📝IDEA PARAGRAPHS - medieval Medicine

Question 1

Describe medieval beliefs about the causes of illnesses and their treatments
Who provided medical treatment and what were they providing?

Answer 1

Medieval treatment was provided by barber surgeons who did bloodletting and minor surgery, Wise women who gave first aid, herbal remedies and supernatural cures and midwifery (they were sometimes accused of witchcraft), apothecaries who prepared and sold remedies while giving medical advice and physicians who used astrological info, urine charts and knowledge of the humours

Question 2

Explain medieval beliefs about the causes of illnesses and their treatments
What did people believe was causing their illness?

Answer 2

People used to think illness was as a result of bad smells as they lived beside dirt And filth in towns, that god made them ill as a punishment to tell people to improve, that illness was caused by demons in the brain, that the four humours where not in balance and superstition

Question 3

Asses medieval beliefs about the causes of illnesses and their treatments
How were medieval doctors trained?
What issues were caused by the teachings medieval doctors received?

Answer 3

Medieval doctors were trained in universities by studying dissection, diagnosis, treatments and textbooks from professors who read Islamic texts who transcribed Greek ideas. These where all limited as they were mainly based on old Ancient Greek and Islamic ideas that haven’t been proven for 1500 years like the four humours. They were also limited as they were all based on theory and the first dissection wasn’t until the 13th century where they happened in medical schools once a year only. In addition, no one could go against galens ideas because they would have been seen to go against the church.

Question 4

Describe Hippocrates and Galen

When were they alive and what beliefs did they hold about medicine?

Answer 4

Hippocrates was around between 469BC and 369BC while galen was around between 129-216BC. They both believed that people became ill due to god. Galen beleieved that reason people became ill was because of an imbalance of the four humours

Question 5

Explain Hippocrates and Galen

How did they gain their medical knowledge?

Answer 5

They gained medical knowledge by carrying out dissections of animals and drawing diagrams based on that. Hippocrates wrote 60 books.

Question 6

Asses Hippocrates and Galen

Why’s were Hippocrates ideas accepted by Islamic culture and galens by the church?
How did Islamic culture further develop medical knowledge? How did acceptance of galens ideas hold back medical knowledge

Answer 6

Ideas were accepted because they fell in line with religious ideas in that the ultimate cause for everything was god and in the end it was up to god if you were healed or not

Islam further developed knowledge as harun al rashid turned Baghdad into the centre of translations of Greek texts. Also, al razi wrote over 150 books and was a follower of Galen. Galen held medicine back as people were not allowed to question is works because this was seen as going against the church and was therefor going against god

Question 7

Describe the theory of the four humours

Answer 7

Your body was made up of black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood which were the four humours. Seasons, astrological info or certain lifestyles were believed to have made people ill as they caused the humours to become inbalanced

Question 8

Explain the 4 humours

Which two ancient doctors promoted and believed the theory of the four humours?

Answer 8

Hippocrates and Galen through the many books and scriptures written by them

Question 9

Asses the significance of the 4 humours
How did Islamic culture help the theory of the four humours survive into medieval times? What does the four humours survival show about the lack of medical knowledge?

Answer 9

The idea of the 4 humours survived as Muslim doctors like ibn sina who wrote an encyclopaedia composed of Greek knowledge called the cannon of medicine spreading galens work all over the Arab world. The fact the idea of the four humours survived showed lack of medical knowledge as no one actually backed it up since Hippocrates, largely due to dissections still being highly uncommon so many ideas about The anatomy were still just theories that happened to agree with the Christian church and so were accepted

Question 10

Describe the Islamic influence

When was the Islamic empire in place and what beliefs did they hold about medicine and hospitals?

Answer 10

The Islamic empire was around. They believed that illnesses should be treated through use of medicine like herbs, they believed in the Galen idea of observation and they didn’t agree with dissections of humans. They believed in bimaristans where the ill should be cured

Question 11

Explain Islamic influence

Why did Islamic culture encourage an interest in medicine?

Answer 11

The caliph was the leader of all Islamic empire causing unity and peace so instead of thinking of warfare, people could concentrate on things like medicine. Also, the prophet Muhammad told people to have a love of medicine and and constantly increase their knowledge and find cures for disease

Question 12

Asses Islamic influence
Why was Islamic cultures interest in the ideas of Galen and Hippocrates important for medical knowledge?
How did Islamic medical ideas spread to Europe in the medieval times?

Answer 12

The fall of the Roman Empire in the 6th century left a knowledge vacuum In the countries they used to be in as they could read and write. In the 9th century, Islamic empire could also read and write due to their love of education and so kept hippocatic and Galens ideas alive. For example, the cannon of medicine was written by Avicenna and caliph harun al rashid made Baghdad the centre of translating Greek texts into Arabic. These texts got to Europe in 1065 through trading boats by Constantine the African who started this distribution. They were then translated and began use in university of Bologna and spread. They were also translated from Italian to English in Salerno Italy which was a religious stop off point to the holy land so many people came into contact with them.

Question 13

Name 3 barber surgeons

Answer 13

Hugh of Luca, guy de chauliac and mondino de luzzie

Question 14

Explain barber surgeons

What 3 issues were associated with surgery?

Answer 14

• Pain, it was hard to operate on conscious people
• Blood, people had to come up with what to do if there was a loss of blood and how to stop it
• infection, after surgery open wounds would get infected easily as people still didn’t have knowledge of germs

Question 15

Asses barber surgeons
How did they contribute to overcoming the issues of surgery?
How widely accepted were each of their ideas?

Answer 15

Hugh of Luca was using wine as an ointment to reduce the chance of infection in wounds, mondino de luzzie doesn’t directly deal with the three issues by he wrote a book called anathomia which became the standard dissection manual for 200 years and does the first public dissection. This makes him allow greater understanding of anatomy. Guy de chualiac wrote a textbook called great surgery and was highly based on Islamic ideas e.g. abulcasis ideas of cauterisation and ligatures helping him to deal with bleeding and infection as ligatures are sealing the wound. Hugh of Lucas ideas were not popular as they were not accepted by mondino de luzzie whose ideas were very accepted. However, they didn’t accept mondino de luzzie’s dissection as it was different to that of Galen. They did like guy de chailiacs ideas of cauterisation though.

Question 16

Describe the Christian church

What did the church believe about Galen, dissections and hospitals?

Answer 16

The church liked galens ideas as they fitted with the church, they did not agree with dissection because it involved going beyond galens books and Roger bacon got put in prison for suggesting this. They also believed caring for the sick was important as 700 were set up in England between the 11th and 16th century however hospitals were careful not to treat patients as they believed illness was sent by god and so trying to cure it was seen as a form of disrespect.

Question 17

Explain the Christian church

Why did they accept galens ideas and not allow dissection?

Answer 17

Galens ideas were accepted as they all fit in with the idea that illness was due to god and that they ultimately depended on a person’s behaviour. They didn’t allow dissection as it involved going beyond galens books and Roger bacon got put in prison for suggesting do original research and not trust old books

Question 18

Asses the significance of the Christian church
Why did the nature of medieval Christian hospitals hold back medicine?
How did a lack of dissection and unquestioning support of Galen’s ideas hold back medicine?

Answer 18

Medieval hospitals were careful not to cure people as they believed curing illness was disrespectful towards god. This made hospitals hold medicine back because no-one was eager to cure medicine as they believed they were pleasing god by not doing so. Lack of dissection and unquestioning of Galen held back medicine because people were following galens ides that had influenced medicine for 1500 years as anyone to object was put in prison or hanged so that the church could maintain optimum influence

Question 19

Describe public health

What measures did town authorities take to improve it?

Answer 19

• had plans to install pipes made of wood or lead to reduce water contamination
• butchers were prevented from selling rotten meat because it smelt bad
• leather tanners and butchers were encouraged to keep to one area and keep themselves clean

Question 20

Explain public health in towns

What were public health issues in towns?

Answer 20

• Cess pits would overflow into rivers
• people believed bad smells were a cause of disease so would try and cover themselves in fecal matter to overcome the bad smells
• animals would liver very close to humans in towns and so would create dung and disease

Question 21

Asses towns
What aspects of improvements would have had a beneficial effect and why?
How does Coventry show active intervention by town authorities therefor medieval people recognised the importance of keeping towns clean

Answer 21

• Installing wooden pipes would have been beneficial as people would no longer be drinking water from the polluted river full of animal dung and cesspool waste
• telling butchers to keep to a specific area would have benefited as they would no longer have blood and guts in every part of the town and so makes it harder for bacteria to spread. Coventry was important because the council gave permission to collect a penny from every shop and resident per week to clean the street and remove waste. They also banned waste disposal in the river Sherborne 9 times between 1421 and 1475. This proves medieval people recognised the importance of keeping towns clean as they are enforcing hygiene on others

Question 22

Describe monasteries

What feature of a monastery were designed to keep them healthy?

Answer 22

• they were isolated from everyone else
• they could afford sanitation due to their sheep farming and donations
• they were educated and disciplined with access to books
• water filter systems were made

Question 23

Explain monasteries

Where had monasteries got their ideas from about the importance of cleanliness?

Answer 23

From the ancient Romans where they learnt to live a simple routine for each day of like by having a moderate diet, exercise and sleep schedule to balance the four humours. They also got it from Christianity e.g. they were taught to take baths often as cleanliness was a sign of celibacy

Question 24

Asses monasteries
Why were monasteries more likely to be healthier than towns in terms of resources and location? How might monistic ideas about cleanliness influence other sections of medieval life?

Answer 24

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Question 25

Describe the Black Death

When did it happen and what was it?

Answer 25

It was a plague that was brought to England in 1348 by 2 ships docking in melcombe harbour. It killed 1/3 of the British population

Question 26

Explain the Black Death

What did medieval people think caused it?

Answer 26

• bad smells from overflowing privies that were corrupting they air
• invisible fumes spreading across the country
• Saturn in junction with mars and Jupiter meant bad things would happen
• the Jews poisoned the wells and the springs

Question 27

Asses the Black Death
How was the widespread nature of the Black Death a consequence of poor public health in towns?
What were the consequences of the Black Death?

Answer 27

-People had unhygenic habits like throwing rubbish onto streets attracting rats
-narrow streets meant people were closer to each other
-animals were frequently on streets
These factors all caused the black death to be widespread because they involved attracting vermin which carried the fleas carrying the disease. Consequences of the Black Death were that food prices multiplied by 4, there was a shortage of services allowing peasants to get higher wages until king Edward released the statute of labourers in 1351 where peasants had to accept wages offered. It also caused 50% of the clergy to leave villages causing opinions towards the Catholic Church to change.