Health & Medicine in the 17th century

175 sourced entries, 1601 CE to 1698 CE, oldest first. Also see Health & Medicine across every century or everything else in the 17th century.

160113 April – Export prohibition for saltpetre and gunpowder.Belgium source
160112 May – Proclamation regulating hunting in the County of FlandersBelgium source
1603Japanese female entertainer Izumo no Okuni originates kabuki dance drama in Kyoto.source
1604March 15 – More than seven months after their July 25, 1603 coronation, King James I and Anne, Queen consort make the traditional Royal Entry to London. The ceremonies have been postponed from 1603 because of the ongoing plague.source
1605December 6 – In England, Thomas Bonham petitions to become a member of the College of Physicians in order for his practice to be legal, and is rejected. Dr. Bonham continues to practice, and is eventually imprisoned on November 13, 1606, leading to the landmark decision in Dr. Bonham's Case in 1610.source
1605Central Mexico's Amerindian population reaches one million.source
160620 March – Sorø Pharmacy is established in Sorø.Denmark source
1606July 10 – Simion Movilă becomes the new Prince of Moldavia upon the death of his older brother, Ieremia Movilă. Simion will reign for only 14 months before being poisoned on September 14, 1607.source
1608December – Jamestown supply missions: Christopher Newport returns to England from Jamestown carrying cargo with "tryals of Pitch, Tarre, Glasse, Frankincense, Sope Ashes ..."source
1608The Uniform Land-Tax Law is imposed in Korea.source
1609April 4 – King Philip III of Spain signs an edict for the expulsion of the Moriscos from his country with effect from September 11.source
1609August 11 – Four ships arrive at the colony of Jamestown, Virginia, with almost 300 men, women and children, to bring supplies for the starving English colonists. They are followed days later by the other three ships remaining from the London Company. Most of the supplies, however, are spoiled by rain and seawater, and many of the passengers are ill with the bubonic plague.source
1612April 11 – In Lichfield, Edward Wightman, a radical Anabaptist, becomes the last person to be burned at the stake in England as punishment for heresy.source
1613A locust swarm destroys La Camarque, France.source
1614February 1 – In Japan, the practice of Christianity is banned, and an edict is issued for the expulsion of all foreign missionaries.source
1616A slave ship carries smallpox from the Kingdom of Kongo to Salvador, Brazil.source
1616Physician Aleixo de Abreu is granted a pension of 16,000 reis, for services to the crown in Angola and Brazil, by Philip III of Spain, who also appoints him physician of his chamber.source
1616The New England Indian smallpox or leptospirosis epidemic of 1616–19 begins to depopulate the region, killing an estimated 90% of the coastal native peoples.source
1616In England, louse-borne epidemic typhus ravages the poor and crowded.source
1616Isaac Beeckman, Dutch intellectual and future friend of René Descartes, leaves his candle factory in Zierikzee, to return to Middelburg to study medicine.source
1616In Sardinia, the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Sassari is founded.source
1618May – Thirty Years’ War begins: Sweden observes the outbreak of the Bohemian Revolt. Although neutral, Gustavus Adolphus begins positioning the kingdom for later involvement.Sweden source
1618Simonsdotter’s public whipping in May 1619,Sweden source
1619An outbreak of plague hits Copenhagen, killing 7,000 people in the period 1619-20.Denmark source
1621The first national wide regulation of the Guilds is issued: all handicrafts outside the guilds are banned.Sweden source
1623March 5 – The first American temperance law is enacted, in Virginia.source
1623Erotomania, a delusional disorder, is first mentioned, in a psychiatric treatise.source
1623The 1623 Malta plague outbreak is contained after killing around 40 people on the island of Malta.source
1623Stockholm is tormented by the plague.Sweden source
1624February 28 – A decree made it explicitly illegal for Jesuits and monks to appear in the country.Denmark source
162428 February – A decree made it explicitly illegal for Jesuits and monks to appear in the country, with death penalty as a consequence for offenders.Norway source
16261626 influenza pandemic begins in Asia, then spreads into Europe, Africa, North America, and South America.source
1627April 17 – The States of Friesland agree on the 28-point Appeal about Abuses after allowing the citizens to voice their complaints.source
1628February 10 – King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden issues an order bringing an end to the "foolishness and insanity" ("dårskap och galenskap") of religious visionary Margareta i Kumla, prohibiting Swedes from making pilgrimages to see her on pain of imprisonment, and threatening her with incarceration if she continues to preach about her visions from the angels.source
162827 July – City of Antwerp orders public thanksgiving for deliverance from plagueBelgium source
162831 July – Royal proclamation regulating the size and weight of butter tubs in the County of FlandersBelgium source
162822 December – City of Antwerp updates regulations on food inspection to prevent the sale of bad herring.Belgium source
1628The King bans all pilgrimages to the visionary Margareta i Kumla.Sweden source
1629September 20 – 1629–1631 Italian plague: the plague arrives in the nation-state of Milan as German soldiers are granted a stay at the Forte di Fuentes.source
1629Actresses are banned in Japan.source
1630January 2 – A shoemaker in Turin is found to have the first case of bubonic plague there as the plague of 1630 begins spreading through Italy.source
1630May 17 – The first case of plague is reported in Milan. By the end of 1631, the city of 250,000 suffers 186,000 deaths, losing almost three-quarters of its population to plague.source
1630July – The Italian plague of 1629–31 reaches Venice.source
1630A new building for Vartov Hospital is constructed at present-day Trianglen outside Copenhagen's Eastern City Gate.Denmark source
16315 February – Export of saltpetre and gunpowder prohibited by royal order.Belgium source
163123 February – Marie de' Medici is exiled to Compiègne.France source
163123 May – Procession in Nice seeking relief from plague.France source
1631November 21 – In Venice, a special mass celebrates the end of the two years of bubonic plague that had killed thousands of people.source
1632January 31 – The dissection of a body for the benefit of medical students is carried out by Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, the anatomist for the city of Amsterdam, and will be immortalized in Rembrandt's painting The Anatomy Lesson.source
1632September 8 – Government order for the destruction of St Patrick's Purgatory in Lough Derg, County Donegal, carried out on 25 October.Ireland source
1633January 20 – Galileo Galilei, having been summoned to Rome on orders of Pope Urban VIII, leaves for Florence for his journey. His carriage is halted at Ponte a Centino at the border of Tuscany, where he is quarantined for 22 days because of an outbreak of the plague.source
1633November 18 – A sumptuary law prohibits all subjects from wearing gold or silver embroidery.France source
1633November 29 – Systematic training of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in nursing by their co-founder Louise de Marillac begins.France source
1633Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu of Japan issues the Sakoku Edict of 1635 outlawing Christianity, enforcing a policy of extreme isolationism (sakoku) until 1853.source
1634April 1 – Nicholas Francis of Lorraine and his wife flee to Franche-Comté; of their family only Nicole, Duchess of Lorraine, who is ill, remains in Nancy. She is transferred to Paris where she arrives on May 7. Richelieu charges the count of Brassac to administer Lorraine.France source
1634April 16 – Sumptuary laws proscribe embroidery of gold or silver.France source
1634October 13 – Foundation of the hospice des Incurables, the future Laennec hospital of Paris.France source
1635Panel of experts at University of Louvain decrees that tobacco has no nutritional value.Belgium source
1635April 18 – the Parliament of Ireland passes an act requiring ale sellers to be licensed by magistrates; "An Act against Plowing by the Tayle, and pulling the Wooll off living Sheep"; and an act providing for the erection of houses of correction.Ireland source
1635In Edo period Japan, the Sakoku Edict of 1635 enforces isolationism. Japanese are forbidden to travel abroad and unauthorised Europeans forbidden to enter under penalty of death. Christianity (Catholicism) is absolutely prohibited. Foreign merchants – Chinese and those of the Dutch East India Company – are restricted to enclaves in Nagasaki and access by the Portuguese is completely forbidden: an imperial memorandum decrees, "Hereafter entry by the Portuguese galeota is forbidden. If they insist on coming, the ships must be destroyed and anyone aboard those ships must be beheaded."source
1637August 10 – Edward King is drowned in the Irish Sea en route to visiting his family in Ireland, an event which inspires fellow poet Milton's elegy Lycidas.Ireland source
1638March 22 – Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy and goes to Rhode Island.source
1639Blaise Pascal's family move to Rouen.France source
164011 December – a crowd of 1,500 Londoners presents the Root and Branch petition to the Long Parliament, calling for the abolition of episcopacy in the Church of England.England source
16415 August – London theatres closed because of bubonic plague.England source
1641A massive epidemic breaks out in northern and central China, just three years before the fall of the Ming dynasty. It races south down along the Grand Canal of China and the densely populated settlements there, from the northern terminus at Beijing, to the fertile Jiangnan region. In some local areas and towns it wipes out 90% of the local populace.source
1642April – Hannibal Sehested is appointed Governor-General of Norway.source
1642April – the governor of Kingston upon Hull twice refuses access to the King.England source
1642April - Hannibal Sehested was appointed Governor-General of Norway.Norway source
1642The Beggar regulation of 1642 regulates the Swedish poor relief until the Poor Care Law of 1847.Sweden source
164310 March – City of Antwerp issues regulations for teachers of Sunday schoolsBelgium source
164318 May – Magistrates of Ypres prohibit the lodging of strangersBelgium source
164314 June – Licensing Order of 1643 passed by Parliament to censor newspapers.England source
1643c. 26 August – Parliament passes an ordinance for the cleansing of churches from altars and other monuments of "superstition" or "idolatry".England source
1644December – Bubonic plague breaks out in Edinburgh (Scotland).source
16453 March — Simon Paulli gives his first public lecture in the new Domus Anatomica in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1645March 31 – Fearing the spread of the Black Death (plague), Edinburgh Town Council prohibits all gatherings except weddings and funerals.source
1645April 10 – Because of the plague, the Edinburgh town council orders that the college graduation ceremony should be moved forward, so that students can leave the city (on November 19, teaching resumes in Linlithgow).source
1645July 21 – Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issues a queue order ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead, and braid the rest of their hair into a queue, identical to those of the Manchus.source
1645October 8 – Jeanne Mance founds the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, the first hospital in North America.source
164630 August – Køge Pharmacy is founded.Denmark source
164710 March – set aside by Parliament as a day of public humiliation under terms of February's "An Ordinance, concerning the growth and spreading of Errors, Heresies, and Blasphemies, and for setting apart a day of Publike Humiliation, to seeke Gods assistance for the suppressing and preventing the same."England source
1647March – folk dancing and bear-baiting banned.England source
164811 February – ordinances passed against plays; actors to be fined and theatres pulled down.England source
1650February 26 – Jacob van Kittensteyn succeeds Joan Maetsuycker as the Dutch Governor of Zeylan (now the nation of Sri Lanka).source
165013 April – Regulations of the College of Medicine (established 1649) approved by the city of BrusselsBelgium source
1650Ethiopia deports Portuguese diplomats and missionaries.source
1651April 7 – Shunzhi, Emperor of China, announces in an imperial edict that he will purge corruption from government.source
1651October 14 – Laws are passed in Massachusetts, forbidding poor people from adopting excessive styles of dress.source
1651National law of hotels states that all hotels must have at least three bedrooms excluding that of the proprietor.Sweden source
1653May 31 – Ferdinand IV, already the King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, is elected King of the Romans by his fellow German monarchs, making him eligible to succeed his father Ferdinand III as Holy Roman Emperor. Ferdinand IV will not live to become Holy Roman Emperor, instead dying from smallpox 14 months after his designation.source
1653Marcello Malpighi, an Italian pioneer of microscopical anatomy becomes a doctor of medicine.source
165413 March – Magistrates of Antwerp issue regulations to limit the spread of plagueBelgium source
1654The Fraternity of Physicians of Trinity Hall, predecessor of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, is established in Dublin by Prof. John Stearne.Ireland source
1654The last bubonic plague outbreaks in Norway occur.Norway source
165524 November – Anglican services prohibited by Cromwell.England source
16551655 Malta plague outbreak kills 20 people.source
1655Jacob Jordaens, St Charles Borromeo interceding for victims of plague, in St. Charles Borromeo Church, AntwerpBelgium source
1656January 24 – The first Jewish doctor in the Thirteen Colonies of America, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland.source
1656November 6 – At the age of 13, Prince Afonso, Duke of Braganza becomes the new King of Portugal upon the death of his father, King João IV. Because of his age and a mental disability King Afonso VI's authority is exercised instead by his mother, Queen Luisa, as Regent.source
165727 September – Brussels government institutes import restrictions on French wines.Belgium source
1657September – Shah Jahan becomes ill, allowing his son to take control of the Mughal Empire.source
1658Savoy Declaration, A Declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practised in the Congregational Churches in England, is drawn up by Independents and Congregationalists meeting at the Savoy Hospital, London.England source
1659March 9 – Sir Lislebone Long is elected as the Speaker of the House of Commons by the Third Protectorate Parliament after Chaloner Chute becomes seriously ill. Long serves only six days before dying on March 16. Chute remains Speaker but dies on April 14 and is replaced by Thomas Bampfield.source
16599 March – Sir Lislebone Long is elected as Speaker of the House of Commons after Chaloner Chute becomes seriously ill. Long serves only six days before dying on 16 March. Chute remains Speaker but himself dies on 14 April and is replaced by Thomas Bampfield.England source
1659The plague ravages Denmark, particularly Jutland, probably brought to the country by German and Polish mercenaries.Denmark source
1660January 1 – Samuel Pepys, a 36-year-old member of the Parliament of England, begins keeping a diary that later provides a detailed insight into daily life and events in 17th century England. He continues until May 31, 1669, when worsening eyesight leads him to quit. Pepys starts with a preliminary note, "Blessed be God, at the end of the last year I was in very good health, without any sense of my old pain but upon taking of cold. I lived in Axe-yard, having my wife and servant Jane, and no more in family than us three." For his first note on "January 1. 1659/60 Lords-day", he notes "This morning (we lying lately in the garret) I rose, put on my suit with great skirts, having not lately worn any other clothes but them," followed by recounting his attendance at the Exeter-house church in London.source
1660Carib Expulsion: French-led ethnic cleansing removes most of the Carib population of the island of Martinique.France source
1661Great Clearance in China: evacuation of Guangdong is required.source
1662May 16 – The hearth tax is introduced in England and Wales.source
166219 May – The Licensing of the Press Act restricts London printers to a total of 24. Books printed abroad are prohibited. Roger L'Estrange is granted a warrant to seize seditious books or pamphlets.England source
1662An imperial edict banning footbinding is put in place. This is the first one imposed on all of ChinaChina source
1663The lifting of an especially strict haijin policy implemented by the Qing in 1661, where the entire coastal population of Fujian, and parts of Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces is moved twenty miles inland. Thousands die in the ordeal.China source
1664November 6 – The oldest hospital in India, the Government General Hospital, is opened at Madras by the English East India Company for the treatment of ill soldiers.source
1664An imperial edict imposes another ban on footbindingChina source
1665February – In England, Dr. Richard Lower performs the first blood transfusion between animals. According to his account to the Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions in December, Dr. Lower "towards the end of February... selected one dog of medium size, opened its jugular vein, and drew off blood, until its strength was nearly gone. Then, to make up for the great loss of this dog by the blood of a second, I introduced blood from the cervical artery of a fairly large mastiff, which had been fastened alongside the first, until this latter animal showed it was overfilled by the inflowing blood."source
1665April 12 – The burial of Margaret Porteous is recorded; hers is the first known death during the Great Plague of London. This last major outbreak of Bubonic plague in the British Isles has possibly been introduced from the Netherlands. Two-thirds of Londoners leave the city, but over 68,000 die. The plague spreads to Derbyshire.source
1665July 7 – King Charles II of England leaves London with his entourage, fleeing the Great Plague. He moves his court to Salisbury, then Oxford.source
16657 July – the King and court leave London to avoid the plague, moving first to Salisbury, then (from 25 September) Oxford.England source
1665August 8 – The Great Plague forces the closure of the University of Cambridge, where Isaac Newton is a student. Newton retires to his home in Lincolnshire for safety, and stays there for two years. During this time alone, Newton will make groundbreaking discoveries in mathematics, calculus, mechanics and optics, and lay the foundations for his books Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica and Optiks.source
16659 October – the Cavalier Parliament assembles in Oxford to avoid the Plague in London.England source
1666February 1 – The joint English and Scottish royal court returns to London as the Great Plague of London subsides.source
16661 February – royal court returns to London as the Great Plague of London subsides.England source
1666First Burying in Woollen Act requires the dead, except plague victims and the destitute, to be buried in pure English woollen shrouds for the benefit of the home textile industry.England source
1667Robert Hooke demonstrates that the alteration of the blood in the lungs is essential for respiration.source
1667Wu Sangui submitted a request to the Kangxi Emperor, asking for permission to be relieved of his duties in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, on the premise that he was ill, but Kangxi, not yet ready for a trial of strength with him, refused.China source
1668The Imperial Edict banning footbinding is revoked when determined to be unenforceableChina source
1668The Qing government decreed a prohibition of non-Eight Banner people getting into Northeast China. Han Chinese were banned from settling in this region but the rule was openly violated and Han Chinese became a majority in urban areas by the early 19th century.China source
1669June – Queen Catherine miscarries.England source
1669The Chinese herbal medicine company Tong Ren Tang (同仁堂) is established in Beijing.source
1669The King's Hospital is endowed as The Hospital and Free School of King Charles II in Dublin.Ireland source
1670November 24 – Louis XIV inaugurates the construction of Les Invalides, a veterans' hospital in Paris.source
167024 November – Louis XIV authorises work to commence on construction of Les Invalides, the veterans' hospital in Paris.France source
1671December 5 – Royal charter granted to The King's Hospital (Blue Coat School) in Dublin.Ireland source
1672September 10 – William III of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, dismisses nine of the regenten who lead cities in the Netherlands, after being granted authority by the States-General.source
167310 February – The première of Molière's comédie-ballet The Imaginary Invalid (Le malade imaginaire) takes place in Paris. During the fourth performance, the playwright, playing the title rôle, collapses on stage, dying soon after.France source
167329 March – the Test Act is passed, preventing Roman Catholics from holding public office.England source
1673November 9 – King Charles II of England removes Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, from his position as Lord Chancellor.source
1673Chelsea Physic Garden, the second oldest botanic garden in England, is founded by the Society of Apothecaries, for the study of medicinal and other plants.source
1673Prince of Pingnan Shang Kexi, ill and of old age, inquires if he might be allowed to retire from his fiefdom and retire back to ManchuriaChina source
1673Chelsea Physic Garden established as the Apothecaries’ Garden in London.England source
1674April 10 – In the Ahom kingdom in what is now the northeastern Indian state of Assam, Chamaguriya Khamjang Konwar is installed by the Chief Minister, the Borbarua Debera, as the figurehead King of Ahom. He takes the regnal name Suhung and makes plans to have Debera killed. On April 30, Debera, having learned of the King's intentions, succeeds in having the royal physician poison Suhung's medicine, and installs another ruler.source
1674May 5 – The Hospital and Free School of King Charles II opens in Dublin.Ireland source
1675September 22 – King Charles II of England orders the setting up of a commission to determine the cases of Connacht transplanters.Ireland source
1675December 24 – 1675–1676 Malta plague epidemic begins.source
1675December – King Charles issues a "Proclamation for the suppression of Coffee Houses" due to the political activity which is occurring in the newly popular establishments; it is quickly rescinded.England source
1675Bethlem Hospital, London, moves to new buildings in Moorfields, designed by Robert Hooke.England source
1676September to November – major influenza epidemic; the first to be recorded as such.England source
1677January 21 – The first medical publication in America (a pamphlet on smallpox) is produced in Boston.source
1677The population of Paris first exceeds 500,000.source
1678Second Burying in Woollen Act, to support the home textile industry, more rigidly enforced.England source
167915 May – Exclusion Crisis: The supporters of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, introduce an Exclusion Bill into the House of Commons with the aim of excluding the king's brother, the Catholic James, Duke of York, from the succession to the English throne.England source
168029 April – construction of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin as a home for retired soldiers begins to the design of Sir William Robinson.Ireland source
1680August 10 – A Pueblo medicine man named Popé begins an attack by the Puebloans and their Apache allies on Spanish outposts throughout what is the modern-day U.S. state of New Mexico, choosing the campaign to begin before a supply caravan can reach the Spaniards.source
16804 November – a second Exclusion Bill is proposed to exclude the Catholic James, Duke of York from inheriting the throne.England source
1681December 22 – King Charles II of England signs a warrant for the building of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London for wounded and retired soldiers.source
168122 December – King Charles II issues a warrant for the building of the Royal Hospital Chelsea for wounded and retired soldiers.England source
1682March 11 – Work begins on construction of the Royal Hospital Chelsea for old soldiers in London, England.source
168211 March – work begins on construction of the Royal Hospital Chelsea for old soldiers in London.England source
1684March 25 – Royal Hospital Kilmainham is completed in Dublin as a home for retired soldiers, to the design of Sir William Robinson.Ireland source
1685The Sami religion, which is still openly practiced, is officially outlawed and all evidence of such practice is liable to an arrest, which results in the final forced official conversion of the Sami people to Christianity.Sweden source
1685Jews are formally banned from residing in Sweden. As there is no Jewish minority in Sweden, the ban is in effect a ban against Jewish immigration.Sweden source
1687Eric Dahlbergh becomes Governor of Jönköping County.Sweden source
1688October 26 – King James II of England dismisses his minister Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland.source
168827 October – James II dismisses government minister Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland.England source
1689Boston suffers a smallpox epidemic.source
1694October 25 – Queen Mary II of England founds the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich.source
169425 October – Queen Mary II founds the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich.England source
169428 December – with the death of Queen Mary II (aged 32) from smallpox at Kensington Palace, King William III becomes sole monarch.England source
16951 November – The Parliament of Ireland passes the Sunday Observance Act to promote Sabbatarianism.Ireland source
1695A £2 fine is imposed for swearing in England.source
1697April 5 – Charles XII becomes king of Sweden at age 14 on the death of his father, Charles XI, from stomach cancer.source
1697May – John Vanbrugh's comedy The Provoked Wife premières in London at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre.England source
1697Poor Act 1697 requires badging of recipients of parish welfare.England source
1698September 5 – In an effort to move his people away from Asiatic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a beard tax.source