Medieval Medicine (1000-1500)

• Theory of Four Humors


  There are four liquids in the body; blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm. If they are not balanced then the person becomes ill
• Theory of Opposites

  Galen decided to build upon Hippocrates discovery of the Four Humors. If a person is to hot give them something cold.
• Beliefs about illness

  • God-believed illness was caused by God as a punishment
  • Miasma-Bad smells caused disease
• Medieval Medicine (1000-1500)

  • Christian Medicine
  • Islamic Medicine
• Christian Medicine

  • Believed in looking after the sick
  • Believed God sent illness as a punishment
  • Monks copied texts
  • Prayers were the most important treatment
  • Christians believed that paying for hospitals could help them get to heaven quicker
  • Sick were encouraged to visit holy places (shrines)
  • Did not believed in surgery
• Islamic Medicine

  • Baghdad became the centre for translating Greek books (e.g Galen and Hippocrates)
  • Hundreds of books were stored in the House of Wisdom
  • Scientists encouraged to discover cures and new drugs
  • Mental illness was treated with compassion
  • Hospitals were for treating patients not just caring for them
• Wise Women

  Gave first aid, herbal remedies, supernatural cures with charms and spells based on tradition
• Apothecary


  Would provide herbal remedies
• Physician


  This was medieval doctor. There were few doctors in England at this time. They charged a fee for their services. Studied for 7 years at university.
• Surgery

  Limitations: operated without effective painkillers, had no idea that dirt carried disease, could not help patients with deep wounds to the body
• Medieval procedures

  1. Bloodletting (to balance the humors)

  2. Amputation (cutting off a damaged part of the body)

  3. Trepanning (drilling a hole into the skull)

  4. Cauterisation (burning a wound to stop the flow of blood using a heated iron)
• Barber Surgeons

  Would complete minor surgery such as pulling teeth whilst cutting hair
• Church made it difficult for scholars to dissect human bodies. Most dissections were on animals to prove Galen's work. Both Islamic and Christian faiths did not allow people to cut open bodies.
• War improved knowledge of the human body. They were able to try out new techniques on different injuries.
• Public Health

  • Towns: clean water was in short supply, water came from the rivers/ streams but waste would leak into here, cesspits were near to wells, animals on the streets
  • Monasteries: Gardens with herbs, clean water, attached to most hospitals. Privies (toilets) emptied into pits. Pipes delivered local well water to wash basins and filters removed dirt. Monks kept clean for God. Christian monasteries were near to rivers. They were isolated which meant disease did not spread as quickly.
  • Hospitals: help the poor. They provide shelter/ rest and food. They did not have many surgeons or physicians. They were funded by the church. Rich people used to give money to the church to help them get to Heaven.
• Coventry: Cleaning the streets-fining people for not doing this, Collecting money for waste disposal, Collecting waste, Waste disposal areas
• Key Individuals

  • Hippocrates
  • Galen
  • Avicenna
  • Ibn al-Nafis
  • Rhazes
  • Abulcasis
  • Roger Bacon
  • John Arderne
• Hippocrates


  Created the Theory of Four Humours, Hippocratic Oath, Used careful observation
• Galen


  Used the Four Humours to created the Theory of Opposites, Practiced dissections on animals to have an idea about the human body
• Avicenna


  Wrote the Book Healing, Canon of Medicine
• Ibn al-Nafis


  Galen was wrong about how the heart worked as it did not go via the lungs
• Rhazes

  Found the difference between smallpox and measles through careful observation
• Abulcasis


  Muslim Surgeon. Invented 26 new surgical instruments. Made cauterisation popular.
• Roger Bacon

  Challenged the Catholic Church, spread anti Church views
• John Arderne

  First English Surgeon, removed growths from anus, treated fistulas (swellings inside the body) told doctors how to behave, used pain relief such as Hemlock
• Religion was the most important factor in the medieval time period. God was believed to cause illness and prayer was used a treatment. Hippocrates and Galen were not challenged in their beliefs as they were supported by the church so were believed for over 1000 years. The dominance of the church meant that the cause of the Black Death was believed to be God and therefore treatments were ineffective as they did not know that germs caused disease. Medicine could not move forward.