2Medieval Period

Cards (20)

  • What was Rhazes known for?

    He was known for:
    • Distinguishing the difference between smallpox and measles.
    • Writing over 230 books which were detailed accounts of his thoughts and observation of his patients.
  • What was Paracelsus known for?
    He was known for:
    • Being one of the first physicians to emphasize the use of minerals and chemicals to treat patients.
    • Being the first to use anesthetics in surgery.
  • What was Ibn Sina known for?
    He was known for:
    • Teaching many medical students how to treat patients.
    • Making great strides in pharmacology and made a great contribution to the philosophy of medicine.
    • He wrote the 'Cannon of Medicine' which is an encyclopedia of all the greek and islamic medicine
  • What were the four humours?
    • Blood
    • Black Bile
    • Yellow Bile
    • Phlegm
  • What was 'trepanation' and what was it used for?
    Boring/drilling a hole into the skull to relieve a headache/get rid of spirits
  • What was a 'herbal'?
    A book of herbal remedies that was found in most households
  • What medical pandemic occurred during the 1340s?
    The Black Death
  • Which two important books were written by Ibn Sina?
    • The Canon of Medicine
    • The Book of Healing
  • Who used henbane and hemlock as anaesthetics during medieval surgery?
    John of Arderne
  • What were the contributions of Christianity in Medieval medicine?
    • Christians believed that helping the sick is a Christian duty as Jesus helped the sick
    • Monasteries were usually hygienic and had clean water and good sewage facillites
    • Hospitals were made to treat the sick (but not the contagious as they were pallative)
  • What did they have to do to reduce the four humours?
    • Blood: bloodletting and eating red meat and wine
    • Phlegm: breathing steam or eating vegetables filled with water
    • Black Bile: laxatives and suggested eating more vegetables
    • Yellow Bile: throw up or change diet
  • What was the public health like in ancient rome?
    • They had aqueducts which brought clean water into the cities
    • They built toilets, sewers and public baths that were used to take waste out of buildings and homes
  • What was the contribution of the Church to medicine?
    • Monks copied and preserved old medical texts
    • Churches supported crusades that met Muslim doctors
    • Church only allowed dissections on criminals that had already died
  • Who was Ibn Al-Nafis?
    In the 13th century, Ibn Al-Nafis claimed that Galen was wrong in his belief that blood was produced in the liver.
    He thought that blood passed through the heart via the lungs.

    Galen’s mistakes were believed until the 17th century.
  • Who was Abulcasis?
    • He wrote a detailed book on amputations, stiching, fractures and dental surgery
    • He wrote the book Al-Tasrif on medicine
    • He invented surgical instruments and popularized cauterization
  • What were Muslim hospitals like?
    • Their main purpose was treating the sick and had seperate isolation units for patients with contagious diseases
    • Post-mortems
  • What did the local government do to solve the problem of the Black Death?
    • They built new cemeteries away from towns and cities
    • King Edward 3 closed Parliamment
    • Glouchester tried to shut itself off from the rest of the world: their attempt was unsuccessful as many in the town still died
  • When was the Black Death?
    14th Century
  • What were the social changes of the Black Death?
    • There were far fewer workers so they demanded higher wages
    • Cost of land decreased
    • More people moved around, which threatend the elites, which in turn led to a revolt which led to collapse of the feudal system
  • What is the theory of the opposites?
    Galen thought that humours could be rebalanced by giving a patient something opposite to their symptoms.
    For example, if you had an excess of blood (hot and wet), doctors should prescribe a treatment which was cold and dry