medieval

• what were the four humours

  phlegm, blood, black bile, yellow bile
• what were the causes of disease in c1250-1500?

  • punishment from God
  • imbalance of the 4 humours
  • astrology (alignment of the planets)
  • miasma
• how was disease treated from c1250-1500?

  • balancing the 4 humours: purging, bleeding (cupping, cutting a vein or leeches)
  • bathing
  • prayer
  • purifying the air from miasma
  • herbal remedies
• what was a physician?

  a person who mainly diagnosed patients and rarely treated (consulted astrological/urine charts and gave treatment based off that)
• what were apothecaries?


  people that mixed herbal remedies (and sometimes poison)
• what were barber surgeons?

  least qualified medical profession, performed minor surgeries (e.g pulling teeth or bleeding patients)
• black death:

  • arrived in 1348
  • killed 1/3 British population
  • actual cause: fleas (digested by rats)
  • (believed) causes: miasma & God
  • symptoms: boils, fever, sneezing/coughing blood
  • treatment: confess sins & bleed/purge
  • prevention: pilgrimage, fast, pray & stop visiting the infected
• who was Hippocrates?


  person who created 4 humours
• who was Galen?


  built off of Hippocrates' theory of the 4 humours and created the 'Theory of Opposites'