Chapter 1 - Medicine Stands Still

Question 1

Tell me about different people being ill in medieval time

Answer 1

Rich more likely to survive - could afford treatment by a doctor, towns had more practitioners but were more deadly than villages and young were more at risk than adults

Winter brought its own problems and so did summer

Question 2

What were the main killers of medieval times

Answer 2

Famine and war - a bad harvest due to drought or flood, too hot or too cold - meant malnourishment for many so it made it easier to get disease

Dysentery, typhoid, smallpox and measles are widespread, childbirth, 30% of children died before 7

Accidents common too

Question 3

Tell me about the influence of Arab medicine

Answer 3

In 900s AD Islamic hospitals were sites of education and healing - contained lecture rooms, pharmacies and libraries

Many students received training in hospitals

Cleanliness encouraged and hospitals centred around fountains and cool breezes circulated the wards

Arabic (Islamic) medicine was far ahead of Western European

Question 4

Who were Hippocrates and Galen

Answer 4

Two men who contributed the most to the western view of medicine in this time

Question 5

Tell me about Hippocrates

Answer 5

First physician to regard the body as a whole and be treated as a whole rather than parts

Based thinking around 4 humours

Believed diet and rest were very important to recovery of a patient

Regarded by many as father of modern medicine

Even today - new doctors still take the Hippocratic oath

Question 6

Tell me about Galen

Answer 6

Studied medicine in Egypt before moving to Rome

Took Hippocrates ideas further

Practised dissection of animals to understand human body

Used theory of four humours and emphasised importance of listening to a persons pulse

Ideas profoundly influenced western ideas of medicine for a very long time

Question 7

What did Hippocrates write about the 4 humours

Answer 7

“The human body contains blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile. These are the things that made up its constitution and cause it’s pains and health. … Pain occurs when one of the substances presents either a deficiency or an excess, or is separated in the body and not mixed with others”

Question 8

Tell me about the four humours theory

Answer 8

To remain healthy the humours must be balanced - some humours are “hot” - blood and air and Create sweating illness

Some humours - phlegm and black bike are cold - creating illnesses such as melancholia

Question 9

Tell me about the influence of Hippocrates and Galen

Answer 9

Galens work arrived in Europe via Islamic texts and beliefs
Church looked at galena ideas and decided it fitted with Christian ideas Becuase it referred to “the creator” - doctors believed ideas were correct and was nearly impossible to improve or disprove it

Galens ideas rapidly spread throughout Europe and became accepted as medical orthodoxy

Question 10

Why did people think God made them ill

Answer 10

If someone was living a sinful life, then a difficult illness was gods way of punishing them for their sins

If a society was sinful - or moving away from religion then an epidemic or plague was sent to remind people of their duties of the church

Belief in doctrine of signatures that God created illness but also herbs or plants to treat it but you had to identify it

Question 11

Tell me how bad smells made people ill in medieval times

Answer 11

Some people made link between disease and bad air and or smells

Morality higher in towns and cities than in countryside - people lived closer together, alongside their animals and their filth

Travellers said you could smell a town before you saw is and so many thought it was through miasma infecting neighbours and friends

Question 12

How did everyday life cause disease in medieval times

Answer 12

Believed illness and early death was inevitable

So many children died before 7.

Childbirth very dangerous and expected a man would need to remarry to provide children a new mother

Warfare and famine were frequent - everyday life was uncertain

Question 13

How did the supernatural cause disease

Answer 13

Mystery and magic is used to explain unexpected happenings

Which craft was feared and many believed the world was ful of demons trying to cause trouble and death

Sudden diseases or misfortunes could easily be blamed on the supernatural - especially as church painted a picture of life where good fought evil

Question 14

How did the four humours make people ill in medieval times

Answer 14

The widest held belief as that people were ill Becuase of four humours were out of balance

Every doctor agreed it was caused by a loss of equilibrium.
Every doctor had a chart showing illness being caused by each humour - use along side a zodiacal chart

Question 15

Tell me about barber surgeons treating sick

Answer 15

Most people who had the money went to a barber surgeon who carried out minor operations, set broken bones or pull teeth

To become a barber surgeon you would need to serve an apprenticeship and most of these practitioners were found in towns and cities, although some travelled around countryside or with visiting fairs

Question 16

Tell me about apothecarys treating the sick

Answer 16

Ordinary people depended on apothecary - who would sell medicines as well as herbs and spices from his shop in a town

Probably served an apprenticeship for 7 years with an existing apothecary to learn the trade

Sold simples - made of plant plant or herb

Sold compounds - combination of ingredients made to deal with a specific illness

Question 17

Tell me about wise women treating disease

Answer 17

Visit local wise woman for wisdom and skills handed down by family that were probably as effective as anyone else’s

She was reasonably priced and would usually already know the patient

Many of women also acted as midwives, looking after women in labour

Question 18

Tell me about the lady of the house treating the ill

Answer 18

Would be expected to provide medical care for family and on an estate or farm for labourers too

Question 19

Tell me a medieval remedy for headaches

Answer 19

Warm camomile tea and then lie down on rosemary and lavender Scented pillows for 15 minutes

Question 20

Tell me a medieval remedy for aching joints

Answer 20

Take equal amounts of radish, bishopwart, garlic, wormwood, helenium, cropleek and hollowleek - pound them up and boil them in butter with celandine and red nettle

Keep mixture in a brass pot until it’s a dark red and strain is through a cloth and smear on forehead or aching joints

Question 21

What was the preferred way to fight illness

Answer 21

Restore the balance of the four humours was by blending, done by cupping or using leeches

Monastery records show monks bled up to 8 times a year

Illness said to be caused by having to much blood - leeches still used today

Question 22

How did doctors diagnose illness

Answer 22

Using a urine and zodiac chart - urine is a vital diagnostic tool - compare it

Smell it and taste to decide what was wrong with patient

A zodiac chart would show which parts of body were linked with astrological signs - dictate what a physician may do

Zodiac chart also shows best time to carry out a treatment and even when to pick herbs

Eg picking herbs at wrong time in moon cycle could harm patient

Question 23

Why was the churches role in the progress in medicine in medieval times

Answer 23

Church was central to most people’s lives so attitude to medicine has a profound influence on medical progress

Church encouraged people to pray for deliverance from illness

As well as prayer, offerings could buy indulgences and going on a pilgrimage to holy shrine might bring about a cure

Pilgrims often leave a miniature copy of each infected body part at the shrine and hope prayer and belief would bring a cure

Question 24

Tell me about St. John of Bridlington

Answer 24

The most famous pilgrimage was to the holy land, in England you could visit Canterbury, walsingham, Glastonbury or the priory at Bridlington where St. John of Bridlingtons grave was a source of miracles

Renowned for holiness and miracles were attributed to him when he was still alive. He was canonised (made a saint) in 1404 barely 30 years after death

Question 25

How did the church help medical progress

Answer 25

Regarded that Christians had a duty to look after poor and sick so church played a large part in developing hospitals - over 160 set up in twelfth and thirteen centuries

Church also set up university schools of medicine throughout Europe where physicians were trained using texts of Hippocrates and Galen, a lot of universities were attached to monasteries so monks were there

We have most of the text about Galen and Hippocrates Becuase monks copied them and arrived in the west on Arabic translations

Question 26

How did the church limit the process of the development of medicine

Answer 26

It made it difficult for scholars to dissect human bodies - although there is evidence of autopsies taking place

Galena dissection work was based on animals so church’s insistence of using galens work limited progress of understanding the workings of the human body

Question 27

How did war affect progress of medicine

Answer 27

War was endemic in medieval times

Led to advances of surgery and the treatment of wounds

Question 28

Tell me about cauterisation

Answer 28

Cauterisation of wounds are applying great heat to the edges of affected areas to stop bleeding - extremely painful and often as not fatal

Les to some surgeons using wine as an antiseptic to clean wounds and develop relieving ointments to apply to wounds instead

Opium began to be used a painkiller - used to knock out patients to allow surgery. But sometimes opium and hemlock based liquids were too strong and killed the patient instead

Question 29

Tell me about army surgeons and amputations

Answer 29

Carried out amputations with a saw and knife which was very painful and without effective anaesthetic - new tools developed like the arrow cup designed to slide into a deep wound, surround an arrowhead and gently remove it from body without causing any more damage

Manuals helped to spread knowledge, many would feature a diagram showing kinds of wounds expected to treat in an army surgeons career

Question 30

How did science leave to development of medicine

Answer 30

Robert grosseteste teacher at university of Oxford was a leading advocate of Enquiry and experiment

Work optics eventually led to development of spectacles

Roger bacon - impossible for challenging church’s views on Galen and importance of scientific method and close observation - people began to question old text and the church’s insistence on agreeing with them

Question 31

How safe were you in hospital

Answer 31

“No lepers, no lunatics, no people with a contagious disease, no pregnant women, no sucking infants, no intolerable infants”

Many towns had leper houses outside their walls or hospitality places for travellers

Many small houses were almshouses set up to provide a home for old and those unable to work

Early hospitals were in some ways a safe lodging house of the medieval period

Many funded by the church or by rich people leaving endowments to pay for a certain number of beds

Basically care homes where those in need could receive warmth, fold and rest until they feel better

Question 32

Tell me about the care within a hospital

Answer 32

First you went to a chapel and then the bath where your clothes were boiled and baked in oven

Then went into clean sheets over night - very few hospitals employed physicians or surgeons - most care carried out by nuns or elderly people

Question 33

What treatments were given in the hospitals

Answer 33

Was prayer, a priest would say mass every day and occupants were expected to confess their sins. Prayer and contemplation was expected to bring about recovery

Most sisters or monks if hospital attached to a monastery would know a lot about herbal remedies

Evidence found at hospital sites suggests medieval Augustine monks knew how to amputate limbs, fashion surgical instruments, induce birth, stop scurvy and even create hangover cures

Evidence of them growing non native Herbs and plants to use in medical recipes

Question 34

Tell me about st Giles hospital

Answer 34

St Giles hospital in Norwich, named after st Giles who was the patron saint of lepers, crippled and nursing mothers. Was established to care for the sick but also for remission of bishops sins so that when he died he would spend less time in purgatory

A priest was to say a prayer for his soul every day and to make the patients pray for him too

Hospital funded by income of several churches

Strict rules about who can be looked after

Question 35

Tell me some the st Giles hospital rules

Answer 35

There must be a master to take good care of the hospital, and to work for the remission of bishop suffields sins

There shall be at least 3 or 4 women, aged over 50, who are to change the sheets and take care of the sick

Everyone must rise at the crack of dawn to say prayers

There will be weekly mass in honour of st Giles

There will be 30 beds or more

There will be a poor box from which poor people passing by the receive alms and charitable assistance

The sisters are to sleep in a seperate dormitory

No women are allowed to stay in hospital as patients

Question 36

Summarise medical process in medieval times so far

Answer 36

There was some progress in looking after sick people at this time

Church believed prayer and pilgrimage was best cure for illness

Church played an important part in providing hospitals and monasteries to look after the old, the infirm and the sick

The establishment of the first hospitals saw the beginnings of treating people in specific settings

Herbal treatments still remained the usual form of medicine

The church resisted some progression in medicine such as practice of autopsies

Texts, many arriving by the Arabic world, helped spread some good practice among those prepared to listen to new ideas