Treatment of disease in the Middle Ages

Religious treatments

• healing prayers and incantations

• Paying for mass to be said

• Fasting

Where did people go on pilgrimages as a treatment

Tombs

Why would the sick go on pilgrimages

To touch holy relics or pray at a shrine to cure their illness

Treatments in relation to four humours

Purging, bathing, and

Blood letting:

• cupping

• Leeching

What was cupping

Putting warmed cups onto open cuts to draw out blood into the cup

What was leeching

Using leeches to suck out bad blood

What was purging

Swallowing a mixture of herbs and animal fat to make you sick/ taking laxatives to empty your bowels and cleanse

How was bathing a treatment for disease

Warm baths prescribed with herbs to draw out the humours

Who gave herbal remedies to people

Wise women and apothecaries

What remedy was used on wounds to fight infection

Honey

What remedy was used for digestion

Aloe Vera

What did most remedies use

Herbs, minerals, animal parts

What did a remedy for a stye in the eye include

Onion, garlic, bulls bladder, wine

Supernatural treatments

• Magpie’s beak around your neck for toothache

• Barber surgeons ‘trepanned’ skulls to release demons making them ill

What procedures could medieval surgeons do

Some complex external surgery like removing eye cataracts or trepanning

What did surgeons use as an antiseptic

Wine

What did surgeons use an anaesthetics

Natural substances like opium or hemlock

What did surgeons use to clean wounds

Honey

Were surgeons trained

No, and they knew little about anatomy

What would surgeons use to get advice on how to deal with different wounds

A ‘Wound Man’ illustrations

Why did surgeons’ skills increase

Frequent wars, so they were in demand

Why was medical equipment so dirty

Surgeons had no idea that dirt carried disease

What did most deaths come from in surgery

Couldn’t prevent infections or stop heavy bleeding