Medical Advances During The Renaissance Era

The Renaissance was a time in between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era. It was a time full of major advancements in Europe. One of the biggest advancements came from the medical field. The Renaissance time period gained a major insight into the medical field with new discoveries of the body and techniques to deal with diseases and outbreaks. These medical advancements would not have been possible if it were not for some very important people. The person who arguable stands out the most is named Andreas Vesalius. He did most of his research based off of the famous Galen and found that some of what Galen taught was not 100% accurate (Wilson 447). Vesalius was the main physician followed during the Renaissance time period since Galen. He

The most common diseases included malaria, smallpox, stones, measles, influenza, syphilis, and dysentery (Singman 52). The solutions to certain diseases during the Renaissance time period were deranged. For example, people believed that deafness could be cured from powdered armadillo bone. They also believed that you could get rid of a wart by putting a cut up mouse on it. Crazy assumptions like these were made up because there was no common medicine (Lace 73). Since there were no medicines available, doctors prescribed different types of chemicals to kill the disease in the patients. Some examples of these chemicals were arsenic, mercury, and zinc. The patient would often suffer from side effects when taking the chemicals (Lace 74). No one really knew how people got sick during the Renaissance time period. But there were a lot of different reasons for what people thought caused them. Some examples included cold weather, others thought it was from getting intoxicated, and some people even blamed the Jews (Lace 75). After doing research, historians have discovered that the key reason that these diseases were passed around and spread was because of the sanitary conditions during the Renaissance time (Singman 52). They happened to be very poor. Diseases were often seen in cycles in which every few years an outbreak of influenza or smallpox would creep up and take the lives of many. One of the most infamous

William Clowes found an unsettling cure to the sexual disease, syphilis. Clowes discovered the chemical mercury could cure the patient by poisoning the disease. The downfall was that patients were dying from the mercury (Lace 73). Another discovery came from Frenchman, Ambroise Pare. He discovered a better way of treating a ligament after an amputation was done. Instead of cauterizing the ligament, he sewed it shut which happened to be more efficient and less painful (Lace 76). Andreas Vesalius discovered that the gallbladder does not open in the stomach and he also discovered that the heart contains no bones (Hale 91). Timothy Bright discovered that mental illnesses are not actually caused by “evil humours” or bodily fluids, but actually by, “a fearful disposition of the mind” (Lace 76). This was a significant discovery because it helped clearly show the explanation on why some of Shakespeare’s characters faced mental illnesses. In Othello, one can now conclude that Othello faced mental illnesses from other characters in the play brainwashing him such as Iago and not because of “evil humours” (Shakespeare). Another example comes from Macbeth. One can conclude that Macbeth had his mental illness and became a murderer from his mind being out of proportion and not functioning right (Shakespeare). The main medical discovery came from physician, William Harvey. Harvey is known for discovering