Galen And Hippocrates Advancements In Medical Training

From around 1250 to the beginning of 1500, the advancement in medical training was substantially limited. Much focus was put into developing the idea of where disease and illness came from, how it was transmitted or how you could prevent it. This meant that medical training was scarcely a priority for the majority. Furthermore, people were adamant to move on from the teachings of Galen and Hippocrates. Dissection was followed out using Galen’s philosophies on dissections, which were based on animals. And many theories for the cause of disease and illness were heavily based on the four humours. These classical ideas were the basis of many medical students – everything they learnt typically linked to Galen or Hippocrates teachings one way or another, hindering their advances in medical training. However, I believe to a large extent that a number of individuals during the 16th and 17th century challenged these popularized beliefs and had a big impact on medical training.

Contrasting to how medical students frequently carried out their dissections, Vesalius dissected the bodies independently. This meant that Vesalius didn’t use Galen’s teachings and created his own theories, inspiring others to do so. These factors encouraged medical students to start carrying out dissections by themselves, progressing medical training as students began to move on from Galen’s theories on dissection and creating their own. Moreover, Vesalius went against the law in order to carry out these dissections, which made students more confident in his methods as Vesalius put his future at risk by doing so - he was so confident that his methods were correct, that he risked his future. Medical students found this action inspirational, hence why they begin to work on dissections without Galen’s teachings, once again, encouraging the advance in medical