Renaissance Medicine

• Studied anatomy and became a professor at Padua University
• He was allowed to do dissections
• His book ‘on the fabric one the Human Body’ (1543.) Which included accurate drawings and illustrations of his findings.
• Corrected Galen’s mistakes: no hole in the septum (heart); jaw bone was one bone, not two
• He encouraged others like William Harvey to partake in dissections to develop medical research. 

• Discovered circulation of blood and disapproved Galen's ideas
• Identified arteries and veins in the body
• Book 'An anatomical account of the motion of the heart and blood'
• Blood groups were found in 1901 which improved blood transfusions

• Was a battlefield surgeon - 20 years as a barber-surgeon and participated in French Army campaigns
• 1536 - used cautery oil to heal gun-shot wounds which worked better with rose oil
• 1575 - he published 'Apology and treatise' which changed the treatment of wounds and amputations

• Many superstitious beliefs were challenged
• Discoveries in anatomy and surgeries began to change
• It took a long time for people to accept their ideas
• Thomas Sydenham - observations and patient records

The Printing Press -

• Invented by Johannes Gutenberg
• It enabled medical ideas to be spread quicker and cheaper with more accuracy
• Was not controlled by the Church so anything could be published

The Royal Society - 

• Was formed in 1660 
• Promoted the exchange of ideas so experts could reconfirm eachothers theory's
• Scientific Journal - Philosophical Transactions

Causes: 

• Miasma was the most common cause
• An imbalance in the humours
• People knew that it could be passed from person to person

Treatments:

• Many people were quarantined
• Herbal treatments 
• Pest houses
• Large gatherings were banned
• Transference: transfer the disease to animals
• Sweating the disease out

• Miasma as a cause of the disease was still believed by a few people
• Theory of the 4 humours was still accepted and used by 1700 physicians
• Bloodletting and purging were used to resolve an imbalance in the 4 humours.