Renaissance Medicine Essay

Jaretzi Pioquinto

Ms. Hoffman

Writing Period 2

17 February, 2023

Back then, medical knowledge was not as advanced as it is today, which led to people turning to wise women and witches for herbs. Science and apothecary in the Renaissance were very different from today. This is because today people have medicine to help heal, and currently have modern technology to assist doctors in operating. However, in the Renaissance, they possessed a very basic knowledge of medicine. Through battle, Renaissance doctors learned how to perform surgery, and they used their knowledge to help others. During the Renaissance, doctors came up with a theory called humor, which was originally made by the Egyptians. Due to their limited knowledge at the time, they

Many Renaissance doctors performed surgery, invented surgical tools, and used new techniques. The text states, "He was the royal surgeon for four French kings and was an expert in battlefield medicine, particularly wound treatment, and surgery. He invented several surgical instruments." (MedicalNewsToday). Da Vinci made many surgical tools that were useful during surgery. Since surgery was undeveloped at the time, they did not operate deeply, and the tools helped them advance. Surgery during the Renaissance was a relatively undeveloped field, and it was only practiced by a few surgeons in Europe. Da Vinci was one of the pioneers in medical technology, and his inventions helped to revolutionize the field. The text states, "Paré once treated a group of wounded patients in two ways:

The text states, "As well as wine, surgeons used ointments and cauterization when treating wounds. There was not much understanding of how infections worked. People did not link a lack of hygiene with the risk of infection, and many wounds became fatal for this reason. (MedicalNewsToday). They had no understanding of infections at the time, so many injuries were infected even though they used different ointments and wine. It is now known that hygiene had everything to do with infections, and most of the injuries had not proved fatal. As a result, the importance of hygiene was later acknowledged, and it was realized that most of the injuries could have been avoided if proper hygiene had been practiced. The text shows, "He then proved that Phipps was immune to smallpox because of the cowpox "vaccine." Others were skeptical, but Jenner’s successful experiments were finally published in 1798. In the early Middle Ages, medical care was very basic, and largely depended on herbs and superstition." (MedicalNewsToday). Smallpox killed so many people that doctors were looking for a cure. A doctor was able to see that smallpox and cowpox were similar in a variety of ways. He found a cure with cow pus and gave it to a young boy, and soon he was cured. They soon realized it helped the boy, despite everyone's skepticism. A doctor was able