The Renaissance to Early Modern Medicine

When was the Renaissance?

The Renaissance is a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history.

The main change in Renaissance medicine was largely due to the increase in anatomical knowledge, aided by an easing of the legal and cultural restrictions on dissecting cadavers.

How were diseases diagnosed?

Methods of diagnosis during the early Renaissance period were not very different from what occurred during the Middle Ages. Physicians had no idea how to cure infectious disease. When faced with the plague or syphilis they did not really know what to do.

Ineffective desperate attempts at treating diseases also included superstitious rites and magic. Even the King, Charles II, was asked to help out by touching sick people in an attempt to cure them of scrofula (The King's Evil). Scrofula was most likely a type of tuberculosis.

Charles II touching a patient for the King's evil, circa 1680 (1903).

Over 92,000 scrofulous people were touched by him, over 4,500 annually.

Medicines, Treatment and Herbal Remedies

•Quinine, from the bark of the Quina tree, for the treatment of malaria and its symptoms.

•Laudanum, based on opium,as a painkiller. •Tobacco•Enemas•Bloodletting, Cupping and Tooth removal•Herbal remedies resembling the human body•Mercury for the treatment of Syphilis•Alcohol for digestion•Earwax for migraines•Pig urine to beat a fever

Healthcare System• The other main change in European healthcare was the

establishment of hospitals, although these were often the preserve of the wealthy.

• Surgical procedures improved and survival from even simple procedures increased.By the fifteenth century, Florence had 35 hospitals.

• During the Renaissance, public baths remained popular. It was not until after this period that Europeans viewed water as a carrier of disease and the Catholic Church started wondering about the immorality of public bathing. The Church eventually banned public bathing in an attempt to stem the spread of syphilis (which continued to spread).

Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim

“Paracelsus”

How did Paracelsus treated his patients and diagnosed them?

He diagnosed patients based on nature and how the patients truly felt the pain or symptoms of the disease and he did not consider the ancient texts as basis.

Did Paracelsus use herbal remedies?

Paracelsus’ original conception was to make an elixir based on three key ingredients; Aloe, Saffron, and Myrrh. • Aloe is known in Greek medicine as being a fluidifier and

attenuant for all of the Four Humours. • Saffron is a potent blood thinner and purifier, and an

excellent heart and circulatory tonic.• Myrrh is what is known as a vulnerary or cicatrizant, an

herbal resin that promotes tissue regeneration and the healing of the wounds especially in combination with Aloe.“The dose makes the poison”,

meaning toxic substances taken

in small doses is harmless but ordinary non-toxic drugs

becomes dangerous if over-consumed.

Mercury for Syphilis• Paracelsus also had some training in alchemy, from

which he picked up the principle that metals were the key elements which made up the universe, and that they were subject to control by God, the ‘great magician’ who created nature.

• He was the first to declare that, if given in small doses, “what makes a man ill also cures him” on the basis of this idea, Paracelsus introduced new chemical substances into medicine, for instance the use of the metal mercury for the treatment of syphilis.

Humphry Davy• Sir Humphry Davy was an English

chemist best known for his contributions to the discoveries of chlorine and iodine.

• He made several reports on the effects of inhaling nitrous oxide (laughing gas).

• He invented the Davy lamp, which allowed miners to work safely in close contact with flammable gases.

In the lab, Davy prepared (and inhaled) nitrous oxide (also known as laughing gas) to test its disease-causing properties, and his work led to an appointment as chemical superintendent of the Pneumatic Institution in 1798. From that position he explored such areas as oxides, nitrogen and ammonia.

Davy next dived into electricity experiments, namely exploring the electricity-producing properties of electrolytic cells and the chemical implications of those cells' processes. That work led to further discoveries regarding sodium and potassium and the discovery of boron. Also along this trajectory, Davy parsed out why chlorine serves as a bleaching agent.

William Thomas Green MortonThe father of Modern Anaesthesia

American dental surgeon who in 1846 gave the first successful public demonstration of ether anaesthesia during surgery. He is credited with gaining the medical world’s acceptance of surgical anaesthesia.

• On October 16, 1846, William T. G. Morton administered an effective anaesthetic to a surgical patient. Consenting to what became a most significant scientific revolution were John Warren an apprehensive surgeon, and Glenn Abbott, an even more nervous young man about to undergo removal of a vascular tumour on the left side of his neck.

• He developed a letheon inhaler that he tried to patent as a unique invention.

• Morton’s genius resided not only in his observations of the power of ether but also in his development of a crude but scientific method of regulating its inhalation, thus creating the field of anesthesiology.

Edward JennerFather of Immunology

Edward Jenner was an English doctor, the pioneer of smallpox vaccination and the father of immunology.

In 1796, he carried out his now famous experiment on eight-year-old James Phipps. Jenner inserted pus taken from a cowpox pustule and inserted it into an incision on the boy's arm.

Jenner subsequently proved that having been inoculated with cowpox, Phipps was immune to smallpox. He submitted a paper to the Royal Society in 1797 describing his experiment, but was told that his ideas were too revolutionary and that he needed more proof. Undaunted, Jenner experimented on several other children, including his own 11-month-old son.

In 1798, the results were finally published and Jenner called his new method ‘vaccination’ after the Latin word for cow (vacca). But Jenner had no explanation for why this method worked - no-one could see the virus with the microscopes of the time.

• Jenner’s method of vaccination against smallpox grew in popularity and eventually spread around the globe.

• About 150 years after Jenner’s death in 1823, smallpox would be making its last gasps. The World Health Organization eventually declared smallpox to be eradicated from the planet in 1980 after a massive surveillance and vaccination program.

Crawford Williamson LongDiscoverer of Anaesthesia

American surgeon and pharmacist best known for his first use of inhaled sulfuric ether as an anaesthetic.

• During his medical studies, Long had the opportunity to observe and participate in several surgeries, but these were harrowing experiences, as patients were not sedated and often experienced excruciating pain. At times doctors used alcohol, hypnotism, or other means to try to relax patients before surgery, but these remedies merely affected the patient's mental state and did little to relieve pain.

• He began to experiment with sulfuric ether as an anesthetic. He performed his first surgical procedure using the gas(ether) on March 30, 1842, when he removed a tumor from the neck of a young man named James M. Venable, in Jefferson, Georgia. He performed more surgeries using anesthesia over the next several years.

• On June 18, 1879, the National Eclectic Medical Association (an organization that advocated using the best remedies that could be found, from many different sources) passed a resolution declaring Long as the discoverer of anaesthesia.

Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk

German pathologist and bacteriologist. He is credited with the discovery of Sulfonamidochrysoidine (KI-730) – the first commercially available antibiotic (marketed under the brand name Prontosil) – for which he received the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

How did Domagk treat his patients and diagnose them?

• He introduced sulfa drugs, or sulfonamides, all of which are related to the compound sulfanilamide, provided the first successful therapies for many bacterial diseases, especially staphylococcal and streptococcal infections along with pneumococcal and tubercular infections. His own daughter actually became very ill with a streptococcal infection, and Domagk, in desperation, gave her a dose of Prontosil, a derivative of sulphanilamide (p-aminobenzenesulphonamide) which the Viennese chemist, Gelmo, had synthesized in 1908.. She made a complete recovery after taking the drug.

• He also discovered the therapeutic value of the quaternary ammonium bases and he also extended, in collaboration with Klarer and Mietzsch, his work on the sulphonamides. Later, he attacked the problem of the chemotherapy of tuberculosis, developing for this the thiosemicarbazones (Conteben) and isonicotinic acid hydrazide (Neoteben).

What was his healthcare system?

Domagk believes that a drug’s role was to interact with the immune system, either to strengthen it or so weaken the agent of infection that the immune system could easily conquer the invader. He therefore placed great stock in testing drugs in living systems and was prepared to continue working with a compound even after it failed testing on bacteria cultured in laboratory glassware.

Did Domagk do surgery?• Domagk did not perform any surgical procedures himself but his research and discovery on sulphonamides and its effect against bacteria and other microorganisms causing infection extended to the surgical field. In fact, specialists in the field of brain surgery have reported that even in cases of brain injury sulphonamides can be introduced directly into the wound cavities, thereby preventing abscess formation and meningitis, which are often fatal.

• Further investigations conducted on puerperal infections, and especially in cases of septic abortion through Caesarean section, showed that in a considerable percentage of cases, sulphonamides plays a huge role in preventing the presentation of anaerobic gas gangrene microorganisms.

John Jacob AbelFather of American Pharmacology

American pharmacologist and physiological chemist who:• Made important contributions to a

modern understanding of the ductless, or endocrine, glands.

• Isolated adrenaline in the form of a chemical derivative (1897) and crystallized insulin (1926).

• Invented a primitive artificial kidney.

• He suggested in 1912 that an “artificial kidney” might be utilized in the removal and study of diffusible substances of the blood.

• An apparatus of coiled collodion tubes surrounded by a saline solution was soon devised and used for this purpose; arterial blood was shunted through these tubes and then returned to the experimental animal’s vein. Using this technique, Abel succeeded in demonstrating the existence of free amino acids in the blood. Even at this time(1913), Abel seems to have been aware of the clinical potential of what he called his “vividiffusion” apparatus; it might, he suggested, prove useful in managing renal failure.