medieval (1250-1500)

• astrology: The idea that movements of planets and stars have effects on earth/people causing disease - was a new way of diagnosing disease
• Hippocrates' 4 humors theory

  Believed the body was made up of 4 fluids (humors): blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile. If they were balanced, there was good health if there wasn’t a balance then that was thought to be a cause of disease
• Galen's works on medicine made it hard to disagree with, as the church believed it was right
• dissection was outlawed by the churches and doctors had to follow Galen's wrong ideas on superstition, this meant they couldn’t discover ideas about anatomy
• natural remedies contained herbs, spices, animal parts, minerals and other remedies were lucky charms (e.g. arsenic)
• astrology: different star signs had a different effects on the body and mind
• supernatural

  • people believed it was a punishment from god for their sins
  • people believed that disease was caused by demons or witches
  • people thought that the cure was prayer and repentance
  • many churches preformed exorcisms and people who were believed to be witches were tried and executed
• bloodletting 


  • this aimed to make the humours balanced

  • if there was too much blood in the body doctors would take some out by making a small cut or using leeches to suck the blood out
• purging

  • getting rid of other fluids from the body by excreting - doctors would give patients laxatives
• bloodletting and purging

  • some people died because of the loss of blood
• miasma

  • galen theory
  • idea of bad air causing disease when someone breathes it in
  • the idea lasted until the 1860s until it was replaced with the germ theory
• people thought that miasma (bad air) came from humans or any bad smell
• miasma prompted people to be cleaner and more hygienic - this meant people cleaned the streets which helped slow the spread of disease but for the wrong reasons
• hippocrates and galen - they both:

  • wrote ideas down and translated them into latin books because they were considers important by the church
  • believed doctors should observe their patients as they received their treatment
• hippocrates

  • doctors still use his oath today - take the oath to say they will use their power to care for the sick to the best of their ability
• galen

  • only ever dissected on animals so his idea on the human body was wrong
  • most of his assumptions were based on pigs
• purifying air

  • physicians carried posies or oranges around to prevent the carrying of diseases
  • during the black death they carried: juniper, myrrh, and incense was burned so the smoke/scent would prevent the air from entering their bodies
• there were few public hospitals and most were set up by monasteries
• public hospitals main goals wasn't to treat diseases but to care for people who were sick or elderly - it provided them with food, water and a warm place to stay
• few public hospitals

  most people were treated at home by their families (mainly women did this)
• public hospitals - provided some basic medical treatments
• monks had some access to books on healing and knew how to grow herbs and make remedies
• apothecary

  • trained through apprenticeships
  • prepared and sold remedies
  • some gave advice on how to use the remedies
  • mostly men but some women were who sold the herbal remedies
  • accessible for people who couldn’t afford physicians
• physicians

  • male doctors who trained at a university for atleast 7 years but they had little practical experience
  • used handbooks and clinical observations to check patients conditions
• in the 1300s there were less than 100 physicians in england - seeing one was very expensive so only the rich could afford to see them
• surgery barbers

  • dangerous - no way to prevent blood loss, infection or pain yet
  • used for minor procedures
  • very few were uni trained, high paid surgeons because being a surgeon was not a respected profession
  • most were barbers who also cut hair
• the black death

  • series of plagues that swept europe in the mid 14th century
• bubonic plague

  • spread by bites off fleas from rats carried on ships
  • caused headache, high temperatures, pus filled swellings on the skin
• pneumonic plague

  • airborne disease
  • spread by coughs and sneezes
  • attacked the lungs
  • made it painful to breathe causing people to cough blood
• how the local government tried to prevent the spread of the black death

  • some believed you could catch it from being too close to the bodies of dead victims
  • gloucester tried to shut off from the outside world - this suggested they believed it was spread by human contact this resulted in many deaths
  • january 1349 - king Edward III made the decision to close parliament
• what some people believed caused the black death

  • some blamed humour imbalances
  • astrology - some people carried diamonds and rubies which were believed to protect them
  • some believed it was judgement from god because of their sins
  • miasma