Medieval

• What years are the medieval period?

  c. 1250-1500
• What were the ideas about the causes of disease? (4)

  Religion

  Astrology

  Miasma

  The Four Humours
• What is Miasma?

  The belief that bad smells/fumes caused disease
• What is the theory of the four humours?

  Four liquids; yellow bile, black bile, blood and phlegm. If any of these were unbalanced you would get ill it was thought that they all needed the same quantity.
• Who was Hippocrates?

  He was a greek physician that created the theory of the four humours.
• Who was Galen?


  He was a Rome physician who developed Hippocrates theory suggesting the humours can be rebalanced by adding the opposite.
• Why did people believe what was thought to be the causes disease in medieval times?

  Because there was no alternatives to believe as dissection was illegal.
• Why was book learning important?

  People thought that a good physician was someone who was well read not someone who had lots of experience.
• Why did the church support Galens ideas?

  Aslong as his theory supported God being all-powerful (controlling our humours) they were happy because people supported the church and the church would get more money.
• What were the prevention of disease in the medieval times?

  Religious approach- praying, confessions, offering tithes

  Lifestyle- following the Regimen Sanitatis, keeping clean

  Purifying the air- sweet herbs, flowers
• What were the treatments in medieval times?

  Religious treatment- prayer, fasting, pilgramiges.

  Supernatural treatment- Using charms and amulets, chanting encantations.

  Humoural treatment- Rebalancing the humours

  Remedies- to drink, to sniff, to bathe in

  Medics- physicians- trained at uni, Galens books

  barber surgeons- small operations

  apothecaries- mixed herbal remedies
• How were humours rebalanced?

  Bloodletting- cupping, leaches, cutting

  Purging