medicine 1250-1700

• The Church was hugely powerful: Belief in heaven / hell, No education, so people learned from church, God punishes sinners, Disease is a punishment sent by God
• Astrology


  Idea that the position of the stars affects our lives
• Hippocrates (a Greek physician and philosopher) first put forward the idea of the Four Humours
• The universe is made up of four elements; and the body is made up of four humours (liquids)
• If these humours are in balance the body will be healthy, when they are unbalanced you become ill
• Miasma


  Bad smelling air thought to be harmful – so corpses, rotting matter, swamps thought to cause disease
• Prayer; saying mass; fasting; going on pilgrimage were advised as religious "treatments"
• Some believed disease because punishment was sent by God, you should not try to treat
• Humoural Treatments


  Physician suggested a treatment for each symptom, including bleeding and purging; bathing (only available to rich); remedies (made from herbs and spices)
• PRAY! was recommended as a prevention method
• Practice basic hygiene (as recommended in the Regimen Sanitatis) and purifying bad air (eg carry a sweet-smelling "posy"; some measures were taken to keep towns clean, like clearing animal corpses) were prevention methods
• Physician


  University educated; expensive so only available if you were rich
• Physician diagnosed illness by

  Observing sample of urine / faeces / blood; consulting astrological charts
• Apothecary


  Mixed the herbal remedies
• Surgeon


  Performed basic operations and bleeding
• Most people cared for at home (kept clear, fed, herbal remedies). This was generally considered to be a woman's role
• The Black Death (1348) killed 1/3 of British population 1348-50
• Bubonic Plague


  Spread by fleas on rats
• People did not understand the real cause, they thought it was: Punishment from God, Imbalance of four humours
• Consequences of the Black Death: Fewer workers, demand higher wages and had more freedoms
• Anatomy


  The human body
• Diagnose


  To look at symptoms to work out what disease a patient has
• Miasma


  Foul smells, thought to cause disease
• Quarantine


  Isolating ill person to stop spread
• Transference


  Rubbing an object on a wound to "transfer" illness from the patient
• The Church had less control over life, so there was a chance for the spread of new ideas. The printing press helped ideas to spread. The Royal Society allowed scientists to gather, share research
• The Four Humours theory had been proved wrong by scientists. However, most people still believed it so most physicians continued to use old methods, eg bleeding
• The idea that disease spread by bad smelling air (miasma) was still believed
• Lots more herbal remedies available from newly discovered lands of the New World
• The new science of chemistry resulted in lots of chemical cures. eg antimony used to treat typhus
• Apothecaries and surgeons were better trained
• Less hospitals available because many of these had been run by the monasteries, which were closed down by Henry VIII
• Cleanliness still important; though less use of public baths since arrival of syphilis
• Moderation - avoiding too much alcohol, cold, food
• To reduce miasma, homeowners in some towns had to pay a fine if they did not clean outside their homes
• The Great Plague (1665) killed more than 65,000 in London
• Understanding that Four Humour theory was wrong (though it was still widely used)
• Better understanding of human body
• More remedies available from New World (newly discovered land in Americas)
• Use of chemical cures