Middle Ages

• Much knowledge from the Roman Empire had been lost during the Dark Ages (c.410-1066)
• Catholicism was the religion of England and the Church had a major influence over everyday life
• There was little scientific thought or curiosity - instead people looked to the works of Classical thinkers Hippocrates (Ancient Greece) and Galen (Ancient Rome)
• Religious Explanations


  Disease was a punishment from God for those who had committed a sin, or a test of faith from the Devil
• Astrology


  The alignment of the stars and planets was believed to influence disease
• Miasma


  Bad air that was believed to be filled with harmful fumes
• The Four Humours


  The body was made up of four elements (blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile) which must be balanced

  
• Hippocrates and Galen


  • Their ideas were promoted by the Church and were the only ones widely taught due to the importance of book learning and lack of alternatives
• Humoural Treatments


  1. Blood-letting

  2. Purging

  3. Theory of Opposites

  4. Urine examination
• Remedies


  • Herbal remedies
  • Bathing
• Hospitals


  Concentrated on hospitality rather than treatment, and often rejected infectious or terminal patients
• Medics


  • Physicians
  • Barber surgeons
  • Apothecaries
• Religious approach to prevention

  Leading a sin-free life through prayer, confessions and tithes
• Lifestyle approach to prevention

  Hygiene and diet advice through the Regimen Sanitatis
• Purifying the air


  Carrying sweet herbs or flowers, and local government efforts to tackle miasma
• In 1348 the Black Death plague reached England, spread by fleas and killing around a third of the population
• Causes of the Black Death

  • Religious and supernatural beliefs
  • Miasma (bad air)
• People generally applied the same knowledge they had about illness to the Black Death in terms of treatments and preventions
• Humours theory


  Examined as part of the diagnosis to check for an imbalance of humours
• Charm


  A word meaning "spells" or "charms". These were used as a supernatural treatment
• Humoural treatment


  • Aimed to restore the body's balance of blood
• In 1348 a new plague, the Black Death, reached England
• The Black Death was spread by fleas and the main symptom was large, painful buboes
• Most victims of the Black Death died within a few days, and around a third of England's population died in all
• Causes, treatments and preventions of the Black Death

  • Religious and supernatural
  • Bad air (miasma)
  • Humoural treatments
  • Purifying the air
  • Herbal remedies
  • Religious and supernatural
  • Purifying the air
  • Common beliefs
  • Government action
• Miasma


  The main cause associated with the Black Death, thought to be spread by breathing in impure air
• Physicians tried standard treatments like purging and bleeding, but these did not work
• Surgeons sometimes lanced (pierced) the buboes, and occasionally these patients would survive
• Bonfires and sweet-smelling herbs were recommended to ward off bad air
• People prayed, made pilgrimages and whipped themselves (self-flagellation) to show how sorry they were
• One of the main ways of prevention was to carry sweet herbs, to prevent miasma
• The government brought in quarantine laws, but they were hard to enforce because local authorities had little power
• Anagram: Tithe


  This was a sum of money paid by everyone to the Church
• Anagram: Regimen


  A set of instructions on hygiene, diet and lifestyle
• Anagram: Sewer set


  The name of the public baths in medieval times
• Anagram: Posies


  A bunch of sweet-smelling flowers, used to ward off miasma
• Anagram: Quarantine


  This measure of isolating people with the plague was ignored by many during the Black Death
• Anagram: Self-flagellation


  This means to whip yourself, and was a common method of trying to prevent disease
• Anagram: Miasma


  Most people thought that this caused disease
• Doctors followed the ideas of Hippocrates and Galen. They believed illness was caused by an imbalance of the Four Humours