Role of Individuals:
Medieval Period:
Hippocrates:
-Ancient Greek physician
-Theory of the 4 humours (imbalance of the humours cause sickness)
- Theory of opposites (treating a cold with eating something hot e.g.)
- Careful observation of patients
- Recommended rest and exercise
- Wrote 60+ books
- Rational means and encouraged observation before making a
diagnosis-his ideas stood over 1000 years.
Galen:
-Belief of Hippocrates’ ideas of the 4 humours
- Wrote over 300 books
-Claimed lower jaw contained two bones
-First physician to use the pulse as a sign of illness
-Claimed the liver produced blood
- Only dissected animals
-Ideas promoted and approved by the Church as his ideas fitted
with the Church’s. (Meant it was hard to challenge his ideas due to
power and authority of the Church)
-Not challenged despite being wrong
Renaissance Period:
Andreas Vesalius:
-Challenged and corrected Galen (though there was backlash to his
proven ideas of Galen’s supporters)
-Published his ideas in the ‘Fabric of the human body’ in 1543
-Proved that there are no holes in the septum of the heart (Galen
had said there were)
- His work widely circulated by printing
-Opened start for improvements and challenging old traditional
ideas in medicine
-Dissected dead corpses (frowned upon by Church)
William Harvey:
- Dissected cold blooded animals
- Developed theory of circulation and challenged Galen’s ideas. Found the
heart was a pump for blood (idea possibly because of the advancements
of technology)
-Found that blood wasn’t ‘continuously created’ like Galen had said
-Groundwork for blood transfusions
-Purging/bloodletting was useless but many still believed Galen’s ideas
Thomas Sydenham:
-Known as the English ‘Hippocrates’
- Showed some progress, he said that physicians don’t have to necessarily
treat a patient
-Placed importance on observation
18th and 19th Century
Edward Jenner:
- 300 million died in smallpox
-Developed first vaccine for smallpox by using cowpox
- Had no understanding though of this vaccine and his vaccine
faced much opposition
Medieval Period:
Hippocrates:
-Ancient Greek physician
-Theory of the 4 humours (imbalance of the humours cause sickness)
- Theory of opposites (treating a cold with eating something hot e.g.)
- Careful observation of patients
- Recommended rest and exercise
- Wrote 60+ books
- Rational means and encouraged observation before making a
diagnosis-his ideas stood over 1000 years.
Galen:
-Belief of Hippocrates’ ideas of the 4 humours
- Wrote over 300 books
-Claimed lower jaw contained two bones
-First physician to use the pulse as a sign of illness
-Claimed the liver produced blood
- Only dissected animals
-Ideas promoted and approved by the Church as his ideas fitted
with the Church’s. (Meant it was hard to challenge his ideas due to
power and authority of the Church)
-Not challenged despite being wrong
Renaissance Period:
Andreas Vesalius:
-Challenged and corrected Galen (though there was backlash to his
proven ideas of Galen’s supporters)
-Published his ideas in the ‘Fabric of the human body’ in 1543
-Proved that there are no holes in the septum of the heart (Galen
had said there were)
- His work widely circulated by printing
-Opened start for improvements and challenging old traditional
ideas in medicine
-Dissected dead corpses (frowned upon by Church)
William Harvey:
- Dissected cold blooded animals
- Developed theory of circulation and challenged Galen’s ideas. Found the
heart was a pump for blood (idea possibly because of the advancements
of technology)
-Found that blood wasn’t ‘continuously created’ like Galen had said
-Groundwork for blood transfusions
-Purging/bloodletting was useless but many still believed Galen’s ideas
Thomas Sydenham:
-Known as the English ‘Hippocrates’
- Showed some progress, he said that physicians don’t have to necessarily
treat a patient
-Placed importance on observation
18th and 19th Century
Edward Jenner:
- 300 million died in smallpox
-Developed first vaccine for smallpox by using cowpox
- Had no understanding though of this vaccine and his vaccine
faced much opposition
