Medieval medicine

• Life in medieval medicine was difficult time due to; war, famine and disease
• Weather had a big impact on food sources led people become malnourished and more like to catch disease.
• Peasant Life was harsh, limited diet, little comfort
• 90% European population remained rural peasants gathered into small communities of manors/ villages
• Hippocrates created the 4 humours
• The 4 humours were black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood
• hippocrates ideas were based on observation of patients, monitoring their symptoms
• Hippocrates advocated for regular sleep, balanced diet, excercise
• Hippocratic Oath was medical practitioners should focus on making the patient better and not harm them


  He made a clear distinction between supernatural and natural causes
• The Church

  • Important as everyone believed Christian God
  • controlled a lot of attitudes towards medicine
  • people were afraid of challenging the church
• Galen

  built on adding ways to balance the 4 humours this was called Theory Of Opposites
• Causes of disease

  • God; someone sinful illness gods way of punishing/ community led to an epidemic
  • Miasma; bad smell/air
  • supernatural
  • 4 humours; black bile, yellow bile, blood, phlegm (out of balance illness)
  • Astrology; alignment of planets, stars, plants & herbs collected during times associate planets were visible
• ways to diagnose disease

  • Zodiac Chart; parts of body link to what astrological sign inform treatment
  • Urine Chart; urine sample taken smell or taste to decide what’s wrong
• People who treated the sick

  • Physicians & Doctors
  • Barber Surgeons
  • Master Surgeons
  • Apothecaries
  • Wise Women
  • Lady Of The House
• Physicians & Doctors


  Had a university education, expensive and treated the rich
• Barber Surgeons


  Both hairdressers and surgeons, required apprenticeships (many couldn’t read) so did minor surgeries e.g setting bones/pulling teeth
• Master Surgeons


  Treated wealthier patients, based on prestige, surgeons weren’t allow to dissect (knew body based on illustration books)
• Apothecaries


  Sold herbs & spices, apprenticeships to learn trade
• Wise Women


  Knowledge and skills handed down by her family, reasonably priced & knew everybody, also acted as midwife
• Lady Of The House


  Techniques passed down (woman to woman), role by household
• War brought new wounds —> meant new methods of treatment
• Anaesthetics

  • very few useful & safe anaesthetics
  • effective pain relief opium relaxes body
  • surgeons believe important for patients were alert and awake so they knew they were alive
  • surgeons believe completing their tasks quickly as possible can minimise pain and risk of shock (could lead to death)
• John Ardene

  success rate; 50% survival rate of removing growths from inside a patients anus

  Got new methods from war like;

  develop his own pain Killing ointment made of opium, hemlock, henbame

  This stopped the need for cauterisation (heating iron and press on wound)

  Had speed amputations skills to reduce death by shock

  Books; Practice of surgery

  Advocated for;

  • good bedside manner & talk to patients calmly
  • Urged doctors to trust their own experiences & judgements
• Antiseptics are substances used to prevent infection
• Hugh Of Luca

  • wrote book; 1267 criticising common view pus needed for wound to heal
  • Used wine on wounds to reduce chances of infection (went against Hippocrates advice so didn’t become popular)
• Antiseptics

  • were limited —> infection rates very high
  • some surgeons used wine to clean wounds; some against as pus a sign of healing
• John Bradmore

  • 1403 Henry fought Battle Of Shrewsbury —> hit in the face by a arrow
  • Bradmore ordered wound filled with honey and used a tool (he invented) to remove the arrow
  • ordered wound filled with wine
  • Prince Henry survived and lived
• Poor Education

  • Christianity didn’t allow dissections —> bad understanding of human anatomy
  • Galen had ideas from dissecting animals as Church frowned upon dissection
• Mondino

  1315, public dissection allows in Bologna supervised by Mondino

  1316, Mondino wrote book Anathomia became standard dissection manual for over 200 years
• Church funded early development of hospitals

  church pushed Idea disease punishment by god
• Scientists pushed scientific method but observation was against church

  church help establish university schools of medicine
• Hospitals like care homes funded by church or by rich
• The poor were welcome during ceremony to cleanse body and soul
• • Monasteries had latrines for waste & access to clean water ( separate from town)

  this decreased infection & lessened spread of disease

  • Belief place or worship should be clean and tidy
• Hospital cures

  • grew herbs in gardens
  • attitude care than cure
  • expect to mass everyday
  • Surgery not done in hopsitals
  • prayer encouraged
  • told to buy indulgences & attend pilgrimages (religious journey)
• Islam;

  Most of Europes medical knowledge lost after fall of Roman Empire.

  Avicenna key role to translate Ancient Greek & Roman texts in Arabic
• Avicenna;

  Forty of his medical texts survived to modern day

  Books; Book Of Healing & Canon Of Medicine

  Canon remained a major authority for medical students both Islam & Europe
• Islam driven idea “God never inflicts a disease unless He makes a cure for it"

  Goal for Islam: treat ill health rationally & practically

  Christian Europe believed this but held back by church’s reliance on Galen
• Islam hospitals

  Site of medical education and healing
• (Islam) Attachments to larger hospitals were

  1. Medical schools

  2. Libraries