Treatments in Renaissance Britain (Edexcel GCSE History)

Treatments in the Renaissance - Timeline & Summary

The Renaissance era saw a rise in understanding of the causes of diseases, which led to some advances in treatments.  A surge in interest in alchemy established the concept of chemical remedies. This paved the way for the types of medication we use today. Regulation of medical professionals increased through better training and guild systems. The aim of these was to improve levels of care and patient safety.

The study into anatomy vastly improved. In the Medieval period, the Church did not approve of human dissection. However, some dissection of the bodies of criminals was permitted. The Church explained away findings that contradicted Galen. The Church stated that the anatomy of a criminal must be incorrect because they had broken fundamental Christian values. When the influence of the Catholic Church decreased, the limit on dissection no longer applied. The anatomical discoveries made by Vesalius and Harvey proved, beyond doubt, that Galen was wrong. This motivated other scientists to continue correcting the mistakes of the past. Using science, observation and anatomy, allowed physicians to improve the types of treatments. 

Renaissance treatments were not perfect. It was still dangerous to visit barber surgeons. Surgery continued to kill many patients, due to issues with infection and pain relief. Surgical safety only began to improve in the 19th century. Whilst the logic behind Renaissance treatments was generally correct, the cures themselves proved ineffective. This is best seen in the theory of transference. In some cases, chemical cures were poisonous and difficult to give the correct dose. The public distrusted the new treatments available and continued using humoural treatments like blood-letting and purging. There was more for scientists to discover to create the range of successful treatments we have available today.

Scientific Treatments in the Renaissance

Transference

• By using observation, scientists began to understand that diseases could be passed from person to person

• Transference is the idea that touching an object or another animal could move a disease from one thing to another

• Using this idea, many physicians prescribed the following treatments:

  • Rubbing onions on a wart in the belief the wart would transfer to the onion

  • Strapping live chickens onto buboes in the belief that the plague would transfer into the chicken

  • Sleeping with a sheep to give the patient’s fever to the sheep

• Whilst these treatments were ineffective, it was the beginning of epidemiology (the study of how diseases spread)

latrochemistry

• latrochemistry became increasingly popular in the 17th century

  • It stemmed from experimenting with metals to create chemical cures

• The Pharmacopoeia Londinensis (1618) suggested remedies which included metals

  • It included over 2000 remedies using 122 different chemical combinations

• Historical records highlight the benefits of using antimony as a chemical cure:

  • In small doses, it caused a patient to sweat

  • In large doses, it caused vomiting

  • Too much of pure antimony was poisonous

  • A compound known as antimony potassium tartrate became incredibly popular after stories circulated that it cured Louis XIV of France from typhoid fever

• Within this period, scientists focused on creating a chemical cure for syphills

  • They experimented with guaiac wood and mercury

  • No chemical cures proved to be effective

  • It remained a dangerous threat to the health of the people

Apothecaries & Surgeons

• The medics from the Medieval period continued to care for the sick in the Renaissance

• There had been some developments in their ideas and practices

Apothecaries

• Apothecaries had a guild systems

  • This improved service to customers

• Apothecaries continued to provide herbal remedies

  • latrochemistry provided more remedies for apothecaries to formulate

• Education improved:

  • It took multiple years of practice as a journeyman to become a master in the profession

• Apothecaries required a license to practice their craft

• Apothecaries continued to be an affordable choice for treatment but could also prescribe ineffective or dangerous remedies

Surgeons

• Surgery needed to advance

  • Weaponry and warfare became more dangerous 

  • This caused more complex wounds and injuries that needed surgery

• Similar to apothecaries, the education of surgeons improved

  • Surgeons undertook an apprenticeship to learn the necessary skills from a master barber-surgeon

• Surgeons required a license to practice their craft

• Surgeons continued to operate on those who could not afford a physician 

• The survival rate for surgery was still poor

  • Patients still did not have access to pain relief, which meant they could die from shock

  • Losing too much blood during the procedure resulted in death

    • Surgeons did not know how to replace blood during surgery

  • Surgeons continued to use dirty equipment

    • This meant many people died post-operation from infection

Physicians

Physicians

• Physicians were still trained in university but some changes occurred: 

  • New ideas slowly filtered into training courses which challenged physicians' thinking about the causes of disease

  • The development of the printing press led to a wider selection of textbooks on topics such as anatomy and iatrochemistry being available

  • If students could not afford a whole book, fugitive sheets were available

• Training was mostly theoretical rather than hands-on experience in treating patients

• The declining influence of the Church meant dissection was allowed but it was hard to find fresh corpses:

  • In the 18th century, a craze called ‘body-snatching’ began

  • Medical students or criminals would illegally dig up bodies to perform dissection

  • A famous example of this is William Burke and William Hare (known as Burke and Hare) in Edinburgh

    • They killed 16 victims to sell the bodies to Robert Knox, a Scottish anatomist

Changes and Continuity to Medical Medics in the Renaissance

Andreas Vesalius

• Andreas Vesalius was a famous anatomist who trained in Paris in 1533 and lectured in Padua, Italy

• He wrote On the Fabric of the Human Body (1543) which noted over 300 mistakes Galen made on the human anatomy including:

  • The lower jaw is in one part, not two

  • Veins in the heart did not lead to the liver

  • Men and women have the same number of ribs

Impact of Vesalius

• He encouraged physicians to focus on dissection rather than believing old theories

  • Some of these physicians later went on to correct Vesalius’ mistakes

• He popularised the study of anatomy and encouraged physicians rather than a surgeon to perform dissections

• He shared his work with his students at Padua, inspiring future anatomists like William Harvey

• He created anger among traditional physicians who believed in Galen’s work

  • They argued that the human anatomy must have changed from the Roman times

William Harvey

• Harvey was an English physician who, by 1618, was doctor to King James I

• Harvey showed an interest in anatomy and was taught Vesalius’ theory. He later:

  • Carried out public dissections as a lecturer of anatomy at the College of Physicians, London

  • Wrote An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals in 1628

• In his study, Harvey discovered that the heart worked like a mechanical fire pump

• The heart pushes the blood around the body through arteries and veins, linked together in the circulation system

  • Harvey proved this by tying a rope around a person’s arm - loosening the rope demonstrated how the blood flowed down into the forearm and then back up the arm

• He also disproved Galen’s theory that the liver created blood

  • He calculated that, if Galen was right, a human would need to make 1800 litres of blood a day to survive

Impact of Harvey

• His book on the human heart was a breakthrough in anatomy

• His work encouraged other scientists to use bodies to make more progress in understanding the body. For example, how was blood made?

• However, a lot of Renaissance physicians ignored his work as it had limited use in medical treatment. Universities only began to use medical textbooks which contained his work from 1673

Hospitals & Pest Houses in Renaissance Britain

• The Renaissance led to changes in organisations that cared for the sick

Hospitals

• In the 16th century, many still visited hospitals to gain food, shelter and prayer

• Records show that increasing numbers of patients were discharged from hospital

  • This means that they were becoming more successful at curing patients with wounds and treatable diseases

• Physicians had contracts to treat patients

  • Many hospitals had apothecaries on site to create remedies

• The dissolution of the monasteries (1536) led to the closure of many hospitals

  • Monks and nuns were no longer able to provide the day-to-day care required to keep them open

  • It took a long time for hospital levels to return to the amount there had been in Medieval England

• Smaller, charity-run hospitals replaced the previous Church-owned facilities

  • The priority of a Medieval hospital was to care for, not cure patients, through comfort and prayer

  • During the Renaissance, a greater focus was on attempting to cure patients using medical treatments

Pest Houses

• Based on medieval lazar houses, these hospitals admitted patients with infectious diseases that conventional hospitals turned away

• This allowed better care for infectious diseases and helped slow down the spread of these diseases

  • This demonstrated an increasing comprehension of how disease spreads from person to person

Care in the Home

• Wise women still played an important role in care

• Home was the most common place for people to receive medical treatment

  • The London College of Physicians punished women for practising medicine without a license

  • Women were not allowed to attend university to receive the medical training required to become a physician

• Many people still relied on herbal remedies made by women as they were cheaper than a trained apothecary or physician