Medicine Knowledge Organisers

• Miasma


  Bad smells caused disease
• Monk

  Religious person
• Cesspit


  Pit for waste disposal
• Theory of Four Humors

  There are four liquids in the body; blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm. If they are not balanced then the person becomes ill. The doctors job was to restore the balance. Bleeding might be required
• Theory of Opposites


  Galen decided to build upon Hippocrates discovery of the Four Humors. If a person is to hot give them something cold
• Dissection

  Cutting open a body to study it
• Purging


  Removing substances from the body, e.g. through vomiting or diarrhea
• Barber Surgeon


  Would complete minor surgery such as pulling teeth whilst cutting hair
• Flagellants

  People who whipped themselves as a form of penance
• Causes of the Black Death

  • God
  • Miasma
  • Four Humours
  • Movement of Planets
  • Jews poisoning the wells
• Preventions of the Black Death

  • Flagellants
  • Prayer
  • Mass
  • Eating too much
  • Taking baths
• Treatments for the Black Death

  • Prayer
  • Mass
  • Pop the buboes
  • Bleeding
  • Attach a live chicken to the buboes to drive out disease
• Impact of the Black Death

  Peasants demanded higher wages and were less willing to be tied to the land. Led to the Peasants Revolt 1381 (peasants challenged the king)
• Wise Women


  Gave first aid, herbal remedies, supernatural cures with charms and spells based on tradition
• Apothecary


  Would provide herbal remedies
• Physician


  This was a medieval doctor. There were few doctors in England at this time. They charged a fee for their services. Studied for 7 years at university
• Limitations of surgery


  • Operated without effective painkillers, had no idea that dirt carried disease, could not help patients with deep wounds to the body
• Medieval surgical procedures

  • Bloodletting (to balance the humors)
  • Amputation (cutting off a damaged part of the body)
  • Trepanning (drilling a hole into the skull)
  • Cauterisation (burning a wound to stop the flow of blood using a heated iron)
• The church made it difficult for scholars to dissect human bodies. Most dissections were on animals to prove Galen's work. Both Islamic and Christian faiths did not allow people to cut open bodies
• War improved knowledge of the human body. They were able to try out new techniques on different injuries
• Monasteries


  Gardens with herbs, clean water, attached to most hospitals. Privies (toilets) emptied into pits. Pipes delivered local well water to wash basins and filters removed dirt. Monks kept clean for God. Christian monasteries were near to rivers. They were isolated which meant disease did not spread as quickly
• Hospitals


  Help the poor. They provide shelter/ rest and food. They did not have many surgeons or physicians. They were funded by the church. Rich people used to give money to the church to help them get to Heaven
• Public health measures in Coventry

  • Cleaning the streets – fining people for not doing this
  • Collecting money for waste disposal
  • Collecting waste
  • Waste disposal areas
• Beliefs in Christian medicine

  • Believed in looking after the sick
  • Believed God sent illness as a punishment
  • Monks copied texts
  • Prayers were the most important treatment
  • Christians believed that paying for hospitals could help them get to heaven quicker
  • Sick were encouraged to visit holy places (shrines)
  • Did not believed in surgery
• Beliefs in Islamic medicine

  • Baghdad became the centre for translating Greek books (e.g. Galen and Hippocrates)
  • Scientists encouraged to discover cures and new drugs
  • Mental illness was treated with compassion
  • Hospitals were for treating patients not just caring for them
• Religion was the most important factor in the medieval time period. God was believed to cause illness and prayer was used a treatment. Hippocrates and Galen were not challenged in their beliefs as they were supported by the church so were believed for over 1000 years. The dominance of the church meant that the cause of the Black Death was believed to be God and therefore treatments were ineffective as they did not know that germs caused disease. Medicine could not move forward
• Short term impact of Hippocrates

  Bleeding was used to balance out the humours. It was the first natural theory (not just focusing on God)
• Long term impact of Hippocrates


  Believed for 1000 years. Galen supported him and he was supported by the church. Oath used today
• Short term impact of Galen


  If you are hot eat something cold to balance out the liquids. Supported Hippocrates. Believed by the church as he believed in the one creator
• Long term impact of Galen

  Not challenged until the renaissance period. Brain controlled the body was correct
• Short term impact of Avicenna

  Printed in Europe at least 60 times in Renaissance period
• Long term impact of Avicenna

  Europeans continued to accept Galen's mistake until the seventeenth century
• Long term impact of Rhazes

  Wrote over 150 books
• Long term impact of Abulcasis

  Wrote a 30 volume medical book, 'Al Tasnif' to spread his ideas. Cauterisation used until renaissance
• Short term impact of Roger Bacon

  Encouraged challenges to the church
• Short term impact of John Arderne


  Surgery was used during war – improving techniques
• Long term impact of John Arderne


  Wrote a book sharing his methods
• Factors that influenced medieval medicine

  • Religion
  • War
  • Science and Technology
• Pare, Harvey and Vesalius all challenged Galen
• Religion was still accepted by most but this was the first time that religion was being challenged