The Middle Ages c1250-c1500. Medicine, paper 1

What was the religious belief in causes of disease in medieval times (1100-1500AD)

The church taught that disease was a punishment from God and/ or a test of faith

→ this belief and trust in ancient medical practices, held back medical research and meant that few new ideas came about the causes of disease

How did the church control ideas

• church taught what most people learned and was the centre of formal learning→ set up and ran universities where physicians trained

• Monasteries had a large influence over what books were written and read as most large collection were in monasteries. Only monks and priests could read and write.

• church approved of traditional rational explanations for disease. Mostly ideas about Galenas if theories fitted Christian beliefs that’s the body had a soul and all parts had been created by God to work together

What were rational explanations for disease

• theory of the 4 humours

• Theory of opposites

• Miasma

What’s is the theory of the 4 humours

The ancient Greeks thought everyone had 4 humours in their body→ black bile, yellow bile phlegm and blood

They believed people became ill when this mix was unbalanced and to make this place better they had to fix the balance

Created by Hippocrates

What’s the theory of opposites

Galen developed the idea that of the four humours further.

The theory of opposites aimed to valence the humours by giving the patient the opposite of their symptoms. E.g if you have too much phlegm you should eat hot peppers

What is miasma

Theory that the cause of disease was transmitted by ‘bad air’

This was related to god because bad smells indicated sin

What were rational treatments connected with the four humours

• Blood letting

• Purging

What is bloodletting

• most comment treatment for imbalanced humours

• It was either done by cuttings a vein, using leeches or by cupping.

• Different points of the body were used for different illnesses

• Performed by barber surgeons

What was purging

• another treatment used to rebalance the humours.

• Involves either making a patient

• Emetics and laxatives were used to

What were traditional remedies

Most common remedies were traditional ones made with herbs, which were drunken, sniffed or bathed in.

Remedies also included different foods to rebalance the humours and ointments to apply to the skin.

They were made at home or mixed and sold by an apothecary

Most common herbal remedy was therica witch was made with up to 70 ingredients

What were rational methods of preventing illness

• bathing and washing

• Exercising

• bleeding and purging

• Trying to keep the streets clean

• Purifying the air

What were religious and supernatural methods to prevent illness

• self punishment: such as flagellation- punishing urself so god wouldn’t

• Living a Christian life: praying, going to church, and obeying the commandments

• Carrying lucky charms or amulets

• Chanting incantations

What were religious treatments

• praying

• Fasting

• Going on pilgrimages

• Paying for a special mass to be said

What were supernatural treatments

• included specific ideas for a certain illness, such as hanging a magpies beak around your neck to cure tooth ache

Who would treat the sick

• barber surgeons

• Care in the home

• Physicians

• Apothecaries

Who were barber surgeons and how did they treat illness

• no training

• Carried how blood letting, pulling teeth, and lancing boils, and cutting hair.

• Did basic surgery such as amputating limbs→ very low success rate

• Cost less than physician

Who was care in the home and how did they treat illness

• most ill people during Middle Ages were treated at home by a female family member

• The village, ‘wise woman’ often the lady of the manor would also tend to people in their homes for free

Who were physicians and how did they treat the sick

• medically trained at university

• Diagnosed illnesses and gave treatments, or sent patients to the apothecary or barber surgeon.

• Expensive so mainly used by the wealthy

• Very few of them→ under 100 in England

What were hospitals like in the Middle Ages

• place for patients to rest, treatment wasn’t provided

• Given food

• Many run by the church ( church controlled 30%)

• ill patients would share bed

• Termanilly I’ll people and pregnant woman weren’t allowed

what was the Black Death 1348

It was a bubonic plague carried by fleas living on black rats, which brought disease to different countries on trading ships. When the fleas bit people if was passed onto humans and the disease enters their blood

What did people think caused the Black Death

• religion: god sent the plague as a punishment for peoples sins

• Astrology: the position of mars, Jupiter and Saturn was unusual at this time

• Miasma: bad air or smells caused by decaying rubbish

• volacanoes: poisonous gases from European volcanoes and earthquakes carried in the air

• Four humours: most physicians believed that disease was caused by an imbalance in the four humours

• Outsiders: strangers or witches had caused disease

How did poodle try to avoid catching the Black Death

• praying and fasting: because people believed that God sent disease, it made sense to show god they were sorry by punishing themselves→ self flagellation

• Cleaning up rubbish in the streets

• Smelling their toilet or other bad smells, in the belief this would overcome the plague

• Lighting a fire in the room, ringing bells or having birds flying around the room to keep air moving

• Carrying hers and spices to avoid breathing in ‘bad air’

• Not letting unknown people enter their town or village

What were symptoms of the Black Death

• swelling of the lymph glands into large lumps filled with pus→ called buboes

• Fever and chills

• Headache

• Vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain

What were treatments for the Black Death

• praying and holding lucky charms

• Cutting open buboes to drain the pus

• Holding bread against the buboes and then burying it in the ground

• Eating cool things and taking cool baths