The Renaissance

• During this period, ancient ideas were revisited and challenged. This resulted in discoveries in many areas, including science, technology, art, exploration and medicine. Some of these discoveries also helped medicine to develop.
• In 1440, Johannes Gutenberg had invented the printing press. This meant that when new ideas were written down, they could quickly be copied many times and communicated to people across Europe. Artists made huge progress in the accuracy with which they drew human bodies, which helped to clearly communicate ideas in medical books.
• Andreas Vesailus:

  • Born in 1514 in Brussels, Belgium. He worked at the University of Padua, Italy.
  • He specialised in anatomy.
  • His work later made it possible for further discoveries and future advances in medicine to take place.
• Andreas Vesailus: Vesalius is best known for his book On the Fabric of the Human Body, published in 1543. This was an extremely detailed and accurate guide for doctors on how the human body worked. It contained detailed and accurate drawings of the human body, which was helpful for doctors.
• Andreas Vesailus: Some of Vesalius’ discoveries proved that Galen had made some mistakes. For example, Vesalius proved that the human jaw bone was made of one bone, not two. He also proved that blood did not pass from one side of the heart to the other through the septum - a rubber-like tissue often referred to as cartilage.
• Andreas Vesalius: In the short term, Vesalius’ work was significant as he had proved that Galen had made mistakes. This encouraged other doctors to question other ideas and theories Galen had produced.
• Andreas Vesalius: In the longer term, Vesalius’ work was significant due to the accuracy of the anatomical knowledge and drawings contained in On the Fabric of the Human Body. This meant other advances in medicine could happen. For example, surgeons could later use Vesalius’ work to develop new operations with a detailed understanding of the anatomy of the body.
• Ambroise Pare:

  • Ambroise Paré was born in France in 1510.
  • He was a surgeon to French kings and worked as a barber surgeon in the French army.
  • He made key contributions to the development of medicine, particularly in surgery.
• Ambroise Pare: When treating gunshot wounds, the traditional method was to use hot oil to cauterise wounds. Paré used this method until, one day, he ran out of oil. He remembered reading about an old remedy that used egg yolk, rose oil and turpentine. He treated his remaining patents with this ointment.
• Ambroise Pare: He found the patients who had been treated with the hot oil were in significant pain. However, those who had been treated with the ointment were sleeping and their wounds were healing.
• Ambroise Pare: Paré used ligatures to tie blood vessels and stop bleeding. This was effective in stopping blood loss but did not necessarily reduce the death rate. Paré did not know about germ theory, so surgeons’ hands and the ligatures were often unclean. This meant there was a high chance of infection and death.
• Ambroise Pare: As he was an army surgeon, Paré treated many amputees. This encouraged him to design various examples of artificial limbs.In the short term, Paré showed that new methods, such as his ointment, could be more successful than ideas that had been followed for centuries. He wrote about his ideas in several books, including Treatise on Surgery in 1564.
• Ambroise Pare: In the short term, Paré showed that new methods, such as his ointment, could be more successful than ideas that had been followed for centuries. He wrote about his ideas in several books, including Treatise on Surgery in 1564.
• Ambroise Pare: In the longer term, ligatures would be useful. However, fully implementing them required the discovery of germ theory (by Louis Pasteur) and carbolic acid (by Joseph Lister). This allowed ligatures to be properly sterilised and used with a lower risk of infection.
• William Harvey:

  • William Harvey was an English doctor who was born in 1578.
  • He studied at the University of Padua in Italy, where Andreas Vesalius had carried out his dissections and work on anatomy.
  • Harvey achieved his medical qualifications and returned to England.
  • He worked for most of his career at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.
  • He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
  • He went on to become the physician of James I.
• William Harvey: Harvey dissected frogs, which have a slow pulse rate, and showed that blood was pumped around the body by the heart. He also discovered the role of valves in blood vessels, which make sure blood only flows in one direction and not made by the liver and burned by fuel.
• William Harvey: Harvey published a book in 1628 called An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood. His high profile as physician to the king helped Harvey’s work to be widely shared. The book included details and diagrams of experiments Harvey had carried out to support his findings.
• William Harvey: Harvey’s work was important as it was another example (after Vesalius) of Galen’s work being proved to be incorrect. This encouraged other doctors to continue to question and challenge ancient ideas.
• William Harvey: The idea of circulation also led to doctors attempting blood transfusions from animals to humans. These were unsuccessful, as blood groups had not yet been discovered.
• William Harvey: In the longer term, Harvey’s work was significant in the development of successful blood transfusions. When Karl Landsteiner discovered blood groups in 1901, blood transfusions became possible.
• The great plague (1655): Government action -

  • There was a more organised and coordinated response to the plague outbreak in 1665-1666 than there had been in 1348-1349.
  • As plague spread throughout Europe, the government introduced a quarantine for all ships coming into London.
  • If a household contained someone infected with the plague, the people were locked inside and a red cross was painted on their door.
  • Searchers were employed to walk the streets, enter plague houses and identify the cause of death.
• The great plague (1655): Government action -

  • There was a belief that stray cats and dogs were spreading plague, so the mayor of London ordered that they should all be killed. This may have actually made the outbreak worse, as the cats would have caught some of the rats that were responsible for spreading the disease.
  • Belief in miasma meant people were ordered to light fires in the streets to create smoke. This was thought to mask the bad air believed to be causing the plague.
• The great plague (1655): Germs still had not been discovered, and this was the biggest problem in taking effective action to deal with the plague. Miasma, the four humours and God were still believed to be the main possible causes. This meant there was a limit to the effectiveness of cures and actions to try to limit the spread of the plague.
• The great plague (1655): Cures - The cures in 1665-1666 were similar to those used in the 1348-1349 Black Death outbreak. Bloodletting and purging were widely used, showing that the four humours were still believed to cause disease.
• The great plague (1655): Cures - Plague doctors wore outfits to protect them from coming into contact with victims. They wore leather cloaks and masks containing herbs, to avoid them smelling the streets. They also wore gloves and hats so none of their skin was exposed to the air.
• The great plague (1655): Impact -

  • The Black Death of 1348-1349 killed more people than the Great Plague of 1665-1666.
  • This was in part due to a more organised government response in 1665-1666.
• The great plague (1655): Impact - Although the Great Fire of London was not the cause of the end of the outbreak, it did lead to significant rebuilding of the capital. The rebuilt city had no open sewers in the streets and buildings were more spread out. This reduced the chance of a further outbreak.
• Treating the sick: Hospitals - There was an increasing number of hospitals in the 17th and 18th centuries. The monasteries had been closed down by Henry VIII in the 1530s, so towns needed to open hospitals to take their place. St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London had been a monastery.
• Treating the sick: Hospitals - Treatment in hospitals was usually based on the four humours, so bloodletting and purging were common. Hospitals received money from wealthy donors or royal endowments, so they could provide care for people who could not afford a physician.
• Treating the sick: Physicians - Physicians were doctors who had trained at university. They were considered to offer the best medical care. Most of the diagnoses and treatments they suggested were based on the works of Hippocrates and Galen, and the theory of the four humours.
• Treating the sick: Physicians - Were expensive and therefore tended to treat richer people or royalty. Monarchs would have their own private physicians to treat them when they were ill.
• Treating the sick: Apothecaries - Similar to a modern chemist. They would sell remedies and medicines to surgeons and members of the public. The medicines they sold were often based on herbal remedies, passed down through the generations. An apothecary usually trained as an apprentice, working with an experienced apothecary to learn the various treatments and mixtures that could be used.
• Treating the sick: Quack doctors - Were unqualified and often claimed to be selling miracle cures. They sold potions that supposedly contained all kinds of mysterious ingredients, such as crushed unicorn horn. These remedies did nothing to help people recover, and in some cases could make symptoms worse.
• John Hunter:

  • John Hunter was born in Scotland in 1728.
  • He moved to London and trained as a surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
  • His collection of human and animal body parts is now in the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons.
• John Hunter: Key work - Hunter was keen to develop more scientific methods in researching medicine. For example, he carried out an experiment to prove his belief that syphilis and gonorrhoea - infections caused by two different types of bacteria - were caused by the same disease. 
• John Hunter: Key work - Hunter deliberately infected a patient with pus from a gonorrhoea patient, but he ended up infecting them with syphilis as well. Hunter believed that the most effective treatment for the diseases was to give the patient mercury - a chemical element that is highly poisonous.
• John Hunter: Key work - Hunter had a particular interest in anatomy. Over his career, he amassed a huge collection of animal and human skeletons, bones and body parts. He had over 14,000 items from more than 500 different species. Hunter encouraged other doctors to learn and study the anatomy of humans and animals, to increase their understanding of how the body works.
• John Hunter: Key work - In his time working with the army, Hunter disproved the idea that a gunshot injury poisoned the area around the wound. This had led to unnecessary treatments - for example, cutting out the area around a wound. Hunter’s army work and observations also led him to argue that amputation should only be carried out as a last resort.
• John Hunter: Significance - Hunter held high-profile positions. He was the surgeon to George III and was also surgeon general to the British army.
• John Hunter: Significance - As a prominent doctor and leading member of the Royal Society, Hunter was responsible for the training of other doctors. These included Edward Jenner, who went on to discover the smallpox vaccine.