GCSE Medicine in Medieval England

• Black Death killed over 20 million people in Europe, which was 1/3 of the population
• Symptoms of the Black Death:

  • Fever
  • Headache
  • Vomiting
  • Swelling
• The Black Death

  • Reached England in 1348
  • Spread via rats' fleas
  • Believed to be a punishment from God so people would practice self-flagellation
  • Some thought it had an astronomical cause or miasma
• Galen

  • Built upon Hippocrates' Theory of the Four Humours
  • Theory of Opposites
  • Doctor in Ancient Rome
  • Very influential ideas as supported by the Church
  • Not allowed to dissect humans so difficult to disapprove him
• Zodiac Charts

  It was believed the body was linked to astrology and zodiac charts showed doctors when to avoid treating each part of body
• Blood-letting

  Done by a surgeon who drew blood out often with leeches
• Barber Surgeons - Anyone

  Main role: to open people up

  Treatments they used/performed:

  • Bloodletting
  • Amputations

  Training: none
• Belief about the cause of disease: Movement of the planets

  Stars/planets would effect your sickness
• Belief about the cause of disease: Miasma

  Bad air - if you breathed it in, you would get sick
• Theory of the Opposites (Galen)

  Patient must be treated with something opposite to restore balance.(e.g. too much blood (hot and wet) could get fixed by eating something cool such as a cucumber)
• Theory of the Four Humours (Hippocrates 460BC)

  • Blood
  • Phlegm
  • Black Bile
  • Yellow Bile
• • The Church played an important role in medicine during the Middle Ages.
• Belief about causes of disease: God

  • God sent sickness to punish people for their sins
• Regimen Sanitatis -

  Loose set of instructions provided by physicians to help a patient maintain good health
• Physicians - The rich

  Main role: diagnose illness and recommend a course of treatment

  Treatments the used/performed:

  • Would look at a sample of the patient's urine, faeces and blood
  • Consulted the astrological charts under which the patient was born and at the time they fell sick

  Training: universities between 7-10 years
• Apothecaries - Mostly low/middle class

  Main role: mixed herbal remedies

  Treatments they used/performed:

  • Herbal remedies

  Training: none
• Hospitals - Ran by the monasteries, the most ill were not admitted due to fear of disease spreading
• Purging - Swallowing herbs and fat to make patient sick or taking a laxative to empty bowels
• Hippocrates

  • Born in 460BC in Ancient Greece
  • Theory of the Four Humours
  • Focused on natural causes
  • Patient was ill if humours out of balance - to be cured must restore balance
  • Put forward the idea of clinical observation
• Medicine during medieval times was based on Hippocratic theory and Galen's ideas