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The Early Modern Era Of Health And Healing Essay

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In the early modern European era of health and healing, there was room for all forms of medicines. Europe was towards the end of its renaissance and it was an era of enlightenment; it was a time of new ideas and advancements. The idea of learned medicine was based on the ancient Greeks and their system of humors, using the teaching of both Hippocrates and Galen. Popular Medicine, which is in a basic sense, any alternative to the humoral ideas, which varied from place to place but the most common examples of them during the early modern times are: apothecaries, witchdoctors, and herbalists. The relationship between popular and learned medicine was extremely complex and dynamic and the knowledge they had of medicine in general at the time wasn’t amazing. There wasn’t a sharp division between them, but they didn’t coexist gracefully either. They weren’t combined by the practitioners themselves but they were often used in unison. There are many accounts where ill people would try anything they could to relieve their symptoms. People at this time were often desperate for any help they could get. There is not a sharp divide between learned and popular medicine, they both had their place in history during this era and were both useful in a multitude of different ways, including expanded research and treating illnesses. In John Marten’s A treatise of all the degrees and symptoms of the venereal disease, in both sexes he researches and attempts to explore everything about venereal

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