Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The teachings of the early Roman Catholic Church and the belief in divine mercy made
inquiry into the causes of death unnecessary and even undesirable. Members of the Church
regarded curing patients by rational methods as sinful interference with the will of God.
The employment of drugs signified a lack of faith by the doctor and patient, and scientific
medicine fell into disrepute. Therefore, for almost a thousand years, medical research stag-
nated. It was not until the Renaissance in the 1500s that any significant progress in the
science of medicine occurred. Hippocrates had once taught that illness was not a punish-
ment sent by the gods but a phenomenon of nature. Now, under the Church and a new
God, the older views of the supernatural origins of disease were renewed and promulgated.
Since disease implied demonic possession, monks and priests would treat the sick through
prayer, the laying on of hands, exorcism, penances, and exhibition of holy relics—practices
officially sanctioned by the Church.
Although deficient in medical knowledge, the Dark Ages were not entirely lacking in
charity toward the sick poor. Christian physicians often treated the rich and poor alike,
and the Church assumed responsibility for the sick. Furthermore, the evolution of the
modern hospital actually began with the advent of Christianity and is considered one of
the major contributions of monastic medicine. With the rise in 335 AD of Constantine I,
the first of the Roman emperors to embrace Christianity, all pagan temples of healing were
closed, and hospitals were established in every cathedral city. (The word
hospital
comes
from the Latin
hospes,
meaning “host” or “guest.” The same root has provided
hotel
and
hostel
.) These first hospitals were simply houses where weary travelers and the sick could
find food, lodging, and nursing care. The Church ran these hospitals, and the attending
monks and nuns practiced the art of healing.
As the Christian ethic of faith, humanitarianism, and charity spread throughout Europe
and then to the Middle East during the Crusades, so did its “hospital system.” However,
trained “physicians” still practiced their trade primarily in the homes of their patients,
and only the weary travelers, the destitute, and those considered hopeless cases found their
way to hospitals. Conditions in these early hospitals varied widely. Although a few were
well financed and well managed and treated their patients humanely, most were essentially
custodial institutions to keep troublesome and infectious people away from the general
public. In these establishments, crowding, filth, and high mortality among both patients
and attendants were commonplace. Thus, the hospital was viewed as an institution to be
feared and shunned.
The Renaissance and Reformation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries loosened the
Church's stronghold on both the hospital and the conduct of medical practice. During the
Renaissance, “true learning,” the desire to pursue the true secrets of nature including medical
knowledge, was again stimulated. The study of human anatomy was advanced, and the
seeds for further studies were planted by the artists Michelangelo, Raphael Durer, and, of
course, the genius Leonardo da Vinci. They viewed the human body as it really was, not
simply as a text passage from Galen. The painters of the Renaissance depicted people in
sickness and pain, sketched in great detail and, in the process, demonstrated amazing insight
into the workings of the heart, lungs, brain, and muscle structure. They also attempted to
portray the individual and to discover emotional as well as physical qualities. In this stimu-
lating era, physicians began to approach their patients and the pursuit of medical knowledge
in similar fashion. New medical schools, similar to the most famous of such institutions at
