The Renaissance

The Renaissance brought a sharper focus on the classics.

• Embracing close study of classical texts
• Medicine- greater interest in human anatomy- based on observation & dissection
• Return of original Greek texts- Hippocrates & Galen- renewed faith in four humours & treatment by opposites

Public health was made worse by war.

• Religious differences led to many wars
• Population increase- towns & cities- strain on clean water supplies & sewage disposal systems
• Warfare- used up resources, destroyed crops & trapped people in beseiged towns- not enough food
• Starvation, Typhoid, plague & STIs followed armies around the continent
• Pressure on parishes- homelessness & disabled by war
• Naval power & science of navagtion- improved world wide communication

The Great Plague hit London in 1665.

• Black death- 100,000 dead- many fled
• Control- Afflicted houses- locked in and red crosses were put on doors
• Realised disease was contagious- didn't understand about germs
• The Great Fire of London 1666- steralised large parts of London- killed Plague

Printing- one of the greatest inventions of all time.

• Johann Gutenburg- introduced printing to Europe- 1454
• Accelerated rate of progress in medicine- easier- spread of ideas & debate
• William Caxton- set up first British printing press- 1476- Westminister Abbey
• Before-copy book by hand- books rare & precious- ideas thouroughly accepted

Vesalius wrote anatomy books with accurate diagrams.

• Allow to perform dissections- but not boil bodies for skeletons
• Became professor of surgery & anatomy at Pauda
• Performed own dissections & recorded observations with accurate diagrams
• The Fabric of the Human Body 1543
• Pointed out Galen's mistakes

Pare was forced to improvise.

• Baber surgeon- worked for public hospital, then became army surgeon
• At time- blood vessels (amputation) were sealed by cauterising the wound with a hot iron- discomfort & stressed patient
• Invented the ligature (tying off vessels with threads) & designed artificial legs
• Gunshot woulds- infection- people thought they were poisned by gunpower- pour hot oil into the wound or use hot iron. One battle- pare ran out of oil- used cool salve- patient did better
• Became surgeon to King of France
• Ideas were resisted by doctors- Kings support gained him acceptance

Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood.

• Studied medicine & anatomy at Pauda
• Became doctor & lecturer in London (Royal college of Surgeons) & then Royal Physician to James l and Charles l 
• Did comparitive studies on animas & humans- observe living animals heart & apply to humans
• Galen- thought blood formed, carried to tissues, then consumes- Harvey proved this was wrong- realised blood circulates
• Identified difference between arteries & veins & that blood changes colour when it passes through the lungs
• Important & turning point in anatomy- but didn't radically change practice of surgery