Britain: Health and the people: c1000 to the present day

• In ancient Greece, Hippocrates was known as the father of medicine and wrote about the four humours (blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile) that controlled health and disease.
• Historians have debated whether the church helped medicine in this period or whether it limited progress.
• It could be argued that the Church helped in some ways, the church was the only source of help for many for people who were sick. The care provided by monasteries was free. Monks copied out the works of Galen and Hippocrates. This was important in preserving the work of ancient doctors and allowing those ideas to later be developed and challenged.
• During the medieval period, there were wars over control of the Holy Land. These were called the Crusades. As a result of the Crusades, doctors frequently travelled to the Holy Land with the Crusaders and learned new ideas from Islamic Kingdoms. This is an example of war being helpful towards the progression of medical ideas.
• Cauterisation was a process used to stop bleeding. It involved heating a piece of iron in a fire and pressing it onto a wound. This would seal the blood vessels, but it also risked a severe burn and caused pain for the patient. Additionally, there was a high chance of it causing infection or death.
• The Qur’an tells Muslims they have a duty to care for people who are sick. As part of practicing their faith, Muslims also have a duty to give money to charity. In medieval times, some of this money was used to pay for hospitals to be built. Their faith also encouraged Muslim doctors to develop new ideas and treatments. This means that Islamic medicine at this time is seen as having been more advanced than medicine in England. This was partly because in England, the Catholic Church limited how much doctors could challenge the work of Galen.
• He is known for being one of the first doctors to build on the works of Galen and not just copying them.
• The Church supported the use of teachings from Galen. He believed that a greater being had created human life, so his ideas were compatible with Christian beliefs. The Church controlled the teaching in universities. This meant Galen’s ideas continued to be followed and believed. This helped to encourage doctors to pursue natural caused and treatments of disease. Questioning the ideas of Galen was not encouraged.
• The Catholic Church was extremely powerful in medieval England. It had a large role in training doctors and providing health care in infirmaries within monasteries. This meant that the church heavily influenced ideas about the causes of disease and treatments throughout the medieval period.
• Surgery was one of the few areas where there was progress in medieval medicine. This was because the number of wars across Europe, such as the Crusades, gave surgeons many patients on whom to experiment with new techniques.
• Ibn Sina was a doctor and astronomer. He wrote many books, the most well-known being “The Canon of Medicine” completed in 1025. The Canon of Medicine explored ideas about anatomy and human development, and it encouraged natural treatments.
• People within the Church believed that it was their duty to help people who needed it. This included health care provided at monasteries, often by monks. Priests would pray for people who were ill.
• Although there was limited progress in Western Europe in medieval times, there were new discoveries and developments in medicine in the Islamic kingdoms. The work of people like Muhammad ibn Zakariya al Razi and Ibn Sina would eventually spread and influence medicine in England.
• In medieval times, surgeons experimented with anaesthetics to try help patients experience less pain during operations. These were often herbal mixtures made using ingredients such as opium or hemlock. However, most surgery took place without the use of anaesthetics. Patients were held down while a
• Trepanning was a procedure where a hole was cut in the top of someone’s skull. This was thought to allow bad spirits to escape the body. Most people died, However archaeological evidence shows regrowth of some skulls, meaning people sometimes survived this surgery. Although the effectiveness of this operation has long discredited, the fact that some people survived the procedure shows that the surgeons must have been quite skilled
• However it could be argued that the Church’s influence limited progress, the church limited the ability of doctors to challenge or question the ideas of ancient doctors. Many treatments were based on the belief that God caused disease and that prayer could provide a cure for any illness.
• Al-Razi was a doctor who helped to plan the building of a hospital in Baghdad, in modern Iraq. This was the first documented general hospital in the world and it opened in 805 AD. He hung meat in different parts of the city and hospital was built in the area where the meat took the longest amount of time to rot. Like Galen, he believed in the importance of observation and seeking natural causes of illnesses. He was the first person to work out the difference between smallpox and measles. He wrote over 200 books which were translated into Latin and used to teach in many universities across Europe.
• Medieval towns faced public health problems due to filthy streets and poor sanitation, which facilitated the spread of disease
• In medieval London, public toilets were built on a bridge over the River Thames to wash waste away from the city. However, some homes had toilets emptying directly onto the street, while wealthier individuals had private toilets emptied by gongfermers, contributing to the spread of disease
• Butchers in towns and cities slaughtered animals and dumped waste in streets or rivers, attracting rats due to poor conditions. This contributed to the spread of the Black Death in the 14th century
• Barbers in Britain carried out basic surgery in addition to cutting hair, including procedures like removing teeth, amputations, and bloodletting. They also assisted in treating injured soldiers during times of war
• Hugh of Lucca and his son Theodoric questioned Galen's idea that pus in a wound was a sign of healing. They used wine to clean wounds, which has antiseptic properties. Theodoric also experimented with herbal remedies as anaesthetics
• When the Romans conquered Britain in the 1st century, they built extensive public health facilities like public baths, toilets, fountains, and sewers. After their departure, these facilities deteriorated or were intentionally destroyed, impacting public health in the medieval period
• John Bradmore used honey and wine as an antiseptic to treat Henry IV's son who was shot in the cheek by an arrow. He invented a medical instrument to safely remove the arrowhead. The young prince made a full recovery and later became Henry V. Bradmore later wrote about his methods to communicate his new techniques to other surgeons
• Using fire and pressing it onto a wound


  Seals the blood vessels, but risks severe burn and causes pain for the patient. Also, high chance of causing infection or death
• Most monasteries had an infirmary for treating ill monks, nuns, and locals, with care provided by monks and nuns based on beliefs about illness
• Monasteries and abbeys in medieval England were run by monks and nuns, offering cleaner and more hygienic conditions than towns. They provided free healthcare, had running water for sanitation, and preserved medical knowledge from ancient times
• Experimenting with anaesthetics in medieval times

  Herbal mixtures made using ingredients such as opium or hemlock were used to help patients experience less pain during operations. Most surgery took place without the use of anaesthetics, with patients being held down while the operation was carried out
• Monasteries in medieval England provided free healthcare to those who couldn't afford private physicians, continuing the work of ancient doctors and preserving ideas about medicine
• Efforts were made to clean up towns and cities, with fines introduced for dumping rubbish in the streets and banning butchers from slaughtering animals in the street
• Artists made progress in accurately drawing human bodies during the Renaissance, aiding in the communication of ideas in medical books
• Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press

  1440
• Bubonic plague


  1. Caused large swellings called buboes under the armpits, on the neck and in the groin

  2. Spread by rats with fleas living on them, which then jumped onto humans and bit them, spreading the plague
• Ways of preventing and curing the Black Death

  1. Flagellants whipped themselves

  2. People prayed for the ill

  3. Doctors tried to balance the Four Humours through bloodletting

  4. People carried herbs or flower petals to avoid bad smells

  5. Physicians used herbal remedies
• Vesalius' discoveries proved some mistakes made by Galen, such as the structure of the human jaw bone and the passage of blood through the heart
• The Black Death in 1348-1349 was probably two diseases, the bubonic and pneumonic plagues
• In medieval Britain, people believed in theories like Miasma, an imbalance of the Four Humours, and witchcraft as causes of the Black Death
• Pneumonic plague

  1. Spread through coughs and sneezing

  2. Had an almost 100 percent mortality rate
• Similar ideas were used to deal with the plague when it broke out again in 1665
• Up to half of Europe’s population was killed by the Black Death