Superstition + religion

• Treatments based on


  • Supernatural (eg, 4 elements)
  • Religion (eg. pilgrimage and prayer)
• Miasma


  Idea of miasma causing illness
• Christian church


  • Set up 700 hospitals to care for patients
• Islamic caliphs


  • To cure patients
  • Support for mental illness
• Monastries


  • Had a large role in public health (cleanliness =holiness)
• Role of religion and superstition

  • Treatments and beliefs about the causes of illness
  • Quacks increased in 17 & 18 C
  • The Great Plague was seen as a punishment from God
  • Some individuals still accepted religious beliefs
  • Some superstition surrounding reactions to cholera
  • Miasma ideas still existed at first
  • Alternative medicines on the increase (eg. aromatherapy, hypnotherapy and acupuncture)