and ‘the fabric of the human body’ (1543)
• his works were printed and copied, allowing lots of people to read about his ideas
• versalius’ work helped point out some of galen’s mistakes, for example versalius showed that there were no holes in the septum of the heart
• versalius’ findings encouraged others to question galen and doctors realised that there was more to discover about the body because of his questioning attitude
• versalius showed that dissecting bodies was important to find out exactly how the human body was structured. dissection was used more and more in medical training for this reason
• thomas sydenham (1624-1689) was a renaissance physician who worked in london. he was the son of a county squire and fought in the english civil war before becoming a doctor
• sydenham has been called the ‘english hippocrates’ because of the big impact of his medical achievements
• sydenham didn’t believe in theoretical knowledge, and instead thought that it was more important to gain practical experience in treating patients
• as a doctor, sydenham made detailed observations of his patients and kept accurate records of their symptoms
• sydenham thought that disease could be classified, so different types of disease could be discovered using patients’ symptoms
• sydenham is known for showing that scarlet fever was different to measles
• sydenham is known for introducing laudanum to relieve pain
• sydenham is known for using iron to treat anaemia
• sydenham is known for using quinine to treat malaria
• sydenham wrote a book called ‘medical observations’ or ‘observations medecae’ (1676) which was used as a textbook by doctors for 200 years at it helped with easy diagnosis
• william harvey made hugely important discoveries about how blood circulates around the body
• william harvey (born 1578) worked in london at the royal college of physicians before becoming a royal physician to james I and charles I
• harvey studied both animals and humans and realised that he could observe living animal hearts in action, and that his findings would also apply to humans
• before harvey, people thought that there were 2 kinds of blood and that they flowed through 2 completely seperate systems of blood vessels, showing the continuation of galen
• harvey realised this circulation theory was wrong and from experiments, he knew too much blood was being pumped out of the heart for it to be continually formed and consumed. instead he thought that blood must circulate
• harvey’s ideas changed how people understood anatomy as his discovery gave doctors a new map showing how the body worked, which enabled blood transfusions and complex surgeries to be attempted
• harvey also showed that versalius had been right about how important dissection was
• not everyone believed harvey’s theories and it took a long time before doctors used them in their treatments