Medicine Stand Stills

Beliefs about the causes of illness in medieval medicine

• people believed supernatural causes led to illness

• will of God - the catholic church taught that if someone committed a sin god would send illness to punish them

• illness was a test of faith

• supernatural demons could inhabits people’s bodies

• witches were responsible

• astrology - stars and planets could cause disease

Beliefs about the treatment of illness in medieval medicine

• prayers were said to ask for God’s forgiveness - rich people could pray for prayers and many people whipped themselves

• pilgrimages

• horoscopes

Rational explanations for why people got sick

• miasma theory - illness caused by bad air

• imbalance of humours

Hippocrates’ ideas

• clinical observation

• Hippocratic Oath was taken by physicians

• theory of the 4 humours

Theory of the Four Humours

• Hippocrates

• to be healthy people need balanced humours

• Yellow Bile - vomit or change diet

• Blood - bloodletting

• Phlegm - breathing steam

• Black bile - laxatives and eat more vegetabl

Theory of Opposites

• Galen

• adds to the 4 humours theory

Why the Theory of 4 Humours important

• basis for how patients were treated for more than 1400 years

• it appeared to include all illnesses

• there was a lack of scientific knowledge at the time which stopped people challenging the theory

Galen

• said the human body must have a designer - supported the Church’s teaching

• theory of opposites

• supported miasma

Galen’s mistakes

• believed the jaw was made of 2 bones

• didn’t understand blood circulation - thought it was made in the liver then absorbed

• men had one fewer pair of ribs than women

Preventing illness

• don’t commit sins, pray regularly

• purify the air

• eating too much could cause an imbalance

Getting treatment

• rich people would consult a physician

• hospitals but they were for rest and prayer rather than medical intervention

• most were cared for by the women in their family

• barber-surgeons for simple surgical procedures

• apothecaries provided medical treatments using plants and herbs

Hospitals

• mostly run by the church

• cared for patients, didn’t cure them

• hospital for lepers (had leprosy) were set up

• housed the poor and elderly

Physicians

• physicians who were monks were not permitted to dissect bodies or involve treatments that involved cutting a patient

• very expensive due to the lack of them

• based in large towns

Methods used by medieval doctors

• diagnosis

• sample study - studied their blood, urine and faeces

• astrology

• study of ‘humoural tendencies’ - personality traits linked to humours

Apothecaries

• sold herbal remedies

• weren’t trained at unis but got most of their knowledge from family members and experience

• cheaper

Barber Surgeons

• pulled teeth, minor surgeries, bloodletting

• lots died because their wounds became infected

• often over-bled their patients which resulted in death

Problems with Medieval Surgery

• pain was excruciating and there was no real anaesthetics

• infection was common

• blood loss

John Arderne

• English surgeon

• in 1376, he wrote Practica which had realistic drawings of surgial instruments and operations

• invented workable cures

• established the Guild of Surgeons in 1368

Hugh and Theodoric of Lucca

• father and son italian surgeons

• in 1267 they wrote a book that contradicted the belief that pus was needed to cure wounds

• advocated pouring wine onto wounds to reduce the probability of infection

• developed a method and new tools to extract arrows

Christian beliefs about medicine

• because illness was a punishment from God they believed in caring for the sick, not curing them

• didn’t allow dissections

How Christians treated their patients

• encouraged people to pray to God and go on a pilgrimage

• financed many of the 700 hospitals between 1000 and 1500

Christian Hospitals

• provided care not cures

• could accomodate 12 to 200 patients

• attached to monasteries and were run by monks & nuns

• often didn’t have doctors

How Christianity helped progress

• believed in duty of care which led to them setting up hospitals

• provided a place for sick people to be treated

• established unis where people could study using Hippocrates and Galen’s books

• monks would translate old medical texts

How Christianity hindered progress

• dissection was illegal making anatomy harder to learn

• made Galen’s ideas hard to challenge

• those who went ideas were arrested - Roger Bacon in 1277

• some hospitals would refuse to take in very sick people or women

Why Islamic medicine advanced

• medical learning was promoted in Islam as the Prophet Muhammad said “For every disease, Allah has provided a cure”

• caliphs (rulers) supported the development of medicine

• had hospitals set up for people with mental illness

• Islamic hospitals focused on treating people

Surgery in Islamic medicine

• used cannabis and opium as anaesthetic

• used vinegar, mercury and alcohol as antiseptics

Al-Razi

• identified the differences between measles and smallpox

• taught that patients should be carefully observed

• wrote over 150 books

Ibn Sina

• wrote the ‘Canon of Medicine’ - encyclopedia containing all medical knowledge

• wrote about 760 drugs

• his book was very influential until the 1600s

Al-Zahrawi

• wrote ‘Method of Medicine’

• made around 200 detailed drawings of different surgical devices

Public Health in towns

• many people used rivers to remove their waste and sewage but some people also got their water from rivers

• threw waste onto streets

• cesspits would overflow

How public health improved

• in 1371 slaughtering animals inside the walls of London were banned

• in 1388 people who threw waste into ponds or rivers were fined £20

Public health in monasteries

• were in isolated areas located near rivers

• had infirmaries

• filtration systems that removed dirt from water

• people paid money and gave land to the institutions

• monks were disciplined and followed strict rules

• less exposed to disease

Black Death

• arrived in 1348

• people believed it was caused by God, miasa or an unusual alignment of the planets three years earlier

• killed approx 1/3 of the population

• over by 1350

Preventing catching and spreading the black death

• prayed for god’s forgiveness

• carried strong smelling herbs

• cemeteries were built away from people’s homes

• street cleaning was stopped because they believed the smell from rubbish and waster would drive away the miasma