Closing In On Cancer

WITH THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE, invention of the printing press, and voyages of discovery to the New World, the medieval world ended and the modern world began. In every discipline dogma was discarded, replaced by the humanist spirit of individual dignity and spiritual freedom expressed in such acts as Martin Luther's religious revolt and Paracelsus' burning of the works of Galen. Science and surgery advanced as physicians returned to direct observation of the human body.

Ambroise Paré, Surgeon of the Age
An unschooled barber-surgeon, Ambroise Paré became the greatest surgeon and surgical writer of the Renaissance. Rejected by medical schools, he was educated by the army on the battlefields, and saved thousands of lives by ending the use of burning oil to cleanse wounds. He abandoned cautery and taught the use of ligatures in amputations. Paré recommended surgery for cancer only if the cancer could be totally removed.

The Art of Anatomy
The most significant medical discoveries of the 16th century were in anatomy. Antonio Benivieni published his observations of autopsies in 1507, and Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Albrecht Dürer participated in dissections. The greatest anatomist was Andreas Vesalius. At 28 he revolutionized anatomy with De Humani Corporis Fabrica, describing and illustrating bones, muscles, blood vessels, nerves and internal organs.

Contemporary Views on Cancer
The theory that cancer was caused by an excess of black bile (one of the so-called four bodily humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile) continued to prevail in the 16th century. Cancer was considered incurable, although a wide variety of pastes containing arsenic were compounded to treat its manifestations.

Syphilis and Early Theories of Infection
Syphilis was epidemic in the 16th century, the unhappy legacy of armies and navies on the move. The French called it "the disease of Naples"; the Neapolitans, "the French disease"; and priests called it a plague sent down from heaven. Girolamo Fracastoro (1483-1553) was the first to ascribe the spread of syphilis to living organisms. In De Contagione he stated the modern theory of infection by invisible germs and modes of disease transmission.

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						Ambroise Paré, Surgeon of the Age An unschooled barber-surgeon, Ambroise Paré became the greatest surgeon and surgical writer of the Renaissance. Rejected by medical schools, he was educated by the army on the battlefields, and saved thousands of lives by ending the use of burning oil to cleanse wounds. He abandoned cautery and taught the use of ligatures in amputations. Paré recommended surgery for cancer only if the cancer could be totally removed.

		Syphilis and Early Theories of Infection Syphilis was epidemic in the 16th century, the unhappy legacy of armies and navies on the move. The French called it "the disease of Naples"; the Neapolitans, "the French disease"; and priests called it a plague sent down from heaven. Girolamo Fracastoro (1483-1553) was the first to ascribe the spread of syphilis to living organisms. In De Contagione he stated the modern theory of infection by invisible germs and modes of disease transmission.

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