Ap European History Chapter 16 Section 3: Advances in Medicine

Advances in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries included… Astronomy Mechanics Medicine

Galen (Greek physician – second century A.D.) His influence on the medieval medical world was pervasive in anatomy, physiology, and disease. Physiology, or the functioning of the body, was also dominated by Galenic hypotheses, including the belief that there were two separate blood systems. One controlled muscular activities and contained bright red blood moving upward and downward through the arteries. The other governed the digestive functions and contained dark red blood that ebbed and flowed in the veins.

Since disease was supposedly the result of an imbalance of humors that could be discerned from quantity and color of urine, the examination of a patient’s urine became the chief diagnostic tool.

Philippus Areolus von Hohenheim (1493-1541) Renamed himself Paracelsus His chemical philosophy was in turn closely connected to a view of the universe based on the macrocosm-microcosm analogy. A human being was a small replica (microcosm) of the large world (macrocosm). Believed that the chemical reactions of the universe as a whole were reproduced in human beings on a smaller scale. Disease was caused due to chemical imbalances that were localized in specific organs and could be treated by chemical remedies. The use of toxic substances to cure patients was, despite its apparent effectiveness, viewed by Paracelsus’ opponents as the practice of a “homicide physician.” Forerunner of both homeopathy and the holistic medicine of the postmodern eara.

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) Emphasized practical research as the principal avenue for understanding human anatomy. Wrote On the Fabric of the Human Body, he deviated from traditional practice by personally dissecting a body to illustrate what he was discussing. Presented a careful examination of the individual organs and general structure of the human body.

William Harvey (1578-1657) Wrote On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in 1628 Led him to demolish the ancient Greek’s erroneous contentions. Demonstrated that the heart and not the liver was the beginning point of the circulation of blood in the body, that the same blood flows in both veins and arteries, and most important, that the blood makes a complete circuit as it passes through the body. Harvey’s theory of the circulation of the blood laid the foundation for modern physiology.