Brainscape Medicine Medieval and Renaissance

Question 1

What factor had the biggest influence on Medieval Medicine?

Answer 1

Catholic Church e.g. illness was punishment for sins, church schools educated people, monks copied out all texts, church hospitals and monasteries cared for the sick, church taught people not to question old texts (such as Galen’s books)

Question 2

What were the Crusades (11th to 13th centuries) and how did they help Medieval Medicine?

Answer 2

Wars fought by European Christians against Muslims to retake Jerusalem. During the Crusades many Arabic books (such as Avicenna’s Canon) were brought back to Europe and translated into Latin spreading Islamic ideas as well as Greek and Roman.

Question 3

What was the Hotel Dieu?

Answer 3

One of the first Catholic hospitals. Founded in Paris in 651. Monks and nuns provided medical care (prayer, food, rest and herbal treatments).

Question 4

What was first built at Solerno, Italy in the Middle Ages?

Answer 4

A medical school which taught men and women about medicine, including the ideas of the Arabists.

Question 5

Which Greek/Roman idea was further developed and used to treat disease through the Middle Ages?

Answer 5

The Four Humours, although it was now more complex taking in the seasons, the stars, food and clothing.

Question 6

What was a Medieval urine chart?

Answer 6

Used by medieval doctors to diagnose illness. Colour and taste (yuk) were observed.

Question 7

Medieval doctors were expensive, so who provided healthcare for ordinary people?

Answer 7

priests, monks, pilgrimages to Holy Shrines, apothecaries, wise-women, quacks (sold dodgy medical treatment)

Question 8

Why weren’t medieval surgeons allowed to use the title ‘Dr.’?

Answer 8

Surgeons were not well respected. Many were barbers (barber surgeons) who used their equipment to pull teeth or remove growths.

Question 9

What was ‘Wound Man’?

Answer 9

A diagram of a man with a series of common injuries/war wounds for surgeons to treat.

Question 10

What types of pain relief (anaesthetic) were used in the 14th century?

Answer 10

Opium (from trade with India and China) and henbane (deadly nightshade). Often killed patients.

Question 11

Give 4 public health problems in Medieval cities.

Answer 11

Cesspits for dumping human waste, open sewers, overcrowding, rats.

Question 12

Why was it healthy to drink beer in the middle ages?

Answer 12

Boiling the brew sterilised the liquid. Healthier than the water.

Question 13

Were there any medieval public health laws?

Answer 13

Some towns attempted to ‘clean up’ but there was little central organisation, tax revenue or understanding of the risks.

Question 14

When did the Black Death arrive in Britain?

Answer 14

In 1348

Question 15

What ACTUALLY caused the Black Death?

Answer 15

Fleas on Black rats spread the pasteurella pastis germ to humans

Question 16

What is the difference between bubonic and pneumonic plague?

Answer 16

Bubonic was spread by fleas (through blood), pneumonic (like pneumonia) was spread by coughs and sneezes.

Question 17

Name 3 symptoms of the bubonic plague.

Answer 17

headaches, fever, swellings (buboes) in the groin, armpits or neck, spasms, pain, smell

Question 18

Give 3 different medieval treatments for the plague.

Answer 18

prayer, flagellants (whipped themselves), herbal remedies (e.g. mustard poultice), burst the buboes

Question 19

Why was the death rate 50% amongst the church, but 33% for ordinary people?

Answer 19

people went to the churchmen for treatment and prayer

Question 20

King Henry VIII founded an important medical training college in 1518. What was it?

Answer 20

The College of Physicians (now known as the Royal College of Physicians) which licensed doctors and set an oral exam.

Question 21

What does Renaissance mean?

Answer 21

It literally means ‘Rebirth’ and is the name given to the 14th to 16th century.

Question 22

How did the Renaissance develop medicine?

Answer 22

People studied the ancient ideas of the Greeks and Romans and then began to challenge them, coming up with new ideas about medicine and the anatomy.

Question 23

When was the printing press invented by Guttenberg?

Answer 23

1454 (William Caxton set up the first British press in 1476)

Question 24

In 1660 King Charles II created a scientific body, funded by the government and dedicated to new discoveries. What was it called?

Answer 24

The Royal Society

Question 25

Who was the famous artist that painted the Mona Lisa, but also did lots of realistic 3D art work for anatomists such as Vesalius?

Answer 25

Leonardo da Vinci

Question 26

Who was Andreas Vesalius?

Answer 26

An anatomist (studied the anatomy) who did dissections and had artists draw accurate pictures for his books. He challenged Galen’s mistakes. His most famous was ‘The Fabric of the Human Body’ 1543.

Question 27

How did Vesalius spread his ideas?

Answer 27

Books made with the new printing press (1454), lectures that encouraged student to do their own dissections

Question 28

How did Protestant Reformation help the development of medicine?

Answer 28

People challenged the power of the Catholic Church. The Church lost its influence which allowed for more freedom of speech and the spread of new ideas.

Question 29

Who burned Galen’s books and called him a liar, encouraging people to reject the four humours in 1527.

Answer 29

Paracelsus

Question 30

Who invented ligatures in 16th century and what are they?

Answer 30

Ambroise Pare, French army surgeon. Ligatures are threads used to tie off blood vessels to stop bleeding. Used instead of cauterisation, although his ideas only became popular when Pare was made surgeon to the King of France.

Question 31

How did chance play a role in the invention of ligatures?

Answer 31

Pare ran out of boiling oil to cauterise wounds, so used a cooling salve instead. He noticed less men died from infection and appeared to be in less pain, so came up with ligatures as an alternative to stop bleeding.

Question 32

Why was the English doctor William Harvey important?

Answer 32

He was royal physician to both King James I and Charles I. He realised that Galen’s idea about blood being consumed by the body was wrong and that blood was actually circulated by the pumping heart. He also built on the ideas of Arabic anatomists and explained the difference between arteries and veins. He wrote books, showed experiments and lectured about his ideas

Question 33

What hit London in 1665?

Answer 33

The Great Plague

Question 34

London’s government (Westminster) put a series of Public Health measures in that helped stop the plague from spreading. Name 4.

Answer 34

Banned public meetings, closed pubs, put red crosses on the doors of infected houses, locked infected people in their homes (quarantine) and enforced it with wardens, carts removed the dead bodies to the plague pits (‘bring out your dead!’, burned the bedding of infected people

Question 35

What two events stopped the Great Plague by 1666?

Answer 35

Cold frosts of December killed fleas, Great Fire destroyed London and killed rats