Readings for this week include three short but information-packed chapters
from Debus, and a website about Vesalius:
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T or F? Alchemy in the Latin
West was largely based upon Aristotelian theories of the four elements,
humors and qualities, and therefore carried with it an aura of rational
clarity contrary to mysticism.
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T or F? The early alchemist, Bonus
of Ferrara, argued that one should adhere to the authority of Aristotle,
even if Aristotelian theories seem at first to be contradicted by experiment.
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T or F? Because of their preoccupation
with transforming base metals into gold, Medieval and Islamic alchemists
did little to advance experimental techniques or apparatus before the Renaissance.
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T or F? The first printed book
devoted to an occupational health problem was written by Paracelsus on the
diseases of miners.
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T or F? Paracelsians sought to
defend the authority of Aristotle in the universities against attacks by
the Galenists.
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T or F? Paracelsians defended
the use of geometry in science, arguing that questions only become scientific
when it is possible to investigate them in generalized, abstract, mathematical
terms.
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T or F? Paracelsians argued that
the deity created the universe in an instant, rather than using chemical
processes.
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T or F? For many Paracelsians,
the Earth was a vast chemical laboratory equipped with a central fire, distillation
and alembic apparatus.
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T or F? Concepts of sympathy and
antipathy were used to explain mutual influences between correspondending
aspects of the macrocosm and microcosm.
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T or F? Paracelsians defended
the practice of bloodletting because of their doctrine of signatures.
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T or F? Paracelsus based his use
of chemical medicines on the Galenic theory that 'contraries cure.'
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T or F? Paracelsian physicians
understood diseases in terms of specific bodily locations or organs, governed
by internal archei, rather than the imbalance of humoral fluids.
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T or F? Humanistic scholarship
criticized and corrected authoritative texts (like Pliny’s Natural History)
on the basis of observation and experiment.
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T or F? Encyclopedic naturalists
like Gesner, Aldrovandi and Topsell sought to present in their natural histories
everything that was known about an animal, whether from ancient texts or
new discoveries.
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T or F? Pierre Belon’s natural
history of fish included the whales (cetaceans) because he did not know
that whales nourish the developing embryo by a placenta or that the young
are born alive.
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T or F? Pierre Belon’s natural
history drew attention to homologies in the skeletons of humans and birds.
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T or F? During the 16th and early
17th centuries, naturalists began including descriptions of New World and
East Indies animals such as the rhinoceros, sloth, anteater, orangutan and
jaguar.
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T or F? The chief ancient source
of pharmaceutical knowledge (materia medica) was Theophrastus, Aristotle’s
student and successor.
-
T or F? The early humanist editions
of Dioscorides contain abundant illustrations due to humanist scholars’
interest in identifying northern European plants that correspond to the
Mediterranean plants described by Dioscorides.
-
T or F? Despite the early herbals,
public botanical gardens were not established in major cities like Bologna
and Paris until after the 16th century.
-
T or F? The northern European
herbals of Brunfels and Fuchs contained many illustrations of plants drawn
from actual specimens.
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T or F? 16th-century physicians
used chemical methods such as distillation in order to prepare medicines
derived from herbs.
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T or F? The discovery of New World
plants, medicines, and diseases by writers such as d’Orta, Monardes, l’Ecluse,
da Costa and Bondt diminished the authority of Galen and Dioscorides.
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T or F? Dioscorides arranged descriptions
of about 500 plants alphabetically, but when herbals began to include 5
or 6 thousand plants, some other kind of classification scheme was needed.
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T or F? Adam Zaluzian argued that
botany is a subject of special study in its own right, and not merely an
adjunct for the study of medicine.
-
T or F? Fabio Colonna argued that
parts of the flower were essential to botanical classification.
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T or F? Andrea Cesalpino proposed
a binomial system of nomenclature for plants, where every plant would be
given a two-part name consisting of its genus and species.
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T or F? Michael Servetus described
the pulmonary circulation of the blood.
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T or F? Public dissection of human
cadavers for the instruction of medical students was not permitted at medieval
universities until the beginning of the 16th century.
-
T or F? The anatomical drawings
of Leonardo da Vinci are usually credited with influencing Renaissance universities
to allow human dissection.
-
T or F? In ‘On the fabric of the
human body’ (1543), Vesalius radically departed from Galen in his discussion
of blood flow and the Galenic spirits (natural, vital, and animal).
-
T or F? In the second edition
of ‘On the fabric of the human body’ (1555), Vesalius rejected Galen’s account
of invisible pores through which blood flowed across the ventricular septum.
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T or F? Gabriele Fallopio discovered
the valves in the veins that cause blood to flow in a single direction.
-
T or F? Michael Servetus was honored
by Calvin and other Christians in Geneva for his discovery of the pulmonary
circulation.
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T or F? Ibn an Nafis described
the pulmonary circulation in the middle ages.
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T or F? William Harvey’s case
for the circulation of the blood included a quantitative argument based
on the total amount of blood flow.
-
T or F? Harvey’s case for the
circulation of the blood depended in part on his discovery of the capillaries,
the tiny vessels in body tissues connecting the smallest arteries and veins.
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T or F? Illustrated herbals were
exclusively large folio volumes, unsuited for transport to the field or
garden.
-
T or F? Fuchs described over a
hundred northern European plants not included by Dioscorides in his descriptions
of Mediterranean plants.
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T or F? Herbal illustrations were
sometimes hand-colored by women who worked in the printers’ workshops.
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T or F? In many universities,
astrology was taught in the medical schools.
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T or F? Paracelsus integrated
astrology, hermeticism, and chemistry in his approach to medicine.
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T or F? The medieval dissection
manuals of Mondino de Luzzi followed the methodology (sequence) of Galen
very closely.
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T or F? Vesalius’ training emphasized
Galen and humanist textual scholarship.
-
T or F? The frontispiece depiction
of an anatomical theater in Vesalius’ De fabrica (1543) depicts
a female cadaver, a dog and a monkey.
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T or F? The De fabrica
of Vesalius followed the ancient dissection methodology (sequence) of Galen.
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T or F? Historiated initials depict
stories of common activities performed by medical students represented as
cherubs or putti.
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T or F? The muscle-men series
in De fabrica depict human muscles just as they would appear on
a dissection table, in a limp and passive state.
-
T or F? In order to produce naturalistic
appearing anatomical illustrations, Vesalius perfected his artistic skills
through lengthy training with Titian.
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T or F? Northern European universities
in the 16th century began to require all students, not just graduate students
in the medical school, to study human anatomy.
