History (The Renaissance)
Vesalius
• Belgian Physician
• Made discoveries through dissection and anatomical drawings
• Stole bodies from cemeteries and gallows in order to dissect them, as well as corpses from criminals
• Identified 300 mistakes in Galen's work
• Showed Galen's understanding of the human body was incorrect
• Wrote 'On the fabric of the human body' in 1543. These documented the drawings of human anatomy
• Encouraged others to perfom dissections and develop his work
Pare
• French Physician regarded as the 'Father of modern surgery'
• In 1537, he used a mixture of rose oil, egg white and turpentine to soothe his patients wounds
• Used Ligatures (string) during amputations to stop the bleeding
• This could cause infection so he needed to be quick
• Wrote 'Works on surgery' which increased surgeons understanding of anatomy
Harvey
• English Doctor
• Believed blood circulated around the body (which marked the end of Galen's superiority)
• Demonstrated blood only flowed in one direction
• People were reluctant to these ideas since the Church still believed Galen's ideas
• Harvey was helped due to his intelligence, others challenging Galen's work, new technology, and people started seeking scientific explanations about discovery
• Some people criticised him, calling him mad
• However, his theory was accepted
Lady Mary Wortley Montague
• Responsible for the smallpox inoculation to Britain and West Europe
Nicholas Culpeper
• Doctor who published his work in English - which was unusual as the main language was Latin at the time
• Helped spread knowledge through his use of English
• Wrote 'Culpeper's Herbal' which demonstrated herbs and their uses/preparations