Renaissance

• Students were prohibited from dissecting bodies. Instead, they were able to watch as a three man team performed the procedure. A surgeon would read out passages of Galen's work, while the other two would dissect the parts of human anatomy being described.
• The printing press, invented in 1440 by Gutenberg, was commonplace in Western Europe by the 1540s.
• The printing press allowed people to produce thousands of identical copies of their work. This meant it was more widely read than was possible in earlier times.
• The Renaissance was a time when old ideas were starting to be questioned and the authority of the Church challenged.
• At the start of the Renaissance era, the three main challenges for surgeons were pain, infection and bleeding management. The most effective thing they could offer a patient was surgical speed, which could save them from dying of shock or blood loss.
• Surgeons increased the likelihood of infection by using instruments that had not been cleaned or sterilised.
• Surgeons mainly performed simple surgeries on complaints such as broken limbs and wounds. Occasionally they might do something deemed more risky, such as removing a kidney stone from a bladder.
• By the 16th century, surgeons were having to deal with gunshot wounds on the battlefield, which no previous experience had prepared them for. Lead bullets ripped apart flesh and shattered bones as they drove deep into the body.
• Despite medical improvements, there was very little improvement in life expectancy, and people did not become any healthier.
• People still held similar beliefs about the causes of disease as they did in the Middle Ages.
• The Theory of the Four Humours and Theory of Opposites were still widely believed in.
• The vast majority of physicians still blamed illness on an imbalance of these humours. Practices such as bleeding and purging to restore balance to the humours continued.
• Quacks, untrained healers with no education, were still present.
• Many people in Europe and across Britain still relied on home remedies that had been passed down through the generations.
• Apothecaries could still be found in many towns selling herbal remedies. Though unlicensed apothecaries were illegal, many officials ignored the practice.
• Ingredients such as honey, which we now know kills some bacteria, was a common ingredient in many remedies.
• New knowledge and ingredients also came to Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries due to trade links established with the Americas and Asia.
• Quinnine, extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree in South America, proved to be an effective treatment for malaria. Unfortunately, there were still many remedies that were not effective and may have made patients worse. These included: crow’s droppings for dysentry, pig’s urine for fevers, kitten flesh to relieve jaundice and earwax for migraines.
• Tobacco, an import from America, was considered a miracle drug and was used to treat a huge range of ailments, including cancer, respiratory problems, headaches and hypothermia.
• Smoking was even considered the best protection from the Great Plague of 1665.
• New ideas and discoveries were made following the revival of the Greek passion for inquiry, individuals began to ask questions and challenge existing ideas and theories.
• In 1660, the Royal Society came into being in Britain.
• The Royal Society was formed as a meeting place for educated people who were interested in different aspects of science. It could even boast King Charles II as an interested attendee.
• Subject areas included physics, astronomy, botany and medicine. The Royal Society also produced a journal, which meant that others could learn about new medical and scientific ideas. This greatly aided in the transmission of ideas and supported further study.
• Religion was at the centre of people’s lives, it influenced them greatly. Conservative thinkers found it very hard to accept the new ideas and methods of investigation. As a consequence, a battle broke out between people defending traditional theories and those fighting for new ideas.
• Johannes Gutenberg created the printing press around 1440 and introduced it to Europe commercially from the 1450s. It revolutionised how ideas were shared.
• Because of the printing press, books could be quickly and cheaply printed and distributed. Thousands of copies of a single text could be handed out.
• The printing press meant that it stripped the Church of its control over new research and texts. Until this point, the only way of transcribing information was through hand-written manuscripts, they were very few in number and easy to control.
• Although there were significant changes during this period, very little improved in treating illnesses
• Almost all the treatments used to treat the victims of the Great Plague in 1665 were the same as those used in the 1348 Black Death epidemic.
• Gradually, science and superstition started to separate. Enquiry led to science rather than the Church.
• Following the Black Death in the 1340s, the plague continued to return to Britain intermittently throughout the 15th and 16th century.
• The Great Plague of 1665 killed around 65,000 people. This was about 15% of the city of London
• As with the Black Death, it was likely fleas living on black rats that carried the disease.
• In 1665 there was more of a coordinated and organised response to the outbreak.
• It was during the spring of 1665 that the plague started to kill large numbers of people in the poorer areas of London.
• At first, the response of the rich was to leave. However, that became more difficult by June, when restrictions were put on travel.
• Rumours began to spread that dogs and cats were to blame for spreading the disease. This led to the Lord Mayor ordering a purge of these animals.
• The killing of cats and dogs during the Great Plague may have made it worse by decreasing the number of predators that preyed on the flea-carrying rats.
• A merchant introduced the plague to the peak district town of Eyam. It was carried in cloth he brought from London. The town became an isolated community that gathered essential goods from a boundary on the edge of. The plague killed 259 of the residents there.