Medieval & Renaissance Medicine (c.1250-c.1700)

• The germ theory of disease led to new antiseptic techniques in surgery and the development of vaccines.
• Joseph Lister introduced antiseptics into surgical practice, reducing post-operative mortality rates from around 30% to less than 1%.
• Black Death 1348-49
• Black Death = A bubonic plague carried by fleas living on rats
• Black Death: Rats brought the disease to different countries on trading ships
• Black Death: Killed about ⅓ of the population
• Black Death: Passed to humans when an infected flea bites them and the disease enters their blood
• Black Death: Reached England in 1348
• Symptoms (Black Death):

  • Buboes: swelling of lymph glands into large lumps filled with pus
  • Fever & chills
  • Headache
  • Vomiting, diarrhoea & abdominal pain
• Beliefs of cause of Black Death:

  • Religion: God’s punishment for sin
  • Astrology: positions of planets were unusual at this time
  • Miasma: bad air/smells caused by decaying rubbish
  • Volcanoes: poisonous gases from European volcanoes carried in the air
  • Four Humours: caused by an imbalance of the Four Humours
  • Outsiders: strangers or witches had caused the disease
• Prevention methods (Black Death):

  • Praying & fasting
  • Clearing rubbish in streets
  • Lighting a fire in the room, ringing bells, having birds flying around the room to keep air moving
  • Carrying herbs & spices to avoid breathing ‘bad air’
  • Not letting unknown people enter town or village
• Treatments (Black Death):

  • Praying & holding lucky charms
  • Cutting open buboes to drain pus
  • Holding bread against buboes
  • Eating cold things & taking cold baths
• The Great Plague 1665:
• Beliefs of cause of Great Plague:

  • Miasma most common belief
  • Fewer people believed it was caused by an imbalance of Four Humours compared to during Black Death
  • People knew it could be passed by person to person
• Comparison between Black Death & Great Plague:

  • These 2 diseases were exactly the same
  • Comparing methods of prevention & treatment is useful to understand what changed & what stayed the same over 300 years of medicine
• Prevention (Great Plague):

  • Quarantined people who caught the plague for 40 days
  • Doctors wore special costumes: a mask in the shape of a bird’s beak, sweet-smelling herbs, waxed cloak
  • Reaction of local councils was different compared to Black Death
• Treatment (Great Plague):

  • Herbal remedies
  • Theory of transference: people tried to ‘transfer’ disease to something else (e.g. chickens)
  • Some thought people could sweat disease out, so sufferers were wrapped up in thick blankets & put by a fire
• Government action (Great Plague):

  • Theatres closed & large gatherings banned
  • Dogs & cats killed
  • Streets regularly cleaned
  • Barrels of tar burnt in streets
  • Carts collected dead people daily who were then buried in mass graves
  • Household quarantined for 40 days if a member caught the plague
  • Days of fasting & public prayers were ordered
• Overview of similarities & differences between Black Death and Great Plague:

  • Similarities: all causes (apart from Theory of Transference), most treatments (apart from ‘transferring’ disease to animals & sweating out disease)
  • Differences: Government action (reaction of local councils thanks to the King during Great Plague), Prevention of disease: doctors were much more present in treatment of patients (and wore special costumes) AND government action towards prevention
• Medieval Hospitals: Medical care for the poor came from hospitals set up by monasteries, and run by monks and nuns.  They provided “hospitality” for visitors.  Genuinely ill people were often turned away due to fear of disease spreading.
• Medieval doctors believed illness was caused by an imbalance of the four humours
• William Harvey – Circulation of the Blood:

  • Discovers the circulation of the blood, disproving Galen’s ideas
  • Identifies the difference between arteries and veins
  • Becomes doctor the King, his ideas are very influential
• What factors affected progress in medicine during the renaissance? The Printing Press – new ideas could spread more easily and rapidly now that books could be printed. The Weakening Power of the Church – people did not have religious beliefs about the causes of diseases, meaning that people started to look for natural causes. Doctors could now dissect. Artists drawing diagrams – medical drawings could be drawn and shared among doctors through medical books, new anatomy books were produced. People wanted to learn how to read, they began to challenge old medical ideas (e.g. Galen's ideas)
• Sydenham wrote a book called Observationes Medicae
• Thomas Sydenham was a doctor who championed the idea of observation. He believed that each disease was different and it 9 was important to identify the exact disease so that the correct remedy could be chosen to cure it.
• Harvey proved the heart acts a pump, pumping blood around the body