Medieval Medicine

• Key Individuals:
• De Chauliac:

  • Wrote Great Surgery
  • Criticised Theodoric of Lucca's ideas about pus
  • Ideas were influential
• Frugardi:

  • Wrote The Practice of Surgery
  • Argued against trepanning
• Theodoric of Lucca:

  • Disagreed with Galen's ideas about pus
  • Argued that pus was not needed for a wound to heal
  • Used wine as an early antiseptic
  • Ideas were not influential due to criticising Galen and De Chauliac's book
• John of Arderne:

  • Wrote Practica
  • Army surgeon during Hundred Years War
  • Used opium as an early anaesthetic
  • Created Guild of Surgeons in 1348
• Mondino:

  • Wrote Anathomia after a public dissection in Bologna
• Key Words:
• Roger Bacon:

  • Suggested doctors should do their own research instead of accepting Galen's ideas
  • Put in prison for heresy by church leaders
• Apothecaries:

  • People who mixed herbal remedies and had good knowledge of healing powers of plants
• Barber surgeon:

  • Barbers performed surgical procedures in addition to cutting hair
• The Black Death:

  • Outbreak of bubonic plague spread by fleas on rats
  • Usually fatal within 3-5 days
• The four humours:

  • Theory that ill health is caused by an imbalance of blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile in the body
• Phlebotomy or bloodletting:

  • Common treatment for imbalance of humours by cutting a vein, using leeches, or cupping
• Regimen Sanitatis:

  • Set of instructions by physicians to help patients maintain good health
• Supernatural cures:

  • Religious cures such as healing prayers, paying for a mass, fasting, and going on pilgrimages
• Trephination/Trepanning:

  • Cutting a hole in the skull to release evil spirits or pressure
• Amputation:

  • Cutting off a limb
• Cauterisation:

  • Burning a wound shut, often with a hot iron
• Infirmary:

  • Area in a monastery where monks cared for the sick
• Leprosy:

  • Disease causing damage to the skin and limbs
• Bubo:

  • Swelling in the armpit or groin
• Epidemic:

  • Widespread outbreak of one disease
• Pneumonic:

  • Something affecting the lungs
• Key Events Timeline:
• 1250: Doctors use urine charts to diagnose illnesses
• 1267: Hugh and Theodoric of Lucca's book criticising the formation of pus in wounds published
• 1250-1530: Growth of towns and cities in England leading to overcrowding and disease spread
• 1348-1350: The Black Death in England, killing 1.5 million people