rational ideas

• what were rational ideas about the cause of disease?

  the theory of the four humours, miasma
• the theory of the four humours was created by greek physician Hippocrates who observed and recorded patients symptoms, and was later developed by roman physician Galen
• the four humours were blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile
• the humours needed to be balanced and equal. if they were unbalanced you would become ill
• the humours were linked to symptoms e.g winter to phlegm
• too much phlegm was linked to water and cold and could be cured by eating hot peppers
• Galen carried out dissections on animals to make judgements about the human body
• Galen's theory that the body was designed fit with the churches idea that god created man in his image so the church promoted his teachings and distributed his books
• good physicians were thought to be those who read lots of books rather than saw many patients. reading Galen and Hippocrates was seen as important.
• miasma was the belief that bad smells caused illness and disease
• Hippocrates and Galen both wrote of miasma and suggested that swamps, corpses and rotting matter could transmit disease
• smells and vapours like miasma were also associated with god, for example; a clean sweet smelling home was a sign of spiritual cleanliness, homes that smelled bad suggested sinfulness and if a person was unwashed other people might avoid them