Medical Renaissance in England 1500 - 1700
- Created by: amanmessinezis
- Created on: 10-12-17 13:47
Renaissance
Basically, it was a time of change and continuity. Very difficult for the British.
Dudes started to read Hippocrates and Galen. There was also this Persian physician called Avicenna.
They really jacked off to Theory of Four Humours and Theory of Four Opposites. They saw magic and **** and were like "What the ****!? How is this possible?". And so, Science became popular.
People observed the body more as well as experimenting. Yay! Dissection and anatomy is now allowed ;)
Some dudes were reconsidering Galen's ideas and thinking. Not completely though!
A time to make a new religion. Protestant Christianity.
The Church didn't have too much power anymore after this religion was made.
Knowledge of Medicine
Basically, doctors were improving. They had trained in the College of Physicians - 1518
Unfortunately, they were still using the books of Galen. But they were not too dependent on him as they used recent medical developments.
The college tried their very best to stop influencing quacks as they were pretty ******* cruel. They would sell fake meds.
Many discoveries about the body were found.
New weapons, such as canons made it really difficult for doctors to treat the injured because they were like "Yoo what the **** is this?"
Dudes travelled to places to explore medical drugs such as guaiacum which could cure syphilis. WEAR A CONDOM! Quinine was a drug for malaria.
Henry VIII closed most monasteries. Completely forgot why. But as you may know, monasteries were a place of hospice so it was bad for many people's health. But then again, it was a hospice for the elderly.
Vesailius
Basically, he was the Jigsaw of the 16th century.
He said that "You must know a lot about the human anatomy to be a successful surgeon"
Yeah, he dissected dead bodies of criminals.
His drew accurate drawings which he then put on his book, "Six Anatomical Pictures" in 1538 and "Fabric of the human body" in 1543,
He had a lot of beef with this dead guy, called Galen. He pointed out his many mistakes, such as:
"Yo b, there are no holes in the septum of the heart".
Doctors were impressed by his work and had studied much more on anatomy.
Sydenham
He was a physician in the Renaissance period. He was named the "English Hippocrates" due to his discoveries he made.
He was quite practical because he thought that theoretical ideas were not enough. He observed and took notes.
In addition to this, he thought that disease should be named, like animals and plants.
He made a point that measles and scarlet fever were different.
He used iron to cure anaemia and quinine.
He made a book called Medical Observations. I'll buy the book.
It was used by docs for 200 years.
William Harvey
He was the guy that told doctors about the circulation of the heart.. He studied in the Royal College of Physicians. He studied on anmals and humans and was like:
"I can check out this dudes heart"
And so he did.
LOOOL there were two kinds of blood apparently. This again was complete bullshit.
You had purple blood (facepalm) which was known as the nutrition blood.
Get this..; it was produced in the ******* liver! Deadass... In addition to this, it was use up as it went through the rest of the body. They were right about that. Lol.
Then you had bright red, also known as the life giving blood.
They thought it was produced in the lungs and flowed through arteries in the body.
In the 21st Century, we use oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. Cba to talk about it. Lol.
Harvey realised it was wrong via experiments. He concluded that they circulated.
Printing Press - 1470
It had accelled the rate of progress in medicine
Students in University could finally use textbooks so they know a shitload about the stuff they focus on.
Royal Society
They are these presteigious group. King Edward II. They would talk about science and ****. Their motto was the really cool thing. "Take No-One's Word Of It" which basically meant that people could ask questions about the theories and not just believe it.
They had a journal called "Philisophical Transactions".
Great Plague - 1665
100,000 died in London. 20% of its population. Unfortunately, only the rich got the chance to dash it.
Suoerstition still dominated treatment! In fact:
- Lucky charms
- Amulets
- Praying
- Fasting
- Miasma theory
Was still being used as theories, even though people tried to change
People tried their best to prevent, but were really ****.
- Quarantine the infected. Lock and red cross the houses, with them inside.
- Crowded areas were closed
- Tried not to touch each other.
Vaccination - 1796
Before vaccinations, there were Inoculation which was cutting the patients arm and soaking it in pus taken from swelling of someone that had a small form of smallpox.
Edward Jenner found a link with Cowpox and Smallpox. Milkmaids got Cowbox, but never smallpox.
He used this kid called James Phipps who was injected with Cowpox. And then he injected him with Smallpox, yet never got the disease.
People were still resisting. Doctors saw this as a threat.
Parliment were not resisting and gave the dude £10,000 for prostitutes to open a vaccination centre. Free for kids. Compulsory for all later on.
Unnfortunately, he had no idea why vaccinations worked. Stoopid.
Germ Theory - 1861
People thought germs cause disease as germs were decaying matter.
Pasteur found out that sugar beet was soured by germs in alcohol as he worked in the alcohol industry.
Sterilised water in a closed Swan Neck Flask did not breed germs whereas sterilised water in an open flask did.
He concluded that germs are microbes in the air that causes decay. He then said germs cause disease :)
People were sceptical like "What the ****!?"
It took a lot of time to have effect.
"So you're telling me that diseases have induvidual named germs!?"
Scientists loved it
- Joseph Lister created antiseptics surgery
- John Snow's finding of Cholera
- Parliament's "1875 Public Health Act"
Robert Koch
Found diseases caused by specific microbes including
- Anthrax
- Septicaemia
- Tuberculosis
- Cholera
Experiment he did was pretty cool
- Agar jelly to create solid cultures and breed bacteria
- Dyes to stain bacteria under a microscope so it was easy to see
Anaesthetic
Before Anaethetics, pain was caused, many died
Nitrous Oxide - 1799 - basically laughing gas, was identified by Humphry Davy. Ignored by surgeons at the time. Ignored again when Horace Wells ****** up too.
Ether - 1842 - Crawford Long. Because it was irritant and explosive, it was a risky move to surgeons.
Chloroform - 1847 - James Simpson. Wanted to find a much safer anaesthetic instead of Ether. during childbirth. He experimented on himself to find the effects. It sometimes affected the heart causing patients to die.
Anaesthetics had risen death rates because unconsious patients were easier to operate on, so they took longer over their work.
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