Women And Medicine Essay Research Paper a

Women And Medicine Essay, Research Paper

a)........ Whilst women

weren.t trained in medicine during this time period, their traditional roles as healers and

midwives were still important ones but women only ever performed them. These

roles were mere extensions of their status as housewives as can be seen by the

way the performed such tasks. Women would use their knowledge of herbs to

concoct remedies for the sick and they would record them in recipe books to be

handed down to their children. They would also hand down certain recipes by

word of mouth. Source A supports this in that it shows a lay Sister preparing a

remedy in just such a way. ........... With the

advent of a more medicine-aware society, the role of healer shifted into the

hands of merchants and businessman. New drugs coming in from foreign lands,

such as the New World, were handled by these very people and were not available

to women. Source B shows that when it says: .New and

expensive cures were developed.using the drugs imported.as a result.of trade

between Europe and India, China and the New World.These drugs were handled by

merchants and businessmen, surgeons and apothecaries. They were not easily

available for women to use..They were obtained by men, handled by men, and sold to men.

The traditional medicine-woman was left with her herbs, which were far less

successful than the new drugs now available on the market. ........... It was not

long before women were forced out of their other traditional role, professional

midwifery. In 1620 Peter Chamberlain invented the forceps and put the role of

the midwife firmly in the hands of trained physicians due to the necessity of

some knowledge of anatomy. Naturally, poorer women had no choice to make use of

the services of women midwives but richer women went to the professionals. Of

course, women were banned from studying anatomy due to the fact that no

universities would accept a female student............ The second

significant change was the change in medical theory that happened during this

time period. Since Roman times Galen had always been the foremost authority on

anatomical theory. Nobody had questioned his theories; the Church had forbidden

any challenges to Galen.s work because his theories fitted in with the Church.s

belief in a system ordained by nature. Furthermore, they did not allow

dissections of human beings (the very reason why Galen.s theories were

incorrect) so it was virtually impossible to provide proof that Galen.s

theories were wrong. ........... However,

times were changing, as was the Church. They no longer stipulated that no

dissections were allowed of human beings. This opened the door for physicians

such as Versalius, as can be seen in source B:.New ideas about medicine were developed by scholars in

the universities during the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution. These new

ideas were based on the close observation and dissection of the human body..Vesalius did not set out to disprove Galen; in fact he had

great respect for the man. It took him 12 years to openly admit that Galen was

incorrect in his second edition of his book, .The Fabric of the Human Body..

However, the fact remained that he did prove him to be wrong and this changed

dramatically the way people thought about anatomy. This paved the way to cures

that were carefully based on the inner workings of the human body and these

ultimately turned out to be much more successful than the guess work based on

flawed theories that had been the practice for so many years.In conclusion, whilst the first change, the changes in the

roles assumed by women, is still an important part of medical history in this

time period, it didn.t change the use of medicine to better society in a

significant way. The increased interest in the study of anatomy, and the

rewriting of major medical theories, made a drastic change to the remedies used

to treat patients. The study of anatomy was the first step towards the modern

medicine in use today and it kick-started the field of medicine, a field that

had been held previously by amateurs. It was now in the hands of professionals

who ensured that it was developed sufficiently to help other people.b) i)..... William Harvey, an English physician,

pioneered the theory of circulation of the blood. The way the blood

travelled through the body had always baffled researchers

but now Harvey had discovered exactly how it worked. He discovered that blood

circulated the body and was not used up like Galen had theorised previously.

Furthermore, he said that it was pumped round by the heart, not the liver, and it only

moved in one direction. In his book he included numerous diagrams of experiments

that he had performed to prove his theory. One such experiment was one that proved

with no doubt that there were valves in arteries to stop it flowing backwards.

This exper

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать