Page 47 - Year 10 Knowledge Organiser

History: Medicine Through Time (Medieval): 1 of 5 History: Medicine Through Time (Renaissance): 2 of 5

Factors CHANGES Individuals
There was little scientific knowledge in medieval England as medicine was dominated by the Church, who used the
ancient texts of Hippocrates and Galen to explain why people caught diseases. People believed God could send RELIGION – The Church was still dominant. Belief in Thomas Sydenham: Sydenham was the first person to publicly William Harvey: Before Harvey,
disease as a punishment for sinful behaviour. Only in times of terrible disease such as during the Black Death, did Heaven & Hell affected how people lived. The Church believe that each disease had a different cause. He studied Galen had suggested that blood
people start to question the authority of the Church on matters of medicine controlled education but had begun to allow dissections. Scarlett Fever specifically. He used clinical observation to travels across the heart and is
burned off. He said it was
carefully note a patients’ symptoms and was the first to
Work and harvests GOVERNMENT – Kings began to think about how the beginning taking a pulse. He was known as English Hippocrates. reproduced in the liver. Harvey,
90 per cent of people worked as farmers to grow the food everyone needed. This was hard, back-breaking country was running. Charles II joined the Royal Society in 1628, proves that it flows in a
and built an observatory on one of the palaces.
work. This constant hard work meant there was little time for education or reading. There were years when The Royal Society were established in London one-way system around the body.
poor harvests meant that people went hungry. ATTITUDES – The majority of attitudes were still in the 1600s who met to discuss big questions He shows that the heart is a
conservative. However new ideas were spreading as the an new ideas. Charles II joined in 1662 and pump. He does this using
Education printing press shared accurate knowledge discovered. supported the group by building laboratories & metal rods to prove the
The Church controlled education, especially in the universities where physicians were observatories. Richard Lower attempted the existence of valves, dissecting
trained. By the fifteenth century up to 50 per cent of people in large towns could INDIVIDUALS – Harvey and Vesalius both moved medicine first blood transfusion in 1665 between a cold blooded animals &
forward in this time period, as they began experimenting
read. The books most commonly read were prayer books and other religious books. sheep and a student. looking to the water pump for
on the human body rather than animal dissections.
The Printing Press helped scientists to share their ideas quickly, inspiration.
Communication The Great Plague 1665 which meant that many previous mistakes could be corrected.
Printing came to England in the 1470s but until then books had to be written out by hand. Key Words
This meant there were not many books and knowledge was slow to spread. The Plague killed around 20% of the population in London Individuals
throughout the 1600s. In 1665 alone, 100,000 died in
London. Quarantine – Where infected people
Traditional beliefs reigned about the causes of Plague: a Andreas Vesalius: 1543 were kept away from healthy people,
punishment from God, miasma, the Four Humours, the Prior knowledge of anatomy had mainly come from locked in their house.
supernatural. However, people were beginning to Galen’s books and his work on dissecting animals. This National government – Orders which
recognise the effects of contagion. meant that he made many mistakes such as thinking had come from the King. Local
the jaw was made up of two bones. government – Orders coming from
Following Plague Orders councils individual towns (like a local council).
began painting crosses on the doors Vesalius begins to do public dissections on humans Miasma – A belief that bad air caused
of plague victims and quarantining where he corrects many of illness.
them. They were usually quarantined Galen’s mistakes. Because these dissections are Enquiry – Being curious and questioning
for 40 days with a watchman posted public, he is able to share this information quickly. He traditional beliefs. Anatomy – The make
outside. A searcher would then check publishes his book Fabrica in 1543 which contained up of the human body (bones, muscles).
to see if the family had died or many ‘muscle men’ to show people what the human Dissection – Cutting something apart to
recovered. Pest houses were also body looked like. understand how it works.
used to house the homeless.