Critically assess the significant developments in medicine in Britain between 1500 – 1948?
The Dark Ages were characterised by stasis and of the rejection of anything new and potentially provocative in within society. Little wonder then, historians regard the sixteenth century as the Age of Enlightenment, with its rich and far-reaching innovations in almost every part of European culture, society, science, and political advances as well as spiritual freedom. With the Royal Navy making new affiliations with other countries, there were shared innovations into physics, chemistry and the biological sciences across Europe and Asia. Medicine and its affiliations, of biology, anatomy and physiology, grew into a respected science and the understanding of how disease spread helped the world become a safer place. Universities became melting-pots of diversifying knowledge and open communication and debates were encouraged and new ideas about the origins of life abounded. Here then will be a snap shot of a few men who played significant parts in pushing the boundaries of medical understanding forward and the developments which altered social reform to turn Britain into Great Britain. Few medics working within England in 1600 had any formal college training, relying instead upon an apprentice with an apotheracary or surgeon. Most graduates had either trained in Europe or had managed to be accepted into the Royal College of Physicians in London. (Porter 2002). After setting up their own practice usually within their own home, they attended rich or aristocratic patients who accepted treatments which rarely helped, and occasionally even made them worse. (See popular song of the time). These “sawbones” instilled fear not comfort, as they failed to properly examine patients physically, preferring to diagnose by questioning and examining urine or stool samples. (Getz 1998).