Ideas About Causes of Disease in Renaissance Britain (Edexcel GCSE History): Revision Note

Ideas of Cause of Disease in the Renaissance - Timeline & Summary

• The Renaissance (c1500–c1700) is a French term which translates to ‘rebirth’

• It was a time of new thinking about:

  • Science

  • Religion

  • The human body

• Three things helped this shift:

1. The Church’s power weakened

   • A new sect called Protestantism lifted previous restrictions on practices like dissection, allowing more scientific progress

2. New beliefs like humanism encouraged people to ask questions

3. Inventions like the printing press and the microscope spread ideas and discoveries

• Despite these changes, most people still did not understand what caused diseases

  • Many still believed in old ideas like the Theory of the Four Humours or miasma

New ideas and discoveries in the Renaissance

Alchemy 

• An early form of chemistry

  • It originally focused on attempting to convert metal into gold 

• Paracelsus, a Swiss scientist, used alchemy to create chemical treatments

  • He stated that small doses of mercury could cure syphilis

Animalcules 

• By 1683, there were more powerful microscopes

• These allowed scientists to view microorganisms 

  • Antony van Leeuwenhoek studied plaque under a microscope

    • The tiny creatures, or ‘animalcules’, were the first sighting of bacteria

Medical texts

• The printing press allowed books to be shared without Church approval

  • On Contagion (1546) stated that seeds in the air caused disease

  • Observationes Medicae (1676) said external factors, not humours, caused illness

Understanding the human body

• Human dissection led to more accurate drawings of the human anatomy 

  • Jan Baptiste van Helmont helped understand digestion more clearly

  • The English scientist William Harvey discovered the circulatory system

Old ideas that changed

Old ideas that changed a lot

• The Theory of the Four Humours 

  • Most physicians stopped using it by the 1600s

  • Physicians increased their use of patient observation and medical texts

  • However, the general public only wanted their condition explained in terms of the Four Humours

• Diagnosing patients using urine 

  • Physicians realised urine was not linked to illness, due to a better understanding of digestion

Old ideas that changed a little

• Influence of the Church

  • Many people no longer believed God caused everyday illness

  • During plagues, people still looked to religion for explanations and prevention

• Supernatural

  • Belief in astrology declined by the 16th century

  • In times of plague, people wore charms to ward off evil spirits

Old ideas that stayed the same

• Miasma

  • This theory remained hugely influential in the Renaissance

  • It increased in importance in times of epidemics