c.1000 - c.1500: Medicine in Medieval Britian Flashcards
What was thought to be the three supernatural causes of disease?
- Punishment from God
- Evil supernatural beings
- Evil spirits living inside someone
What where the churches 4 main influences on medieval medicine?
- Dominated how people studied and thought about medicine.
- Disease was a punishment from God.
- Scholars learnt from Galen.
- Outlawed dissection.
How was astrology linked to medicine in medieval britain?
Astrology was used to diagnose disease.
What astrological belief was thought to affect different parts of the body?
Star signs.
What was the Four Humours Theory?
Created by the Ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates. He believed the body was made up of four fluids - blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. They needed to be balanced for good health.
What did Galen work on?
- He developed the Theory of the Four Humours further.
- He believed that diseases could be treated using opposites.
- Different foods, drinks, herbs and spices had a humour, which could balance the excessive humour that was causing the disease.
What was the Miasma theory?
The idea that bad air causes disease when someone breathes it in. This bad air came from the human waste or dead bodies - anything that creates a bad smell.
Who backed the Miasma theory?
Galen - incorporated into the Theory of the Four Humours.
What medicine was way ahead of European medicine?
Islamic medicine.
Who’s ideas came to Europe alongside other Islamic ideas?
Galen’s and Hippocrates.
How did Medieval Britain think that God was linked to disease?
Many people believed that disease was a punishment from God for people’s sins. They thought that disease existed to show them the error of their ways and to make them become better people. Therefore, they thought that the way to cure disease was through prayer and repentance.
How did Medieval Britain think that evil supernatural beings was linked to disease?
It caused it, like demons or witches. Witches were believed to be behind outbreaks of disease - many people were tried as witches and executed.
How did Medieval Britain think that evil spirits was linked to disease?
Evil spirits living inside someone caused disease. Members of the Church performed exorcisms, using chants to remove the spirit from the person’s body.
- The Roman Catholic Church was extremely powerful in medieval Europe, it dominated how people studied and thought about medicine.
- Disease was a punishment from God - pray and repent.
- Scholars learnt from Galen.
- Outlawed dissection.
How influential was the Roman Catholic Church?
It was an extremely powerful organisation in medieval Europe. It dominated the way people studied and thought about a range of topics, including medicine.
What did the Church encourage people to believe and how did this affect development of medicine?
The Church encouraged people to believe that disease was a punishment from God, rather than having a natural cause. This prevented people from trying to find cures for disease - they thought they just had to pray and repent.
How did the Church influence education and why?
The Church made sure that scholars of medicine learned the works of Galen as his ideas fit the Christian belief that God created human bodies and made them to be perfect. It also stopped anyone from disagreeing with Galen.
How did the Church prevent discovering ideas about the human anatomy?
The Church outlawed dissection. They instead had to learn Galen’s incorrect ideas.
What is astrology?
The idea that the movements of the planets and stars have an effect on the Earth and on people.
What did astrologers in medieval England believe?
That the movements of the planets and stars could cause disease.
How did star signs affect illness?
Different stars signs affected different parts of the body.
How did the fall of the Roman Empire affect medicine?
Much Ancient Greek and Roman medical knowledge was lost in the West.
Who brought back the Theory of the Four Humours?
The Islamic world.
What did many medieval doctors use the Theory of the Four Humours for?
Diagnosis and treatment.
Who created the Theory of the Four Humours?
The Ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates.
What did Hippocrates believe?
That the body was made up of four fluids. Blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile.
They where linked to the four seasons and the four elements.
They needed to be in balance for good health.
Who advanced the Theory of the Four Humours?
Galen. Another Greek doctor.
What did Galen believe?
That disease could be treated using opposites. He thought that different foods, drinks, herbs and spices had a humour, which would balance the excessive humour that was causing the disease.
Where did the Miasma theory originate from?
Ancient Greece and Rome.
Who first incorporated the Miasma theory into their work?
Galen incorporated it into the Theory of the Four Humours.
How influential was the Miasma theory?
So influential that it lasted until the 1860s.
What replaced the Miasma theory in the 1860s?
The Germ Theory.
How did the Miasma theory affect the way people lived?
It often prompted people to do hygienic things, like cleaning the streets, which did sometimes help to stop the spread of disease.
How influential where Hippocrates and Galen?
Extremely influential in medical treatment and diagnosis.
How did the Roman Catholic Church treat Hippocrates and Galen’s texts?
They where considered important and like the Bible their ideas were considered the absolute truth.
Why where some of Galen’s ideas about anatomy wrong?
Because he only dissected animals - animal and human bodies are very different.
Why did medieval doctors continue to learn Galen’s incorrect ideas about the human anatomy?
Because they where not aloud to perform their own dissections.
