Medicine through time

When was the Medieval period?

1250-1500 CE

Causes of disease in the Medieval period

• Religion

• Miasma

• The Four Humours

Religion as a cause of disease in the medieval period

Almost everybody followed the teachings of the Catholic Church. It owned large amounts of land and became a key part of the community. Ordinary people didn’t receive an education, so they got taught by the Church, and sermons taught them that sins were dangerous and punishable by God. The Church taught people that God sent illness as a punishment for sin, to cleanse one’s soul or to test one’s faith.

Miasma as a cause of disease in the medieval period

Miasma was bad air believed to be filled with harmful fumes which carried disease; people believed swamps and corpses transmitted disease

What was the Theory of the Four Humours?

A very popular idea by Hippocrates in the 5th Century BCE stating that, like the Earth, the body was made up of four elements created by digesting different foods. It was believed that if these humours became unbalanced, you’d fall ill.

What caused humoral imbalances?

Diet, age, family traits and circumstances like the season someone was born in

What was associated with humours?

• Humours were linked with certain characteristics (phlegm - cold and wet)

• Humours were linked with seasons (phlegm - winter)

• Humours were linked with astrology (phlegm - water signs)

• Humours were linked with personality traits (choler - quick-tempered and argumentative)

Factors for continuity in the medieval period

• Medieval people had a strong belief in God and didn’t want to criticise the Church on fear of going to hell

• Most couldn’t read, so being widely-read was a sign of high intelligence and those physicians were sought-after. There was a strong authority of classical texts (especially those of H and G); people believed in their ideas without evidence, physicians often twisted their observations to fit the logic of the theories and physicians who didn’t follow them found it difficult to find work

• The Church disliked change; they controlled medical learning and chose which books were copied and distributed. Galen’s ideas aligned with the Church’s teachings, so they were promoted and people were discouraged from criticism

• Lack of Scientific evidence to support alternative theories because dissection was illegal (Church taught the body had to be buried whole for the soul to enter Heaven)