Medicine in Medieval England 1250-1500

• The Church


  • Very influential in Medieval England
  • Controlled all of the medical education
  • Spread belief in Galen and role of God
  • Actively attacked ideas that disagreed with them
  • Kept medical knowledge wrong and ineffective
• The Government


  • Lacked influence
  • Role of the monarch was to protect the country and uphold the law, not to be involved in health
• Education


  • Controlled by the Church
  • Used existing, wrong ideas
  • Physicians and trained medical personnel had wrong ideas on disease
  • No one could prevent or treat disease effectively
• Attitudes


  • Influential
  • The Church ensured that old attitudes pursued
• Galen


  Ancient physician who developed the theory of the 4 Humours and the Theory of Opposites to explain the causes of illness
• Hippocrates


  Ancient physician who developed the theory of the 4 Humours and the Theory of Opposites to explain the causes of illness
• Most medical knowledge based on the work of Galen and Hippocrates
• Richard Wittington


  London mayor who paid for an 8 bed hospital for unmarried pregnant women
• St. Bartholemew's hospital was founded, the hospitals admitted only the elderly and disabled, not the sick


  1123
• There were fewer than 100 physicians in England in 1300
• The Black Death in England caused the death of around 2 million people (half the population of the time)


  1348-49
• There were 500 hospitals in England in 1400 but most had only 5 or 6 beds
• Henry V was wounded by an arrow in battle and Surgeon John Bradmore designed a metal forceps to pass through the wound and remove the arrowhead. The wound was dressed with clean linen, barley and honey to keep it free of infection.


  1407