Topic Summaries

Renaissance explanations for illness

GCSE > History > WJEC > GCSE History: Medicine and Health in Britain (1000-Present) Topic Summaries > Renaissance medicine > Renaissance explanations for illness
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Summary table
  • Medical understanding during the Renaissance showed strong continuity with medieval ideas rather than major change. The Theory of the Four Humours and miasma theory remained dominant.
  • Religious explanations also remained influential, with many people believing disease was sent by God as punishment or a test of faith, but it became less common to assume diseases had supernatural causes as gradually a more scientific approach evolved.
  • Scientists and physicians could rely on new methods of diagnosis and treatment beyond the medieval urine analysis.
  • The Royal Society (founded 1660) was a group for scientists and doctors to share and publish new ideas, supported by King Charles II. They explored new ideas such as:
    • Animacules: the idea that tiny animals (now known as microbes) caused disease was proven through observations under early microscopes, though these were not powerful enough to identify microorganisms until the late 1600s.
    • Transference: some believed disease could be transferred to objects or animals.
  • People began to look for chemical cures and noticed that weather and environmental factors might affect disease.
  • Hospitals started to treat a wider range of illnesses, and some specialised in certain diseases.

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