History Medicine Through Time

Hi, I'm struggling with the aspect of change and continuity through the ages- I don't understand how they link in with medicine... Could you please give me 2/3 examples of change and continuity for the different ages?

The main point to get is that change often helps medicine, whereas continuity often hinders medicine.

Take the example of religion. Throughout history, dating back to the pre-historic era, many people believed in the supernatural in one form or another, whether it was 'evil spirits' or Gods and Goddesses. Because many people held this view, they did not try to search for natural causes of illness, as they believed that they already knew where it came from, and then used treatments based on those religious beliefs (such as the Greek Asclepions, or performing rituals, and praying), which would not actually cure them. As well as this, many religious institutions made it difficult to progress in medicine. The Christian Church banned dissection, so no progress can be made in human anatomy. People were encouraged to discourage beliefs that challenged the Church, and the church endorsed the beliefs of those such as Galen, who made many mistakes.

Much of the change in Medicine through Time is seen in the Renaissance period. This is essentially a 'rebirth' of medicine, when people began to oppose and challenge the church, and began a series of discoveries that led to the modern understanding of medicine. Change was important, as although it scared many people, it led to some of the most important discoveries about illness that we have ever made. Vesalius is a good example here. He was able to prove Galen wrong on many of his ideas, and thus challenged the Church, whilst also encouraging people to do their own research as opposed to accepting what they are told to be truth. His ideas inspired others such as William Harvey, Pateur, Koch etc.

Hope this helps

Well religious beliefs (or the impact of the church) is a good one because that continues on throughout the prehistoric and Egyptian era.
Prehistoric era - witch doctors blamed demons for diseases, and so they only used treatment in the form of spells.
Egyptian- things developed a bit because Egyptians would come into contact with organs as they removed them before burial (due to religious beliefs). However religion was still hindering them as they never came into contact with, or removed the heart because of religious beliefs.
Individual genius, so the idea of ideas developing simply by the ideas of a person (Hippocrates, Galen and then onto people like Louis Pasteur).

Technology- In prehistoric times they didn't have the technology to discover germs or to create sewers (which happens with the Romans).

I hope this helps, it's been a year since I've had to recite the medicine topic.

Well religious beliefs (or the impact of the church) is a good one because that continues on throughout the prehistoric and Egyptian era.
Prehistoric era - witch doctors blamed demons for diseases, and so they only used treatment in the form of spells.
Egyptian- things developed a bit because Egyptians would come into contact with organs as they removed them before burial (due to religious beliefs). However religion was still hindering them as they never came into contact with, or removed the heart because of religious beliefs.
Individual genius, so the idea of ideas developing simply by the ideas of a person (Hippocrates, Galen and then onto people like Louis Pasteur).

Technology- In prehistoric times they didn't have the technology to discover germs or to create sewers (which happens with the Romans).

I hope this helps, it's been a year since I've had to recite the medicine topic.

Thank you so much, so i just need to know that religion normally hindered medicine and change led it forward mainly in the renaissance perios?