Medieval

• Medieval supernatural belief for cause of disease


  God, devil, sin, punishment etc
• Medieval natural belief for cause of disease


  Miasma/Miasmata
• Vivisection


  Criminals who were dissected alive - only way church condoned dissection
• Hippocrates was a Greek doctor who theorised...


  The Theory of the Four Humours
• What are the four humours?


  Blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile
• What qualities, season and element where each humour given?

  • Blood - hot and wet, spring, air;
  • Yellow bile - hot and dry, summer, fire;
  • Black bile - cold and dry, autumn, earth;
  • Phlegm - cold and wet, winter, water;
• What did the four humours have to be for a person to be healthy?


  Balanced
• What did people believe could affect levels of specific humours?

  A person's star sign e.g. Capricorns were said to have higher levels of phlegm
• Who came up with theory of opposites?


  Galen
• What was the theory of opposites?


  Different foods, drinks, herbs and spices had a humour, which could balance the excessive humour that was causing the disease.
• Why did the church believe in Galen's theory?


  Because Galen believed that the body had a soul
• Why was the Church so influential?


  • Most of what ordinary people learnt was taught by the Church e.g. ideas about life and death
  • Unlike most people, monks and priests could write which meant that they had a lot of influence over what was read and written as most large collections of books were kept in monasteries
  • It provided a sense of hope and safety for peasants, as well as threatened Hell to those who were resistant to their teachings
• What was alchemy?


  The process of turning metals into gold to find a substance that grants eternal life
• How did societal attitudes affect the development of science in the middle ages?

  • Many were not curious about causes of diseases
  • Many feared the church or ridiculed new theories
  • Four humours was so deep-rooted in culture/society, that there was rarely any major scientific breakthroughs
• Religious and supernatural treatment...


  • Pilgrimages to sacred sites - supposed to have healing powers
  • Living a Christian life - going to church, praying and obeying God's laws
  • King's touch - Kings were thought to have healing properties through the divine power granted to them by God
  • Carrying charms or amulets
• Humoral treatments:


  Symptoms were broken down and treated separately, not the disease as a whole:

  • Phlebotomies - purging of the blood which done by barber surgeons as the procedure was very common; methods were cutting a vein, leeches and cupping
  • Eating opposite foods to balance humours e.g. if patient had a fever to eat cucumber
• What was purging?


  Expelling excess humours
• What were remedies?


  Herbal treatments created by apothecaries or village elders:

  • Worked out through trial and error; successful remedies were remembered
  • Remedies could be: drunk, sniffed, applied to the skin or bathed in
• Who treated the sick?


  - Barber surgeons

  - Care in the home

  - Physicians

  - Apothecaries
• What was the main role of a physician?


  Diagnose illness and recommend a course of treatment.
• What did barber surgeons do?


  Bloodletting, minor surgeries
• What was regimen sanitatis?


  A set of instructions on how a patient maintains a healthy lifestyle.
• Year of the black death


  1348
• How many did the Black Death kill?


  1/3 of the population
• What did the Church believe caused the plague?


  Wickedness of man which had prompted God to send a scourge to rid the world of mankind.
• What were flagellants?


  Religious people who whipped themselves to apologise for their sins.
• How did cities respond to the plague?


  • Isolation or quarantine
  • Marking door of infected with red or barring them in their house
  • Closing city gates
  • Cleaning rubbish off the streets
• Types of plague...


  Bubonic, septicaemic, pneumonic
• Symptoms of the plague...

  • Swelling of the lymph nodes
  • Headaches
  • High fever
  • Vomiting and diarrhoea
  • People died in days and the disease was indiscriminate of age
• What was a major influence that caused stagnation in disease theory?


  Influence of the Church
• How did the Church contribute to the stagnation of disease theory?

  By promoting Galen's theory and restricting dissections
• What was the consequence for those who spoke out against the Church's teachings?

  They could be ridiculed or imprisoned
• Why did many people rely on the Church's teachings?

  It provided guidance, leading to close-mindedness
• What was a significant limitation for doctors regarding dissections?

  They only dissected criminals
• How did the dissection of criminals affect medical knowledge?

  It led to labelling contradictions as imperfections due to their sin.
• What was the basis of doctors' experience in the past?

  How many books they had read
• What are the main reasons for the stagnation of ideas about the cause of diseases?

  • Influence of the Church - restricted dissections; promoted Galen's theory; ridicule or imprisonment for dissenters
  • Lack of alternatives - dissection limited to criminal which meant contradictions labelled as imperfections due to sin
  • Reliance on books - experience based on reading, not practice
• What was Hippocrates' idea of clinical observation?

  A doctor should be objective and observe the patient and use logic to diagnose them.
• Barber surgeons:


  • Had no training
  • Carried out bloodletting, pulling teeth and lancing boils
  • Amputated limbs
  • More affordable than a physician
• Care in the home:

  • Most ill people were cared for at home by a female family member
  • Village 'wise woman', usually the Lady of the Manor, would tend to people in their homes for free