2. Lecture Plan
1.Introduction to the
Renaissance Medicine.
2.Medical research and major
breakthroughs. Hospitals and
healthcare.
3.Famous scientists of the time.
Andreas Vesalius. Ambroise
Pare. William Harvey.
5. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
•Italian artist, scientist, engineer
•Studied anatomy of body by dissection of human
corpses
6.
7. As the understanding of the body increased, so
did the development of new medicines. Building
on knowledge of herbs and minerals taken from
Arabic writings, Renaissance pharmacists
experimented with new plants brought from
distant lands by explorers like Christopher
Columbus.
Renaissance Medicine
8. Hospitals and healthcare
The majority of people were too poor to be
treated by trained doctors. Major cities had
hospitals. For example, the Santa Maria Nuova
in Florence, treated wealthy patients.
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9. Surgical instruments remained basic. A
surgeon would perform operations with the
most basic set of instruments: a drill, a saw,
forceps and pliers for removing teeth.
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10. Surgeons belonged to the working class and did
the jobs that were considered beneath
physicians, such as bloodletting and pulling
teeth. Most surgeries were performed by the
barber/surgeon. The most common operations
were for hernias, gallstones and cesarean section.
Renaissance Medicine
11. Andreas Vesalius wrote what is considered to
be one of the most important books in the
history of medicine, The Fabric of the Human Body
(1543). It was a complete map of the human
body, complete with life like illustrations. It
showed many of Galen’s ideas to be wrong, and
soon Vesalius’ view of anatomy (the study of
the structure of the body) became accepted by
doctors and surgeons.
Renaissance Medicine
12. Vesalius was so successful that he became
Professor of Surgery (responsible for teaching
anatomy) at Padua University when he was just
23. At this time, the Catholic Church said that
the works of Galen were inspired by God. So, in
the universities of Europe, anatomy was taught
by professors who simply read aloud from
Galen’s books.
Renaissance Medicine
13. In contrast, Vesalius gave lectures in which he
carried out dissections in front of his students,
explaining his own theories and not relying on
those of Galen. Hundreds came to watch each
lecture. He also encouraged his students to
examine the human body for themselves.
Renaissance Medicine
14. In 1543, his masterpiece, The Fabric of the Human
Body, was published. It was a very detailed study
of anatomy, illustrated throughout by some of
the most accomplished artists of the
Renaissance. It was based on knowledge gained
from human dissections. It provided a complete
map of the human body. It showed for the first
time how nerves are connected to muscles, how
bones are nourished, and the complex structure
of the brain.
Renaissance Medicine
15. Vesalius corrected some of Galen’s errors, such
as the idea that humans had the same number of
bones in the spine as monkeys, and that the
human jaw is made up of two bones when in
fact there is only one.
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16. Ambroise Pare is a key individual in the history
of medicine who has been called the founder
of modern surgery as he significantly changed
the way people thought about surgery.
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17. Three main problems faced surgeons at this
time. They were pain, infection and bleeding.
These 3 factors caused many patients to die. The
musket (a form of gun) was becoming the most
widely used weapon, but the method of treating
the wounds – cauterisation – caused a lot of
pain. Pare wanted to find a way to overcome this
problem.
Renaissance Medicine
18. The ways of treating gunshot wounds before
Pare.
1) If the wound was not too serious, it was filled
with boiling oil to stop the bleeding.
2) If the patient needed an amputation, the area
would be burnt with a red hot iron, called a
cautery iron, to stop the bleeding.
Renaissance Medicine
19. Pare developed two new methods for treating gunshot
wounds.
1) (For less serious wounds) Pare made an accidental
discovery when he ran out of oil that he had been using
to pour into gunshot wounds. He used a digestive
(ointment) instead, made from egg yolks, rose oil, and
turpentine. He discovered that this reduced pain greatly.
Cauterisation was not necessary and the ointment
soothed the area around the wound. It also fought
infection, making the wound heal quicker.
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20. 2) (For amputations) Pare made sure the patient was
strong by feeding him meat and eggs. He tied the area
above the part to be amputated, using a ligature. This
held the skin covering the muscles and bones and cut
off the blood supply to the area that would be
amputated. Once the limb was amputated Pare would
use a Crows Beak (an instrument that resembles a pair
of pliers) to pull out arteries and veins before tying
them off and sewing them up as quickly as possible
using silk thread. This meant less bleeding and
therefore less chance of death from loss of blood.
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21. Pare’s method, although groundbreaking, still left some
problems to be solved in the future.
* Even though Pare’s use of a digestive (ointment) when
treating wounds reduced the risk of infection, many
patients still died from infection as effective antiseptics
had not yet been invented.
* Pare’s method of using silk thread to tie off arteries
could actually cause infection. Instruments used during
operations were not often clean – there was no
knowledge of germs – therefore bacteria on those
instruments (and the silk thread) was often transferred
to the wound and sealed inside.
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22. William Harvey was very interested in anatomy,
particularly the work of Vesalius. After leaving
university he worked as a doctor at St
Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and then as a
lecturer in anatomy at the Royal College of
Surgeons. He was also physician to both James I
and Charles I.
Renaissance Medicine
23. Like Pare and Vesalius, Harvey believed in the
importance of careful observation, dissection and
experiments in order to improve his knowledge of how
the body worked. In 1615 Harvey began to work on the
idea that blood circulated around the body. Around this
time, water pumps were invented. This gave Harvey the
idea that perhaps the heart worked in the same way as a
water pump, and pumped blood around the body.
Renaissance Medicine
24. Harvey’s study of beating hearts showed him that the
heart was pushing out large volumes of blood. He
proved that each push happened at the same time as the
pulse which could be felt at the neck and at the wrist.
He realised that so much blood was being pumped out
by the heart, that it could not be used up and replaced
by new blood as Galen had said. This suggested that
there was a fixed amount of blood in the body, and that
it was circulating.
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25. Renaissance Medicine
William Harvey observed how blood flowed
around the body. Drawings like this
demonstrate that veins have valves and
return blood to the heart.
26. Harvey’s theory met with opposition because it
suggested that if there was a fixed amount of
blood in the body, then there was no need for
the practice of bloodletting. Bloodletting was a
very common and well respected medical
practice, which had been used ever since ancient
times.
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27. Medical practices in the Renaissance were not
changed by Harvey’s work. Blood letting still
continued to be a popular practice, and it was
only in the 1900’s that doctors realised the
importance of checking a patient’s blood flow
by checking their pulse.
Renaissance Medicine
