Medical Renaissance
The Medical Renaissance, from around 1400 to 1700 CE, was a period of progress in European
Background
The Medical Renaissance began in the early 16th century. Medical researchers continued their Renaissance-evoked practices into the late 17th century.
Notable contributors
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
Leonardo da Vinci made many contributions in the fields of science and technology. His research centered around his desire to learn more about how the human brain processes visual and sensory information and how that connects to the soul. Though his artwork was widely observed before, some of his original research was not made public until the 20th century. Some of da Vinci's research involved studying vision. He believed that visual information entered the body through the eye, then continued by sending nerve impulses through the optic nerve, and eventually reaching the soul. Da Vinci subscribed to the ancient notion that the soul was housed in the brain.
He did research on the role of the spinal cord in humans by studying frogs. He noted that as soon as the frogs medulla of the spine is broken, the frog would die. This led him to believe that the spine is the basis for the sense of touch, cause of movement, and the origin of nerves. As a result of his studies on the spinal cord, he also came to the conclusion that all peripheral nerves begin from the spinal cord. Da Vinci also did some research on the sense of smell. He is credited with being the first to define the olfactory nerve as one of the cranial nerves.[5]
Leonardo da Vinci made his anatomical sketches based on observing and dissecting 30 cadavers. His sketches were very detailed and included organs, muscles of superior extremity, the hand, and the skull. Leonardo was well known for his three-dimensional drawings. His anatomical drawings were not found until 380 years after his death.[6]
Ambroise Paré (1510–1590)
Paré was a French surgeon, anatomist and an inventor of
Additionally, Paré's contributions extended to the practice of surgical amputation and on the design and development of limb
Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564)
Andreas Vesalius was born in 1514 around midnight in Brussels, then part of Habsburg Netherlands, to a long lineage of doctors.[11] His father was also an apothecary to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.[11] He would be born into the period of The Revival of Learning. He gained an interest in anatomy at a young age and began dissecting mice, moles, cats, and dogs.[11] Vesalius picked up from the work of Galen (129–c. 200 CE) which was based on the dissection of animals from pigs to apes.[12] The works of Galen would be accepted until Vesalius. He would challenge the medieval views of human anatomy made by Galen that had been taught for centuries. Vesalius paved he foundation of modern anatomy and most of his ideas are accepted today.
Vesalius went to school in
He wrote around 14 books on his findings in anatomy, including his best known book
Vesalius was an important part of the Medical Renaissance. He is remembered as a critic of the inaccurate teachings of Galen, and one of the founders of modern anatomy.
William Harvey (1578–1657)
William Harvey was an English medical doctor-physicist, known for his contributions in heart and blood movement. William Harvey fully believed all medical knowledge should be universal, and he made this his works goal. Accomplished historians credit him for his boldness in his experimental work and his everlasting eagerness to implement modern practice.[15] Although not the first to propose pulmonary circulation (Ibn al-Nafis, Michael Servetus and Realdo Colombo preceded him), he is credited as the first person in the Western world to give quantitative arguments for the circulation of blood around the body.[16] William Harvey's extensive work on the body's circulation can be found in the written work titles, "The Motu Cordis".This work opens up with clear definitions of anatomy as well as types of anatomy which clearly outlined a universal meaning of these words for various Renaissance physicians. Anatomy, as defined by William Harvey is, "the faculty that by ocular inspection and dissection [grasps] the uses and actions of the parts."[15] In other words, to be able to identify the actions or roles each part of the body plays in the overall function of the body by dissection, followed by visual identification. These were the foundation for the further research on the heart and blood vessels.[17]
Hieronymus Fabricius (1537–1619)
See also
References
- S2CID 23988544.
- ^ S2CID 207482973.
- ^ OCR GCSE: Medicine Through Time
- ^ Parragon, World History Encyclopedia
- S2CID 9833298.
- ^ S2CID 15451344.
- ISBN 978-0-684-80511-5.
- ^ "Prostheses by Ambroise Paré" drawings
- ^ News.nationalgeographic.com
- ^ JSTOR 4604123.
- ^ Singer, P. N. (2021), "Galen", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2022-12-06
- ^ S2CID 31817948.
- ^ JSTOR 24945814.
- ^ S2CID 35973541.
- ^ Spotlight Science 9 (GCSE Science Text Book)
- ^ Kids Work! > History of Medicine
- ^ S2CID 207140931.
Further reading
- Andrew Wear; Roger Kenneth French; Iain M. Lonie (1985). The Medical Renaissance of the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-30112-1.
- Siraisi, Nancy G. (1 January 1986). "Medieval and Renaissance Medicine: Continuity and Diversity". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 41 (4): 391–394. PMID 3534071.