Medicine through Time

• The Black Death happened


  1349
• The Black Death killed 1/3 of Europe's population
• Black Death symptoms

  • Swelling under armpit, buboes, violent coughing, vomit blood, bruising, pain
• Religious cause of the Black Death

  God sending it as punishment for sins, unusual alignment of planets in 1345, Jews
• Religious treatment of the Black Death

  Confess sins, ask God for forgiveness
• Religious prevention of the Black Death

  Pray, fast, go on pilgrimage, flagellation, gatherings, chanting
• Natural cause of the Black Death

  Unpure air, originated from fumes of volcanic eruption, which corrupted humours
• Natural treatments for the Black Death

  Tried bleeding/purging (didn't work), carried sweet-smelling herbs, prescribed therica, lighting fires and boiling vinegar, lanced buboes (sometimes worked)
• Natural prevention of the Black Death

  Told to go far away, carry sweet-smelling herbs, avoid baths, avoid houses with plague, banned gatherings
• Causes of disease in Medieval times

  • Beliefs in religious, rational, and supernatural causes
• Religious beliefs in Medieval times

  • God-sent disease to punish for sins or test faith, belief in poisoning of drinking water by minority groups like Jews, rationality influenced by Hippocrates, Galen, and Church, belief in miasma, urine used for diagnosis, belief in four humours
• Rational beliefs in Medieval times

  • Belief in Hippocrates' Four Humours, Galen's Theory of Opposites, miasma, urine diagnosis, and four humours balance
• Supernatural beliefs in Medieval times

  • Belief in movement of planets affecting disease, witches/demons causing sickness
• Treatment/Prevention in Medieval times

  Used traditional treatments related to causes, religious actions, bloodletting/purging, astrology, remedies, hygiene, lifestyle, prevention methods like praying, hygiene, diet, and purifying the air
• Healers in Medieval times


  Home healers (women, midwives), hospitals, physicians, barber surgeons, apothecaries
• Case Study of the Black Death in Medieval times

  Causes, treatments, prevention, and impact of the Black Death
• King Edward III ordered to clean streets-not done regularly and weren’t paid


  1349
• Taxes were not used to improve people’s health so no medical breakthroughs
• Reasons for little change in Medieval times

  • Church-controlled everything, hard to oppose and supported Galen’s ideas, very rich-owned lots of land
  • Education-controlled by Church, training for physicians was expensive and discouraged from experimenting-followed Galen’s ideas
  • Attitudes-respected old traditions, had conservative views, books written by hand so hard to spread-one scientist was thrown into prison for criticizing Church
  • Individuals-Galen wrote 350 books-hard to disprove and promoted by Church, ideas seemed rational and assuring
  • Government-Kings didn’t spend money on medicine, main task was defending the country
• Causes of Change/Continuity in Renaissance

  • Changes-doctors had greater understanding about the body, recognised God didn’t spread disease, less belief in Four Humours, more observations of patients, astrology was less popular
  • Continuity-still a widespread belief in miasma, in epidemics looked to God, 4 humours still used, still wore charms and read books to diagnose patients
• The Royal Society


  A group that met weekly and discussed discoveries, had support from King Charles II, published the Scientific Journal that spread ideas still published today
• The Printing Press

  First made in 1440, by 1500 hundreds across Europe, allowed information to be spread quickly and wider topics discussed, which couldn’t be stopped by the Church-criticism often
• The Reformation


  Most of England Protestant, didn’t have to follow strict ideas of Catholics, less belief in God as the cause of disease
• Dissection

  Work of Vesalius meant anatomy of the body was more known, more aware of what could cause disease, often worked with artists for accurate drawings
• Changes in Treatment/Prevention in Renaissance


  • New ingredients used for treatment, more people could read and write so remedies written down, new science called medical chemistry became important in the 17th century, tobacco thought of as a miracle cure
  • Much remained the same as herbal remedies, 4 humours, training for physicians changed little, magic cures still in mass use as the majority couldn’t read and had no education
• Healers in Renaissance

  • Apothecaries-Change-had new ingredients, Continuity-mixed remedies, gave services and had to have a license
  • Home/Women-Change-had new ingredients, were persecuted for treating without a license, Continuity-most still cared for at home, women still significant
  • Hospitals-Change-patients with wounds now treated, wouldn’t spend long in hospital, would receive diet, visits, and medication, dissolution of monasteries meant many hospitals closed down, only charity ones remained, Continuity-caring for the elderly continued and charity hospitals
  • Surgeons-Change-new types of surgery, got more education, Continuity-carried out simple operations, provided services for the poor and had to have a license
  • Physicians-Change-open to dissection, new ideas emerging, received better education, allowed access to more medical works and ideas, Continuity-trained in universities, courses didn’t change, learned from books and lectures
• The Great Plague of 1665 was believed to be caused by God, miasma, and stagnant water
• Treatment for the Great Plague of 1665 included cutting buboes, drinking therica, chewing tobacco, prayers, carrying sweet-smelling herbs
• The government during the Great Plague of 1665


  Forced people to clean streets and victims to be shut with families, watchmen used to watch streets, days of public prayer, but it was ineffective as it was hard to enforce and not enough were qualified to be watchmen
• By the end of summer 1665, 7000 people died every week due to the Great Plague
• The spread of the Great Plague of 1665


  Was easy due to terrible hygiene, filthy streets, and hot temperatures, many ran to the countryside which made it worse as it spread further
• Attire of Plague doctors during the Great Plague of 1665

  • Wore black leather hats to shield from bacteria, red glass eyes believed to make them immune, birdlike masks stuffed with herbs to block the smell of rotting bodies, wooden cane to examine without contact, leather gloves, full-length leather boots to cover legs
• Reaction to the Great Plague of 1665 was unchanged from the Black Death as many returned to their old ways of treating epidemics
• Oden cane to examine without contact as well as leather gloves, full-length leather boots to cover their legs
• Overall, the reaction was unchanged from the black death as many returned to their old ways of treating epidemics
• The Wealth of Nations was written in 1776
• Renaissance


  • Key figures: Andreas Vesalius, William Sydenham, William Harvey
• "On the Fabric of the Human Body" was written by Andreas Vesalius


  1543
• "Observationes Medicae" was written by William Sydenham


  1676
• "On the Motion of the Heart and Blood of Animals" was written by William Harvey


  1628