The Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual movement that began in the 1300’s and spread throughout Europe. This time period revived the significance of art, music, and architecture. However, while advances in those areas were strong, the medical science field did not grow at the same rate. Back then, it was thought that diseases and illnesses had natural as well as supernatural causes. Many believed that they were punishments from God for sinning. Because there were very few known antibiotics and medicines, prayers were frequently used as cures but many people still died.
Medical care during the Renaissance is vastly different from today’s knowledge, care, and expectations. Dating all the way back to Old Greek and Medieval times, there were traditionally four elements that formed the basis for a theory of medicine and later psychological typology known as the four humors. Each humor was associated with physical and mental characteristics that could also be linked to personality types. The four humors were Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic, and Melancholic. Each humor was represented a different body substance, was produced by a different organ, and was shown as an element.
These humors were seen as health as an equilibrium of the body as determined by the four humors. Hospitals during the Renaissance were not like today’s modern facilities. The early Renaissance hospitals did not provide much care, as they did not have many physicians and other medical help, if any in some. The hospitals were mainly used to provide comfort for the weak and dying. They were also used for temporary shelters for pilgrims, widows, women, and orphans. Later in the 16th century, some hospitals began to train doctors on site, to start preparing them to treat seriously ill patients.
Some select hospitals had pharmacists and surgeons on site to be ready when needed. The changes started to create what are known as today’s modern hospital systems. Going to a hospital wasn’t the only option for people who became sick. There were three other main options for people to choose. One could go see a physician, consult with a surgeon, or visit an apothecary or herbalist. During this time, most physicians were self-taught and had no formal education. Those physicians would end up causing more damage than good for the patients.
However, there were some who chose to go study in England for seven years to obtain a M. D. Those physicians could better diagnose a patient because they had learned and obtained more knowledge of the human body. To diagnose a patient, most would perform a body examination and a urine examination, called a uroscopy. Very few women became physicians during this time. Girls growing up in the household were taught by their mothers to be nurses for the home and treat the rest of the family. Some women studied to become female practioners and would later become midwives.
This was the only area of medical care where women were prominent. There were still other options for seeking medical care besides seeing a physician. In 1511, bishops began to license practioners who did not study or graduate from a university. However in 1543, an official act was passed to regulate the practice of cunning physicians and other medical doctors. The Physicians Act of 1543, or “Quacks Charter”, defended the right of men and women to use herbs, roots, and waters to treat sicknesses and diseases. To abide by this act, all people who gave medical aid had to be licensed.
Later in 1560, bishops began to license and regulate the activity of midwives. The second popular choice was to consult with a surgeon. During the Renaissance, the surgeons were often the same person as the barber and the dentist, having no knowledge or have studied in either field. The surgeons were allowed to let blood, engage in minor surgery, pull teeth, cut hair and shave. Surgeons would use flimsy and unsterile equipment to treat the patients. This equipment would often cause more infection than was originally present and cause the patients to become even sicker.
Going to a surgeon was not always the best and most effective way to try and become cured. An herbalist and apothecary was a third option that many chose. An herbalist would make homemade concoctions from plants and animals to try and relieve pain and disease. An herbalist’s prescribed medicine often consisting of lavender, periwinkle, and sassafras. Apothecaries were very similar to the herbalists, but an apothecary could only give prescribed medications from a physician or surgeon. An apothecary often had many types of medicine to give, including herbal pills, lozenges, comfits, pastilles, and suppositories.
These drugs were kept in stoneware jars around their stores and clinics. The patients would be treated with these homemade remedies in hopes of being relieved and cured. However, some did not find these remedies and concoctions to be helpful. As Pietro Aretino said in 1537, “I insist that these villainous concoctions [mixtures] suck out months and years from your vitals leaving life itself all withered away…” (Corrick, 93). The remedies of both an apothecary and herbalist were not always reliable to treat ailments.
Back then there was very little evidence whether they helped to treat and heal patients. The mentally ill were seen very differently during this time period compared to how they are seen today. A mentally ill person was seen as being a burden to the family, and sent away to receive care even if it always was not in the best interest of the person. Hospitals and asylums were built specially for patients diagnosed with a mental illness. In 1492 the world’s first asylum, St. Mary of Bethlem was built and opened to receive mental patients in England.
While most options for medical care was determined and controlled by a person’s social status and wealth, this asylum disregarded that and cared for both the rich and poor. (McKee 4) There were many illnesses and diseases that were considered to be harmful and deadly. A person could become infected and even die from something as small as a paper cut because of an infection that was not properly treated. However, some epidemics and diseases cause many to become ill and even more to die. Three of the top killing epidemics were hunger, plague, and syphilis.
By the 16th century poverty was at an all-time high. Hunger began to rise and was even considered to be a disease. Many people starved to death, but there were some who managed to live. Those who lived were more prone to diseases and become ill from their weakened states and to even suffer from malnutrition. They key nutrients in their diets were lacking and they became sicker. Another leading disease was the Bubonic Plague. This epidemic caused body tissue to turn black, ears to bleed, and gangrene to occur in the toes, fingers, lips, and nose.
In the 14th century the Black Death took over Europe killing millions of people in just a few years. This plague moved too fast for physicians and doctors and they were unsuccessful in finding a cure and halting this epidemic. In 1462, Pope Pius II was celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi, but had to leave early because of the plague. In his autobiography he says “…the city was elated with excessive joy, they were stricken with a sudden plague…The terrified cardinals asked to be moved…to escape the fatal sickness” (Cohen, 142).
People could only wait for this plague to die off, even after repeated exposures of it. A third leading disease was syphilis. The symptoms of this could start small as sores and skin rash and later lead to hair loss, organ damage, and even blindness. Syphilis became increasingly present during 15th century. However, those who were diagnosed and became infected with this disease were luckier than those of the plague because a treatment was found. In 1530 a German physician, Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, discovered that drinking mercury compounds was an effective treatment for syphilis.
This was a remarkable discovery saving people who were infected with syphilis, and even started treatments for other diseases to be found. Today, some modern expectations of patients are that the prescribed medications will help to treat the diagnosis, that they are not prescribed randomly, and have been tested in clinical trials. Another expectation is that the doctors have studied and are knowledgeable of their field of work, and that it is not just a job to them but rather a profession. During the Renaissance, the expectations were very different along with the knowledge and cure of the physicians and doctors.