c.1250 - c.1500: Medicine in Medieval England Flashcards

1
Q

Key causes of disease in Medieval times?

A
  • God
  • Imbalanced humours
  • Miasma
  • Astrology
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2
Q

How was the Church important during Medieval times?

A

Influential throughout Europe and managed the way people thought about different ideas, including medicine
- Did publish the Regimen Sanitatis that helped with cleanliness

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3
Q

How did the Church influence education?

A
  • Made sure people learnt from Galen

- Outlawed dissection

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4
Q

Did the Church help change or continuity?

A
  • Church was a reason for little change

- The Church was so influential that people were unable to question them

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5
Q

Why was outlawing dissection a reason for continuity?

A
  • Doctors couldn’t discover ideas about anatomy for themselves
  • They couldn’t check that what they had been taught was true
  • They had to believe Galen’s ideas based on animal dissection
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6
Q

Why did the Church support Galen’s ideas?

A
  • His ideas fit the belief that God created human bodies
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7
Q

What is astrology?

A

The idea that the movements of planets and stars have an effect on Earth and the people

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8
Q

How was astrology used for diagnosis?

A
  • Doctors had a calendar called an almanac which had information about where stars and planets where and how this related to illnesses
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9
Q

How were star signs relevant?

A
  • Different star signs were thought to affect different parts of the body
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10
Q

Who developed the Theory of the Four Humours?

A

Hippocrates

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11
Q

What were the four humours?

A
  • blood
  • phlegm
  • yellow bile
  • black bile
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12
Q

What did the Theory of the Four Humours say?

A

All the four humours had to stay balanced in order to stay in good health

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13
Q

What did Galen do?

A
  • Developed the theory of the four humours
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14
Q

What did Galen’s theory say?

A
  • Diseases could be treated using opposites

- Different foods, drinks, herbs, spices had a humour which could balance your own humours

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15
Q

Why did people believe the theory of the four humours?

A
  • It was so old that people saw no reason to change

- It was easy to believe because people could see the effects

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16
Q

Why did people like the theory of the four humours and miasma?

A
  • Gave people a rational theory

- Made people feel more in control against disease

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17
Q

What is the miasma theory?

A
  • Bad air causes disease when inhale
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18
Q

Why were Galen’s ideas about anatomy wrong?

A

He only dissected animals

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19
Q

Give an example to the theory of opposites?

A

Someone with a cold, producing lots of phlegm might be encouraged to have wine, chicken or pepper which were considered hot and dry humours

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20
Q

How did people treat disease if they thought it was a punishment from God?

A
  • Prayer
  • Pilgrimages
  • Flagellation
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21
Q

How did people treat disease if they thought it was due to the Four Humours?

A
  • Bloodletting

- Purging

22
Q

How does bloodletting show people’s strength in beliefs?

A
  • Bloodletting caused more deaths than it prevented but it remained a popular treatment
23
Q

Main methods of treatment in Medieval times?

A
  • Balancing humours
  • Herbal remedies
  • Lucky charms
  • Flagellation
  • Prayer
  • Using theory of opposites to oppose humours
24
Q

How were remedies used?

A
  • Bought from apothecaries, local wise women or made at home
  • Used as treatment
  • Also used for supernatural beliefs, lucky charms
25
Q

What were physicians?

A
  • Male doctors who had trained at university for at least 7 years
  • Little practical experience
  • Mostly learnt from books
  • Very expensive to see
26
Q

What were apothecaries?

A
  • Prepared and sold remedies
  • Gave advice on how to use remedies
  • Trained through apprenticeships
  • Most common form of treatment as they were accessible to people who could not afford a physician
27
Q

Who did surgeries?

A
  • Barber surgeons

- Little to no medical training

28
Q

Why was surgery not done a lot?

A
  • No way to manage blood loss, infection or pain

- Only done for minor procedures

29
Q

Why were barber surgeons not experimenting with new surgeries?

A
  • They did not have the ability for better surgeries

- No reason to want to do any difficult surgeries

30
Q

Why were barber surgeons not experimenting with new surgeries?

A
  • They did not have the ability for better surgeries

- No reason to want to do any difficult surgeries

31
Q

Where did people go when they were sick?

A
  • Very few hospitals

- Most sick people treated at home by the women

32
Q

What were the few hospitals like?

A
  • Run by monasteries
  • Popular
  • Highly regarded
  • Designed to care for the sick not treat
33
Q

What did hospitals offer patients?

A
  • Care but not treatments
  • Food
  • Water
  • Clean and hygienic place to stay
34
Q

What treatments could hospitals offer?

A

Some monks had access to books on healing and grew herbs to make herbal remedies

35
Q

Main methods of prevention in medieval times?

A
  • Keeping humours balanced with diet and purging
  • Prayer
  • Flagellation
  • Living life free from sin
  • Fasting
  • Carrying posies
  • Keeping clean to keep bad smells away
  • Regimen Sanitatis issued by the Church
36
Q

When did the Black Death first arrive in Britain?

A

1348

37
Q

What were the two types of plague involved in the Black Death?

A
  • Bubonic Plague

- Pneumonic Plague

38
Q

What was believed to be the cause of the Black Death?

A
  • A judgment from God
  • Imbalanced humours
  • Astrology
  • Miasma
39
Q

How did they try to prevent catching the Black Death?

A
  • Prayer
  • Fasting
  • Carrying strong smelling herbs or lighting fires
  • Carrying diamond and rubies if they believed in astrology
  • Carrying charms
40
Q

How did they try to treat the Black Death?

A
  • Bloodletting
  • Purging
  • Prayer
41
Q

Why did so many people die of the Black Death?

A

They tried to use existing ideas about causes but these were wrong so they weren’t effective in treating or preventing the disease

42
Q

What did local governments do to reduce the spread of the Black Death?

A

They tried to quarantine towns

43
Q

When was the printing press developed?

A

1440

44
Q

How was the factor of the Church important in Medievel England?

A
  • Controlled all education
  • Outlawed dissection
  • Controlled the publication of books because they had to be hand written by monks
45
Q

How was the Bubonic Plague spread?

A

Bites of fleas from rats carried on ships

46
Q

Symptoms of the Bubonic Plague?

A
  • Headaches
  • High temperature
  • Pus-filled swellings called Buboes
47
Q

How was the Pneumonic Plague spread?

A

Airborne, spread by coughs and sneezes

48
Q

Symptoms of the Pneumonic Plague?

A
  • Pain when breathing

- Coughing up blood

49
Q

How was the factor of Respect for Tradition important in Medieval England?

A
  • People assumed that ideas were so old they must be true

- If Doctors did not follow Galen’s teachings they would struggle to find work

50
Q

How was the factor of Education important in Medieval England?

A
  • Based on the teachings of Hippocrates and Galen
  • No practical experience
  • Learning based from textbooks