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Why Did the Discoveries of the Renaissance Make Little Practical Difference to Medical Treatment Between 1500-1700?

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Why did the discoveries of the Renaissance make little practical difference to medical treatment between c1500-c1700?

During the renaissance there were 3 significant figures, who were Andreas Vesalius who was famous for his knowledge in anatomy, Ambroise Paré who was famous for his advances in surgery, and William Harvey who was famous for working out how the body worked (physiology). These three made extremely big and definitely important discoveries, but for different reasons never really at the time came about to have an importance.

Andreas Vesalius published a book entitled “The Fabric of the Human Body” which was published around the time that printing first came about. His specialism was anatomy, and in the book that he …show more content…

William Harvey published the book called “An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals” which was officially published a fair time after the other two’s books. He proved that the heart acts as a pump by recirculating the blood, and showed that the blood flows around the body and is carried away by the arteries and is carried back into the heart by the veins. This had a limited impact because likewise to Vesalius, it did not make anyone healthier at the time, and it made more of a long term impact on medicine. He had not found a way to practically cure people because he had just made a book to further people’s knowledge on how the body works. Although his book is very useful for us nowadays, at the time people would not know how to approach it, and really wouldn’t make much of an impact on the people’s health.

In conclusion, the main reason that I believe is the answer to not having much of a change in the Renaissance is the people’s attitude to change. For example, even though they knew deep down that something wasn’t working, they would still go ahead and use it because of the fact that it was what they were used to. The great discoveries that were made by Vesalius, Paré and Harvey did not improve people’s health day to day, but instead made a serious impact in the general history of medicine. They showed that the only persons attitude that was going to change was those of the rich and the

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