Rational explanations and Galen, Hippocrates and The Four Humours: Medieval England 1250-1500 Ideas about the cause of disease and illness: History: GCSE (9:1)

The Church

The most important institution in the medieval period

Christianity

The religion that everyone in England followed in the Medieval period

The Four Humours

The four liquids that every human body contained according to Medieval Physicians

Galen

A famous Roman doctor who said that illness was caused by an imbalance of the humours

Hippocrates

Promoted the four humours and evidence based medicine

Aristotle

An ancient Greek doctor who came up with the idea of the Four Humors

Symptoms

Something that you show when you are ill

Name the Four Humors

Black bile, yellow bile, phleghm, blood

Hippocratic oath

The oath that says that doctors must care for their patients and treat them in confidentiality

Observation

Watching and recording the symptoms of patients

Urine charts

A chart that showed the colour of urine and was used to diagnose certain diseases

Miasma Theory

The idea that bad (smelly) air could cause disease

Rubbish and Sewage

Two common causes of 'miasma' in Medieval towns