Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Salerno, Bologna, Montpelier, Padua, and Oxford, emerged. These medical training centers
once again embraced the Hippocratic doctrine that the patient was human, disease was a nat-
ural process, and commonsense therapies were appropriate in assisting the body to conquer
its disease.
During the Renaissance, fundamentals received closer examination, and the age of mea-
surement began. In 1592, when Galileo visited Padua, Italy, he lectured on mathematics to a
large audience of medical students. His famous theories and inventions (the thermoscope
and the pendulum, in addition to the telescopic lens) were expounded upon and demon-
strated. Using these devices, one of his students, Sanctorius, made comparative studies of
the human temperature and pulse. A future graduate of Padua, William Harvey, later
applied Galileo's laws of motion and mechanics to the problem of blood circulation. This
ability to measure the amount of blood moving through the arteries helped to determine
the function of the heart.
Galileo encouraged the use of experimentation and exact measurement as scientific tools
that could provide physicians with an effective check against reckless speculation. Quanti-
fication meant theories would be verified before being accepted. Individuals involved in
medical research incorporated these new methods into their activities. Body temperature
and pulse rate became measures that could be related to other symptoms to assist the physi-
cian in diagnosing specific illnesses or diseases. Concurrently, the development of the micro-
scope amplified human vision, and an unknown world came into focus. Unfortunately, new
scientific devices had little impact upon the average physician, who continued to blood-let
and to disperse noxious ointments. Only in the universities did scientific groups band
together to pool their instruments and their various talents.
In England, the medical profession found in Henry VIII a forceful and sympathetic
patron. He assisted the doctors in their fight against malpractice and supported the estab-
lishment of the College of Physicians, the oldest purely medical institution in Europe. When
he suppressed the monastery system in the early sixteenth century, church hospitals were
taken over by the cities in which they were located. Consequently, a network of private,
nonprofit, voluntary hospitals came into being. Doctors and medical students replaced
the nursing sisters and monk physicians. Consequently, the professional nursing class
became almost nonexistent in these public institutions. Only among the religious orders did
“nursing” remain intact, further compounding the poor lot of patients confined within the
walls of the public hospitals. These conditions were to continue until Florence Nightingale
appeared on the scene years later.
Still another dramatic event was to occur. The demands made upon England's hospitals,
especially the urban hospitals, became overwhelming as the population of these urban
centers continued to expand. It was impossible for the facilities to accommodate the needs
of so many. Therefore, during the seventeenth century two of the major urban hospitals in
London—St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas—initiated a policy of admitting and attending
to only those patients who could possibly be cured. The incurables were left to meet their
destiny in other institutions such as asylums, prisons, or almshouses.
Humanitarian and democratic movements occupied center stage primarily in France and
the American colonies during the eighteenth century. The notion of equal rights finally
began, and as urbanization spread, American society concerned itself with the welfare of
many of its members. Medical men broadened the scope of their services to include the
