Gcse history page 1

• A medieval barber who practised surgery, dentistry and a barber was known as a barber-surgeon.
• The Ancient Greek method that medieval doctors followed was Clinical observation.
• A medieval doctor would concentrate on taking the pulse of a patient and noting the colour, smell and taste of urine to diagnose a patient.
• Bloodletting is a medical treatment of removing some blood from a patient by opening a vein or using leeches.
• Herbal remedies from plants and animals, as well as supernatural approaches such as prayers, charms and astrology were common remedies prescribed by medieval doctors.
• The Four Humours, developed by Hippocrates and Galen, was the main theory of illness in the medieval period.
• A medieval doctor would have studied for 7 years at a university.
• A wise woman was the person who those who could not afford a doctor would visit if they were unwell.
• Diagnosis is defined by an identification of a disease.
• Christianity had a strong belief that illness was a punishment sent from God.
• Between 1000 and 1500, 700 hospitals were set up in the medieval period.
• The main purpose of medieval hospitals was to offer care and rest.
• Monks and nuns ran medieval hospitals.
• Medieval hospitals depended on the church or a wealthy patron for financial support.
• Bedlam was a hospital established for the mentally sick.
• The church approved the work of Galen as he believed in a single God and his ideas fitted with Christianity.
• Pilgrimage was the journey made by medieval people to seek help with their illness.
• Lazar Houses were hospitals that dealt with leprosy.
• Islam first established hospitals to treat mental illnesses.
• Mandrake root, opium and hemlock were three common natural substances used as anaesthetics in the medieval period.
• Abulcasis, a Muslin surgeon, invented 36 new surgical procedures and is considered the ‘father of modern surgery’.
• An anaesthetic is a substance that removes pain.
• Cauterisation is the method of burning a wound to stop the flow of blood.
• Islamic hospitals offered care for all, men and women, rich and poor.
• Bloodletting was a common practice among medieval surgeons to treat various conditions.
• The three biggest problems facing medieval surgeons were pain, infection and bleeding.
• The Black Death affected the feudal system as peasants demanded higher wages.
• The Black Death was caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, carried by fleas on rats.
• Public health in the Medieval period was poor due to factors such as waste dumped in the street or rivers, lack of clean water, lack of sanitation, overcrowding, and sewage systems that overflowed.
• The Black Death led to consequences such as food shortages and peasants demanding higher wages.
• The Statute of Labourers was introduced in 1351 to regulate wages.
• The Black Death killed 1/3 of the population of Medieval England.
• War was a frequent occurrence throughout the medieval period, providing frequent opportunities for surgeons to develop their practice.
• Hugh of Lucca and his son Theodoric, surgeons who worked at Bologna University, used wine on wounds to reduce infection.
• Guy De Chauliac was a French surgeon who wrote the textbook Great Surgery in 1363.
• Lords changed to sheep farming as a result of the Black Death.
• The Black Death damaged the reputation of the Catholic Church.
• The Black Death arrived in England in 1348 and its symptoms were buboes on neck, groin and armpits, fever and vomiting.
• Doctors were permanently present and medical students trained alongside them in Islamic hospitals.
• Avicenna (Ibn Sina) wrote a great encyclopaedia of medicine known as Canon of Medicine.