Using Sources A and B, and your own knowledge, describe two significant changes in medicine in the period 1450 - 1700.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Medicine Coursework

Study Sources A and B and use your own knowledge.

Using Sources A and B, and your own knowledge, describe two significant changes in medicine in the period 1450 - 1700.

a) Whilst women weren't trained in medicine during this time period, their traditional roles as healers and midwives were still important ones but women only ever performed them. These roles were just extensions of their status as housewives which can be seen by the way they performed such tasks. Women would use their knowledge of herbs to concoct remedies for the sick and they would record them in recipe books to be handed down to their children. They would also hand down certain recipes by word of mouth. Source A supports this in that it shows a lay Sister preparing a remedy in just such a way. With the arrival of a more medicine-aware society, the role of healer shifted into the hands of merchants and businessman. New drugs coming in from foreign lands, such as the New World, were handled by these very people and were not available to women. Source B shows that when it says: New and expensive cures were developed using