Continuity and Change

• Continuity and Change


  The Renaissance was a time of new ideas and fresh thinking. People began to challenge old beliefs, and there were many new developments in doctors' knowledge and skill
• Renaissance


  A time of Continuity and Change
• Renaissance


  • Rediscovery of knowledge from classical Greek and Roman times
  • Western doctors gained access to the original writings of Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna
  • Led to greater interest in the Four Humours Theory and treatment by opposites
• Renaissance


  • Emergence of 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
• New books found during the Renaissance said that anatomy and dissections were very important
• This encouraged people to examine the body themselves, and to come to their own conclusions about the causes of disease
• People began to question Galen's thinking and that of other ancient doctors
• Galen's writings continued to be studied
• Protestant Christianity


  • Spread across Europe during the Reformation
  • Reducing the influence of the Catholic Church
  • Religion was still important, but the Church no longer had so much control over medical teaching
• College of Physicians


  Set up in 1518 where doctors in the Renaissance trained, reading books by Galen and studying recent medical developments
• College of Physicians


  • Encouraged the licensing of doctors to stop the influence of quacks who sold fake medicines
  • Some of the college's physicians (such as Harvey) made important discoveries about disease and the human body
• Medical training


  1. Reading books by Galen

  2. Studying recent medical developments

  3. Dissections - showing how the body actually worked
• New weapons like cannons and guns were being used in war


  Doctors and surgeons had to treat injuries they hadn't seen before, forcing them to quickly find new treatments
• New ingredients for drugs brought back to Britain from explorations abroad

  • Guaiacum - believed to cure syphilis
  • Quinine, a drug for malaria from the bark of the Cinchona tree
• In the 1530s, Henry VIII closed down most of Britain's monasteries (this was called the 'dissolution of the monasteries')
• Since most hospitals had been set up and run by monasteries, this also led to the closure of a large numbers of hospitals
• The sudden loss of so many hospitals was bad for people's health
• Free hospitals


  Paid for by charitable donors, run by trained physicians who focused more on getting better from illness, unlike the monastic hospitals run by monks
• Forceps


  Invented by Peter Chamberlin (probably at some point in the 1600s), still used today to help with childbirth
• Continuity and Change


  Change was pretty rapid during the Renaissance - new technology sped things up by allowing ideas to be circulated more easily. Despite this, some doctors still treated new ideas with suspicion.
• The Spread of New Ideas

  Accelerated Change
• Printing


  Allowed books to be copied more easily, instead of having to be copied by hand
• First British printing press was set up


  1470s
• Printing


  • Students in universities could have their own textbooks for the first time, letting them study in detail
  • People could question existing ideas and have scientific debates
  • At least 600 different editions of Galen's books were printed between 1473 and 1599, making his writings seem less reliable and easier to question
• The Royal Society


  Founded in 1660, with the motto 'Nullius in verba' meaning 'take no-one's word for it'
• The Royal Society


  • Wanted to encourage people to be sceptical and to question scientific ideas
  • Helped to spread new scientific theories and got people to trust new technology
  • Its scientific journal 'Philosophical Transactions' allowed more people to read about new inventions and discoveries
• Comment and Analysis


  Huge progress was made in the Renaissance - and the printing press and the Royal Society helped spread the new ideas. But most people couldn't read, so new ideas only had an impact on a small part of society. Most people in the Renaissance were using the same treatments as people in the Middle Ages
• Ambroise Pare


  A French barber-surgeon born in 1510, surgery was still a low status profession
• Pare's experience as an army surgeon

  1. Treated many serious injuries caused by war

  2. Led him to develop some improved surgical techniques
• Gunshot wounds at the time

  • Often became infected
  • Doctors didn't understand why this happened or how to treat it
  • Usual treatment was to burn the wound with a red hot iron, or to pour boiling oil onto it
• Pare ran out of oil


  Resorted to a simple cool salve instead
• Patients treated with cool salve


  Did better than the ones scalded with oil
• Pare's improvement to amputation treatment

  1. Before Pare, severed blood vessels were sealed by burning their ends with a red hot iron (cauterisation)

  2. Pare invented a method of tying off the vessels with threads (ligatures)

  3. This was less painful than cauterisation, so it reduced the chances of the patient dying of shock

  4. However, it did increase the risk of infection
• Pare published his ideas to enable other doctors to read about them
• British surgeons used the methods of Pare and took inspiration from his work
• Pare's ideas were resisted by doctors who felt that a lowly surgeon shouldn't be listened to
• Pare eventually became surgeon to the King of France, and it was only with the King's support that his ideas started to be accepted
• Continuity and Change


  Although ideas spread rapidly, there was still continuity in many aspects of medical care
• Many doctors were reluctant to accept that Galen was wrong. This meant that they continued to use similar treatments to the Middle Ages, like bloodletting and purging
• Doctors were still very expensive. As a result, most people used other healers (e.g. apothecaries and barber-surgeons), like in the medieval period. Some people turned to quack doctors who sold medicines and treatments in the street. Their cures were often fake, though some may have worked