Medieval

• Hippocrates

  Hippocratic oath ( doctors will always try to save patient and act on their interest)

  He suggested disease was internal not caused by gods

  Theory of four humours : Black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm

  Believed humans became ill when they became unbalanced

  Observed and recorded all of patients symptoms

  People should lead simple balanced lives

  Many books wrote recording his ideas

  Emphasized clinical observation
• Galen

  Made diagnosis popular

  His books were used for 1200 years

  Studied animals and dissected human remains

  Agreed with 4 humours and developed treatments

  Helped early surgical development

  Developed theory of opposites (humours would balance opposite one)

  Developed laws in medicine
• Medieval people believed if you commit a sin illness is sent as a punishment from God
• Doctors train in universities for 7 years no practical learning just book and lectures
• Christianity thought they should look after sick - so founded many hospitals
• Christianity heavily supported Galen
• Monks preserved and studied Galen and Hippocrates ideas copying their work out by hand
• Monasteries had infirmaries that provided free treatment
• Believed in only caring not curing
• Christians were in charge of universities and only wanted to make old knowledge understandable not discover new ideas
• Encouraged miraculous healing and thought prayers were best treatment
• Hospitals run by monks and nuns
• Some people turned to wise people/ looked for local monastries or parish priest
• Barber surgeons were apprenticed by another and usually performed on the battlefield
• Medieval doctors helped patient by taking pulse, colour, smell, taste of urine, medicine made from plants animals spices wines rocks, bloodletting and making you vomit
• People would try to help their illnesses by praying, using charms or asrology
• Monasteries were quite wealthy as many people gave money, valuables and land to these institutions in return for prayers for their loved ones
• Amputation was common for barber surgeons to perform
• Curing epilepsy patients by drilling a hole into their skull to let out demons
• Used anaesthetic like mandrake root, opium and hemlock
• Cauteristation - burning wound to allow the flow of blood
• Abucasis made cauterisation popular
• De Chauliac's book called great surgery dominated surgical knowledge for 200 years
• Frugardi warned against trepanning
• John of ardene's manual 'Practicae' contained illustrations of operations and instruments
• Avicenna wrote encyclopedia of medicine which was the standard european textbook
• Bagdad became a centre of translating greek into arabic
• There was also a library for Hippocrates and Galens books that had been lost in the dark ages
• Bad public health

  Animals created dung everywhere

  Open drains would over flow

  Tanning created smells and waste, dangerous chemicals produced

  Household waste was chucked into the streets

  Slaughtered animals with their blood and guts dumped into river

  Waste in streets

  Shopkeepers tried to sell off food
• 1298 King Edward complained bad hygiene was a danger to is soldiers so encouraged local council to order latrines
• 1330 Butchers by law couldn't throw butchered animals into streets
• 1371 Illegal to kill large animals within the cities walls
• 1374 London made people who used the river pay to have it cleaned
• 1388 A law fined £20 for throwing waste into places but was difficult to inforce
• 1466 In Worcester guts and blood had to be carried away on the same night
• 1421 Conventry mayor said everyone had to clean street in front of house and fined if they didn't
• 1420 Waste collection started
• People belived Black death was caused by position of stars/planets, bad air, poisening of wells by Jews, or God punishment
• Black death spread by yersina bestis which thrived in stomach of fleas which lived off blood of rats

  Spread by fleas and when rats died fleas had to find new host and passed on to many people as houses were crowded together
• Treating the Black death

  Drinking mercury

  Shaving chicken strapping to buboes

  People avoided contact