Medicine During Elizabethan Era Essay

Medicine During Elizabethan Era The medicine during Elizabethan Time was painful which has caused lots of people’s death during this time, which was due to lack of medical knowledge, speechless beliefs, and practices. During this time, some important medical discoveries happened and, some horrible practices were gotten rid of. The Elizabethans had a lot of beliefs, most were strange but some logically made sense. Doctors wore masks with beaks on the top of their face, they also wore boots, gloves, and long robes (Achlin). They had an intention of no disease getting through everything they wore, so they wore this much protection. Even though this is partially right, the whole idea does not make sense. The doctors believed that when the stars were not in precise spots, then diseases were caused (Achlin). So, if a certain group of stars is not in certain spots then a particular disease was caused. This idea came from the astronomical discoveries that happened during the time. The doctors thought that astronomy played a big role in the medicine and they believed some things were curable. These were things that had nothing to do with astronomy. They did things that were curable like setting a broken bone or bones,
pulling teeth and helping wounds heal but, they rarely performed any surgeries due to unbearable pain (Andrews 98). The pain could kill the patient since there was no anesthetic during that time, which made the patient feel the pain. So, it was likely that the patient would die from pain during the surgery. Due to this unmanageable pain, people attempted to create an anesthetic. To improve medicine, Dwale was developed and the Elizabethans realized the importance of how hygiene affected healing.
Dwale (an anesthetic) was created by a doctor in England (Lyons). During this time, everyone believed Dwale worked even though it really did not work (Lyons). This was due to the decrease of the deaths when Dwale was introduced. But in the mid-19th century, an actual anesthetic was made. Later during this period, Ambrose Pare, an army physician who lived in England, discovered that hygiene was a huge deal while the wounds are healing (Ramsey). This medical discovery changed the way hospitals were maintained. So, from then on, the hospitals were a lot cleaner. This affects the way how people think about medicine and hospitals
forever. In conclusion, the Elizabethans have shaped medicine greatly. Even though they didn’t find the best solution to medical problems, they started a place where people eventually would find a better solution. The medicine lacked medical knowledge, anesthetics, and had a bunch of false beliefs which made medicine during this time very scary and painful.