What is the progress in medicine during the Renaissance period?

The Renaissance began in Europe in the 1400s and this cultural rebirth had many important ramifications on the study of medicine. 

Here are some key developments:

• Pharmacists (also called apothecaries) began inventing new medicines with herbs brought back from the Americas by European explorers.


• In 1628, William Harvey discovered that blood is pumped around the body by the heart.


• Vesalius was the first physician to make anatomically-correct drawings of athe body. This is because he dissected corpses and drew exactly what he found.


• The French surgeon, Ambroise Pare, found an alternative to the painful process of cauterising a wound after surgery. Instead, Pare used a more effective treatment made from turpentine, egg  yolk and rose oil.


• Swiss physician, Paracelsus, wrote the first book on occupational health which was called 'On the Miners' Sickness' and was published in 1567. 


• Girolamo Fracastoro coined the term 'syphilis' and proposed the theory that contagious diseases spread from person to person by tiny 'disease seeds' or spores.