How much progress was there between the Middle Ages (1350) and the renaissance period(1750)?

The Renaissance period was during the 16th and 17th century, there were an impressive amount of changes as well as a staggering improvement in medicine as a result of these changes however there were numerous elements that remained the identical. The Renaissance was a period in European history when Ancient Greek and Roman theories became popular to the high class society.

Progress in medicine was shown in more than one occasion, such as Galen’s Theory of Opposites. It all started when Galen challenged The Four Humours Theory. This theory was invented by the Ancient Greeks; it is based on 4 humours: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Each of these humours was matched to a season and an element. The Greeks believed that fire, air, water and earth were the elements. Therefore blood was matched with spring and air , yellow bile was linked to summer and fire, black bile was joined to autumn and earth and obviously phlegm was matched with winter also water. They thought to treat the patients with these symptoms they must give them something hot in the summer etc. However Galen believed that you should give them something cold in the summer to cool down their heat. Galen continued his work in anatomy and produced his theory that humans have the same nervous system as pigs. He did experiments in front of the public on live animals because it was not allowed at the time to dissect humans.

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The largest area of acceleration was when Vesalius had his own theories about anatomy, which challenged Galen’s theory. Vesalius actually carried out experiments by dissecting humans; he stole corpses to his develop scientific knowledge on the body. He wrote the book “The Fabric of the Human Boy” which included detailed drawings of human bodies. He found out that Galen’s theory, that animals are the same as humans, was wrong, humans are different from animals! He found out that humans only have one jaw bone not two like apes as well as much more however many people believed so much ...

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I chose this example because I honestly felt that Vesalius changed people’s beliefs and made people realise the truth about the human body as well as start to develop their own ideas and help improve medicine and treatment. The Church did not approve of it from the start of the Middle Ages all the way through the Renaissance as well.

Although, there were quite a few theories of the Middle Ages that remained to be the key themes of medicine in the Renaissance period. For instance the Vademeum handbook that included urine charts and zodiac charts. Physicians used this handbook throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Zodiac charts are used to this day in some places, to use it you would look at the moon, check which sign you are, and follow the chart to see what treatment you must avoid when you are sick. Urine charts are as well used to this day as when you look at the colour of the urine and then at the chart you can see if it normal or if you are sick.

The most important reason why medicine and treatment remained the same I would say would be because of the poor communication skills. Until printing was invented in the 17th century, everything had to be had written which took obviously a very long time also there would only be one copy of that book. Printing made it an enormous amount easier to communicate worldwide, to publish books and spread theories and ideas.

In some areas there was even regress because medicine appeared to lower in standards. For example when the church restricted experiments that would have increased peoples knowledge of the human body such as the dissection of humans. This means doctors and scientists wasted a lot of time with incorrect theories of humans.

I chose this example because I feel the Church really held back science and medicine as doctors could have found out a lot more sooner about the human body which would have led to treatments and could have saved a lot more lives.

When the effects of progress are compared to the effects of stagnation and regress, this period seems to be mainly of a time of progress.

I decided this because even with the church restrictions and poor communications Galen and Vesalius both discovered something and one way or another spread the word and changed medicine and treatment, without the developments between 1350 and 1750 we would be held back dearly in medicine and treatment. Therefore I do believe 1350 – 1750 was a time of development and progress in medicine and treatment.

Wednesday, 06 October 2010 Larissa Bourgi

Teacher Reviews

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

Kate Forbes

3rd of Mar 2012

It is really important to check if the question specifies a particular area of medicine such as treatment for disease , or public health. If it does then the essay must address this area precisely. The strengths of this essay are that it does focus on the correct period and addresses the issues of change continuity and progress. It needs more precise detail of the different areas of medicine to show that although there was tremendous progress in knowledge about the human body (anatomy) there was in fact almost no change at all in treatments for disease. ***

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