Question

How did the introduction of the printing press and the involvement of the Royal Society and Thomas Sydenham change attitudes towards the cause of illness and disease within 1500-1700?

Answer 1

Hint:
- The printing press is a machine that produces standardised printed matter in large quantities, primarily text in the form of books, pamphlets, and newspapers.
- The Royal Society is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. Its formal name is The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge.

Complete answer:
During the medical Renaissance in England. Many individuals developed ideas that challenged the work of Hippocrates and Galen. The theory of 4 humors was the dominant cause of illness for people.

-Introduction of the printing press, the involvement of Royal Society and Thomas Sydenham changed the attitude toward the cause of illness and diseases in the following ways:

- Printing press took the power of publishing out of the hands of the church so that only Glen's ideas could not be published. New medical ideas were published very fast by the scientists without relying on the church to approve them for copying. It improved the accuracy of texts and drawings that could be copied the same way each time.

- The royal society by allowing innovative ideas to flourish they published a regular leaflet, philosophical transactions which allowed scientists to share new ideas and collaborate with other scientists. They also had a royal charter from the king, which gave them power and made people listen to them. The involvement of the Royal Society helped to reduce the influence of the church over medical ideas as scientists were able to publish ideas on criticism of the church's beliefs.

- Thomas Sydenham was a physician from England. He wrote "Observationes Medicae", which became a regular textbook of medicine for two centuries, earning him the nickname "The English Hippocrates." He believed in observation rather than books by Galen and Hippocrates when diagnosing patient illness. His ideas laid a more scientific approach to medicine. This led to the loss of interest and popularity in the theory of 4 humors in society. He theorised that external factors caused illness, not the 4 humors.
Therefore these involvements changed the attitude of people toward the cause of illness and diseases within 1500- 1700.

Note:
- Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus, commonly referred to as Galen and often referred to as Galen of Pergamon, was a Roman physician, surgeon, and philosopher.
- Edward Anthony Jenner (1749-1823), the father of vaccines, was an English doctor and scientist. He was the one who invented the smallpox vaccine. Jenner invented the term "vaccine" from the Latin word 'vacca', which means 'cow'.