Renaissance - Continuity + Changes in prevention, treatment + care

Question 1

What were the changes of the types of patients in hospitals?

Answer 1

• by 1500, hospitals treated more sick + wounded people - and used less by travellers and pilgrims

Question 2

What caused most hospitals to close and when?

Answer 2

1536 - dissolution of the monasteries in England by Henry VIII
- hospitals often attached to monasteries + convents –> nuns + monks who administered medical care

Question 3

What was the result of the dissolution of hospitals in 1536?

Answer 3

• some free, charity-funded hospitals set up - but wasn’t until well into the 1700s that the number of hospitals returned to pre-dissolution levels
• more pest houses appears - place of care for serious contagious diseases without affecting family

Question 4

What was different when hospitals did re-appear?

Answer 4

ran by physicians who focused on treating the sick rather than by religion

Question 5

Give 5 continuing treatments and preventions.

Answer 5

1. Traditional herbal remedies
2. Bleeding and purging
3. Cleanliness
4. Superstitions and prayer
5. Healthy living

Question 6

What was community care?

Answer 6

• most people who became ill were cared at home, usually by a female relative

Question 7

Why was community care still very prevalent?

Answer 7

• local communities very close –> plenty of people to give advice + mix remedies
• physicians still too expensive for majority

Question 8

Give 2 changes of prevention.

Answer 8

• more emphasis on removing miasma through draining swamps + removing sewage + rubbish
• people regularly changed clothe to keep clean rather than just bathing

Question 9

Give 3 changes in treatment.

Answer 9

• new Herbal remedies from newly discovered countries appeared in England
• theory of transference : people tried to rub objects on themselves to transfer the disease to the object
• alchemy caused chemical cures (iatrochemistry) - very popular in 17th century –> metals + mineral cures popular

Question 10

Why was there still a lack of change during the Renaissance?

Answer 10

• Ideas were slow to be accepted and had no direct use in improving treatment or preventing disease. Discoveries did not improve understanding about the cause of disease.