Medicine KT1

• Religious explanations for disease

  • Disease was a punishment from God for sin
  • Famine = God punishing society
  • Leprosy was a popular example
• Types of treatment available

  • Religious
  • Supernatural
  • Humoral
• Humoral treatments available

  • Blood letting (phlebotomy) - done with leeches or by cupping
  • Purging - vomiting to remove imbalance - emetics (bitter herbs) or patient would be given an enema
  • Herbal remedies - aloe vera for digestion
  • Theriaca (up to 70 ingredients)
• Methods for preventing disease

  • Through the Church (prayer)
  • Diet
  • Hygiene
  • Air purification
• How hygiene could prevent disease

  Followed 'Regimen Sanitatis' (book provided by physicians) - no overeating, sex in moderation, living above ground floor height, bathing
• Role of a physician

  • Diagnosed (using urine, astrological charts, Vademecum)
  • Used ideas around humours to create a treatment plan
  • Typically in university for 7-10 years
  • Very expensive
• Role of apothecaries

  • Administered herbal remedies - versed in herbology due to studying Materia Medica
  • Couldn't necessarily be trusted as they didn't swear the Hippocratic oath or have degrees, could administer poison
  • Cheaper than physicians
• Role of hospitals

  • 1500 1,100 hospitals in England, largest Bury St Edmunds
  • Didn't treat sick (often rejected them), but was a place of relaxation ('care not cure')
  • 30% run by nuns/monks, rest funded by endowments
  • Patients shared beds
• Role of Wise Women

  • Vast majority of the sick treated at home by women
  • Administered herbal remedies
  • Performed blood letting(?)
  • Free!
• What the government did during the Black Death

  Implemented quarantine laws - some areas had a 40 day policy - houses quarantined
• Factors that opposed medical advancement

  • The Church
  • Education
  • Society
  • Individuals
  • (lack of Technology)
• How the Church opposed change

  • Bible states that God controls every aspect of life (including disease)
  • Pope, bishops, priests etc. told that this was true and any attempts to disprove would = hell
  • Instilled fear in the people
  • Aligned themselves with Galen, as they both believed in a Creator
• How education hindered change

  • Church controls education
  • Main parts of doctors' training was reading Hippocrates and Galen's work (WRONG)
  • They were NOT encouraged to think for themselves
  • They could NOT discover more about human anatomy