You're Dead to Me

Renaissance Medicine: healthcare and disease in early modern England

February 6, 2026

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • Renaissance medicine in England was fundamentally based on the ancient Galenic theory of the four humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile), which dictated personality types and treatment methods like purging and bloodletting. 
  • The medical landscape featured a hierarchy of practitioners, with highly educated, expensive physicians (licensed by the College of Physicians) distinct from surgeons and apothecaries, though the latter often provided more accessible care. 
  • Despite the dominance of ancient theory, the period saw significant practical advancements, including the introduction of social distancing during the Great Plague and groundbreaking scientific work on the circulatory system by figures like William Harvey. 
  • The commercialization of medicine drove medical specialization, but the period also saw the birth of public health measures and the origins of the welfare system following the dissolution of the monasteries. 
  • Elizabeth I initiated welfare provisions for disabled soldiers and spurred the expansion or creation of hospitals (like Chelsea and St Thomas') as training centers, partly driven by the needs arising from civil wars. 
  • The quiz segment revealed specific historical details, including the founding of the College of Physicians in 1518, the use of animal blood transfusions (sheep/dog) in the 17th century, and the belief that the womb could travel within the body. 

Segments

Defining English Renaissance Medicine
Copied to clipboard!
(00:01:20)
  • Key Takeaway: The English Renaissance in medicine, spanning the 16th and 17th centuries (Tudor and Stuart eras), saw an influx of continental medical ideas via migration and the printing press.
  • Summary: The period saw medical ideas circulating widely due to the printing press, and English doctors traveled to European centers like Padua and Paris to study anatomy. Migrants, including Huguenot doctors, brought new skills into England. Despite the term ‘Renaissance,’ progress in England lagged behind Italy and France.
Humoral Theory Explained
Copied to clipboard!
(00:08:35)
  • Key Takeaway: Medical diagnosis relied entirely on the ancient theory of the four humours—blood (hot/wet), phlegm (cold/wet), yellow bile (hot/dry), and black bile (cold/dry)—which correlated with personality traits.
  • Summary: Health was maintained by balancing these four humours, which were believed to circulate within the blood. Sanguine individuals (hot/wet) were jolly, while melancholic individuals (cold/dry, associated with black bile) were sad. Physicians diagnosed imbalances by analyzing patient history and tasting urine (uroscopy).
Physicians and Purging Cures
Copied to clipboard!
(00:12:20)
  • Key Takeaway: Physicians were an expensive, highly regulated elite group requiring university degrees, whose primary treatments involved dietary regimen and the ’three great remedies’: bleeding, vomiting, and diarrhea.
  • Summary: Physicians charged about 10 shillings for a visit and relied heavily on uroscopy (urine tasting) for diagnosis, sometimes even drinking the sample. Purging treatments included administering strong substances like mercury for syphilis, often involving patients being sweated in hot rooms.
Plague Protocols and Cures
Copied to clipboard!
(00:21:46)
  • Key Takeaway: During the Great Plague of 1665, physicians who remained implemented sensible social distancing measures, though the iconic plague doctor masks were more common in Italy than England.
  • Summary: Protocols included mandatory family isolation and advice against touching contaminated items like straw in boats. Physicians like George Thompson proposed bizarre cures such as carrying gemstones or staring intensely at a toad until it died of rage to draw out the plague.
Circulation and Early Transfusions
Copied to clipboard!
(00:26:03)
  • Key Takeaway: William Harvey revolutionized medicine by proving the blood circulates around the body, contradicting the Galenic belief that blood was constantly being remade in the liver.
  • Summary: Harvey used experiments involving ligatures on arms to demonstrate that blood flows in a circuit, pumping from the heart. This scientific progress was aided by the increased availability of cadavers during periods of conflict like the English Civil War. Later, Christopher Wren conducted early, often animal-based, blood transfusion experiments, including attempts to alter temperament by transfusing blood between dogs.
Barber Surgeons and Surgery
Copied to clipboard!
(00:31:30)
  • Key Takeaway: The Company of Barber-Surgeons formalized in 1543, handling practical procedures like bloodletting, amputations, and treating external ailments such as hernias and cataracts.
  • Summary: Barber surgeons evolved from medieval barbers who assisted monks by performing procedures involving blood, as monks were forbidden from spilling it. They performed difficult surgeries without anesthesia, including mastectomies and treating war wounds, leading to early developments in prosthetics.
Apothecaries and Women Healers
Copied to clipboard!
(00:34:23)
  • Key Takeaway: Apothecaries (pharmacists) often practiced medicine independently, while noblewomen and figures like Hannah Woolley were crucial, best-selling authors of domestic medical texts, often copying knowledge from female healers.
  • Summary: Apothecaries were supposed to fill physician prescriptions but also sold their own remedies and practiced medicine, remaining in cities during the plague when physicians fled. Nicholas Culpepper and Hannah Woolley published highly popular herbal and remedy books, documenting treatments largely derived from women’s traditional knowledge.
Midwifery and Male Intervention
Copied to clipboard!
(00:43:46)
  • Key Takeaway: Midwifery remained largely unregulated until 1902, despite male physicians and surgeons attempting to control the field, exemplified by the Chamberlain family who secretly developed and profited from forceps.
  • Summary: Midwives, both professional and domestic, resisted formal regulation by the College of Physicians. The Chamberlain family’s secret forceps, designed without regard for the woman’s body, illustrate how male medical intervention often prioritized mechanical solutions over established female practices. If a baby became stuck, surgeons would use hooks to extract the deceased fetus.
Nuance Window on Public Health
Copied to clipboard!
(00:50:22)
  • Key Takeaway: Commercialization drove medical specialization, but the dissolution of monasteries created a welfare gap later addressed by Elizabethan acts.
  • Summary: Commercialization was a key driver for medical specialization in Renaissance England. Following the dissolution of monasteries, which previously provided care, chaos ensued for about 70 years. Elizabeth I subsequently introduced an act for the welfare of maimed soldiers, marking the origins of the welfare system.
Origins of Hospital Care
Copied to clipboard!
(00:51:36)
  • Key Takeaway: The civil wars spurred the use and expansion of hospitals, turning them into training centers.
  • Summary: Warfare necessitated more hospitals, which became important for training and propaganda regarding institutional quality. New hospitals or expansions occurred at sites like Chelsea, St Thomas’, and Westminster toward the end of the 17th century. These developments represent a positive hangover from that era alongside the negative aspects of medical history.
Welfare System Origins
Copied to clipboard!
(00:53:06)
  • Key Takeaway: Elizabethan policy mandated that a disabled person’s home parish was responsible for their care, leading to the requirement of ‘passports’ to prevent vagrancy.
  • Summary: A policy was established where the home parish had to provide care for disabled individuals returning there. Being a vagrant was illegal, necessitating a pass to travel back to one’s home village. This system of local responsibility for the poor and disabled was established as a response to the earlier dismantling of monastic support.
So What Do You Know Now Quiz
Copied to clipboard!
(00:53:42)
  • Key Takeaway: The College of Physicians was founded in 1518, and early blood transfusions involved sheep or dog blood.
  • Summary: The College of Physicians was founded in 1518, predating the Company of Barber-Surgeons in 1543. Richard Lower performed the first dog blood transfusion, though he also put sheep blood into a human volunteer in 1667. Culpepper’s herbal is cited as perhaps the most popular medical text of all time, written by a public-spirited apothecary.