Medieval medicine

• Leeches were commonly used in medieval medicine for bloodletting, as they were believed to remove "bad blood" from the body.
• People were diagnosed based on the symptoms, temperature (cool or hot), urine charts and zodiac charts
• Zodiac charts were used to decide what was wrong, how to treat, and when to treat. This lead to many dying waiting on treatment and shows the lack of medical knowledge as they depended on the stars.
• The Black Death killed around 60% of the population between 1348-50. It spread quickly due to poor hygiene and living conditions. People tried to cure themselves using charms and prayers rather than washing hands and covering mouths when coughing.
• What were 5 believed causes of disease?

  God, Miasma, The French, Jews, Horoscopes
• During the Crusades, soldiers recorded the conditions of the Islamic hospital like open windows, lecture halls, observation of patients.
• the work of Ancient Greece and Rome was recorded in a book called the cannon of medicine, by Avi Senna.
• Hippocrates ideas: The four humors; the Hippocratic oath - all life should be respected and doctors should work in the benefit of the patient; Clinical observation - observe and record symptoms to best decide a cure.
• Galen progressed the 4 Humors theory ( the theory of opposites). blood letting was the main cure in medieval England. He led to the stunted growth of medicine throughout the medieval and renaissance periods.
• Medicine is the diagnosis of illness and any non-surgical cure
• War most improved medicine because the crusaders brought back information on the clean Islamic hospitals and the doctors knowledge
• Hospitals - positives


  care homes to receive food, rest and time to recover

  conditions

  • clothes were boiled when entered and the bed had clean sheets
  • herbal remedies were used
  • physic gardens where they grew herbs
  • monks and nuns took water from high up the streams, so the water was clean
• Hospital - negatives


  care was carried out by old nuns

  there were no trained surgeons on site

  prayer and mass were the main remedies

  they were dark, cold and had dead bodies around

  confessing sins was seen as the best cure
• Specialist hospitals


  St. Bartholomews:

  • established 1123
  • for poor and pregant women

  St Mary of Bethlehem

  • established 1247
  • for 'poor and silly' persons - shows a recognition of mental illness
• the church set up 160 hospitals in C12-C13
• barber surgeon


  had to undergo an apprenticeship

  performed minor operations, teeth pulling and sorting broken bones
• lady of the house


  lived on the estate and had to tend to the family and the labourers
• wise woman

  had knowledge that had been passed down

  cheapest option

  also acted as midwives
• apothecary

  underwent a 7 year apprenticeship

  sold medicines and herbs
• silly plague preventions

  burning a candle the size of you in church

  march in the streets and pray to God (by the order of the King)

  avoid eating too much

  avoid bathing as this opens the skin

  drink urine once a day or bathe in it three times

  attend church and pray for your soul everyday

  carry a posy full of herbs to deter evil smells
• good plague preventions

  • clear the streets of all filth (by the order of the King)
  • avoid sex (although they thought too much excitement would weaken you)
  • avoid all plague victims
• silly plague cures

  attach a live chicken to the buboes

  pop the buboes to release the disease

  flagellation

  bleeding (to release the evil)

  drink a mixture of vinegar and mercury