Medieval England

• What were the most common supernatural explanations of disease in the medieval period?

  -God punishing them if they committed a sin

  -Test of Religious faith

  -Supernatural demons

  -Witches spreading disease

  -Bad alignment of planets
• Why did people have supernatural explanations for the causes of disease?

  -Religion was extremely influential---> Catholic Church held a lot of power

  -Lack of scientific knowledge
• What were the main supernatural beliefs for treatment of disease?

  -Prayers to ask for God's forgiveness

  -Pilgrimages

  -Using horoscopes to treat patients
• What were rational explanations for the causes of disease?

  -Miasma: Bad air that caused disease

  -Imbalance of the 4 humours within the body: blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm
• What were the 4 humours?

  What did they relate to?

  -Yellow bile/choler: Hot and dry, related to summer and fire

  -Blood: Hot and wet, related to spring and air

  -Phlegm: Cold and wet, related to winter and water

  Black Bile: Cold and dry, related to autumn and Earth
• How did doctors balance the 4 humours?

  -Yellow bile: Purge patients/make them vomit

  -Blood: Bloodletting/cutting people

  -Phlegm: Breathing steam and eating vegetables filled with water

  -Black bile: laxatives and more vegetables
• How did Galen add to the 4 humours theory?

  Adding the Theory of Opposites (e.g. if someone was too hot, apply something cold)
• Why was the theory of the 4 humours important?

  -Became the basis of how patients were treated for 1400 years

  -Included all illnesses

  -Made sense due to lack of scientific knowledge
• What were Hippocrates' 3 main ideas?

  -Clinical observation: doctors should examine patients symptoms

  -Hippocratic Oath: Set of ethical standards for physicians to treat patients well

  -4 Humours theory
• What were Galen's scientific beliefs/theories?

  -Believed in 4 humours

  -Theory of Opposites

  -Supported Clinical Observation

  -Believed miasma theory
• Why were Galen's ideas supported for so long?

  -Had the support of the Church

  -Lack of alternative explanations/scientific knowledge
• What mistakes did Galen make?

  -Said jaw was made up of 2 bones

  -Thought blood was made in the liver

  -Said men had one fewer pair of ribs than women
• What types of treatment were there?

  -Physicians (expensive)

  -Hospitals

  -Cared in the home by women

  -Barber Surgeons

  -Apothecaries
• How did women give treatment in the home?

  -Mix remedies using herbs in their gardens

  -Making patients comfortable

  -Acted as midwives at births
• What was the religious approach to treatment?

  -Believed God would create illness as a punishment for sinning

  -Treatment: fasting, prayer, pilgrimage
• What was the supernatural approach to treatment?

  -Charms/chanting spells to scare off illnesses

  -Astrology: star charts to determine when certain treatments could be carried out
• What were rational approaches to treatment in medieval times?

  -Bloodletting

  -Purging

  -Theory of opposites

  -Herbal remedies were inhaled/drunk to treat illness
• Where would poor people go for treatment?

  -Treated by women in their home.

  -Medieval hospital; they would not receive medical treatment.
• What were the four main ways to prevent illness?

  -Religion

  -Purifying the air

  -Diet

  -Regimen Sanitatis
• How did the Medieval Church try to prevent illness?

  -Not commit any sins

  -Prayer

  -Paying tithes to the Church
• How did people try to prevent miasma?

  -Purify the air

  -Local councils put measures in place to make sure the streets were cleaned.
• How did people use diet to prevent illness in medieval times?

  People believed if you ate too much it could cause an imbalance of humours, so people often used to purge themselves as a way to treat this.
• How did physicians try to prevent illness in medieval times?

  -Regimen Sanitatis for healthy living. Very expensive: it would instruct them to take baths and make sure their houses were clean.
• What were medieval hospitals like?

  Hospitals were mostly run by the Church, with monks and nuns to care for patients.
• How were people cared for in medieval hospitals?

  Hospitals were focused on caring for patients, not curing them. Monks and nuns kept patients comfortable, and made sure their beds faced the hospital's altar.
• What were medieval doctors prohibited from doing?

  Physicians who were monks were not permitted to dissect dead bodies or carry out treatment that would involve cutting a patient. 
• What training did medieval doctors have?

  -A medical degree taking seven to ten years to complete. Potential doctors studied the works of Hippocrates and Galen. 

  -Little physical training
• What methods did medieval doctors use?

  • Diagnosis and recommend treatment carried out by a barber surgeon or an apothecary.
  • Sample study. Physicians would study their patients' blood, urine and faeces to reach a diagnosis.
  • Astrology. Physicians would look at astrological charts to see how the stars were aligned when their patient was born and when they fell ill.
  • Study of 'humoural tendencies'. These were personality traits believed to be linked to your humours. For example, a quick-tempered person was believed to have too much yellow bile.
• Why did not many people visit a medieval physician?

  -Most doctors were based in large towns, and even so there weren't many of them.

  -Consulting them was expensive, so most people could not afford to see them.
• What were apothecaries?

  People who sold herbal remedies. They had good knowledge of the healing powers of plants and herbs.
• How did apothecaries train?

  They gained most of their knowledge from family members and through experience
• Who visited apothecaries?

  People too poor to visit physicians
• What were the problems with surgery in medieval times?

  -Pain: was excruciating. Natural anaesthetics were used to numb pain; they were dangerous as high doses could kill the patient.

  -Infection: Many patients died from post-surgery infections. Many doctors believed that the presence of pus in wounds helped patients recover. Dirty surgical instruments were seen as a sign of a surgeon's experience.

  -Blood loss: blood transfusions did not exist and patients often lost a lot of blood during surgery, which could be fatal.
• What were barber surgeons?

  Barber surgeons were barbers who had no formal university training. They had access to sharp blades so performed some medical procedures
• What medical procedures did barber surgeons perform?

  • They would pull teeth.
  • They also performed minor surgeries and, in some cases, even amputations.
  • Bloodletting.
• What were the risks in using a barber-surgeon?

  A lot of people died because their wounds became infected. Barber surgeons also often over-bled their patients which resulted in death.
• What was leprosy?

  Leprosy was a painful skin disease which resulted in internal and external ulcers and the loss of hair, fingers and toes. Patients would suffer from paralysis and eventually die.
• What did people believe about the causes of leprosy?

  -Many people believed that diseases were sent as a punishment by God. Leprosy was mentioned in the Bible and this made the belief more popular.

  -People wrongly believed that the breath of a leper was contagious.
• What was the cure for leprosy?

  There was no cure for leprosy. However, a few lazar houses were set up to help care for those with the illness.
• What was the Black Death?

  -The Black Death: an epidemic. It was the Bubonic plague, which caused buboes in the groin and armpits. People died within five days of becoming ill.

  -Started in 1348

  -Mostly ended in 1350