Medical Progress

Question 1

What was ‘The House of Wisdom’?

Answer 1

The world’s largest library and a study centre for scholars

Question 2

Which city became a centre for the translation of Greek manuscripts into the language of Islam (Arabic)?

Answer 2

Baghdad

Question 3

What books were preserved in the ‘House of Wisdom’?

Answer 3

Hundreds of ancient Greek medical books by Hippocrates and Galen

Question 4

Why did Islam encourage medical learning and discoveries?

Answer 4

The Prophet Muhammad said, ‘For every disease, Allah has given a cure’. So doctors were inspired to find them

Question 5

How were people with mental illness treated in the Islamic Empire?

Answer 5

Treated with kindness and compassion

Question 6

What were Muslim hospitals called?

Answer 6

Bimaristans

Question 7

What was the focus of bimaristans, in contrast to Christian hospitals?

Answer 7

Treating patients, not simply caring for them

Question 8

How many books did Al-Razi write?

Answer 8

Over 150

Question 9

Why was medicine in the Islamic world so much more advanced than in the Christian world?

Answer 9

Their faith encouraged Muslim doctors to develop new ideas and treatments, compared to in England where doctors would risk arrest if they questioned Galen

Question 10

What diseases did Al-Razi distinguish between for the first time?

Answer 10

Measles and smallpox

Question 11

What was Al-Razi’s view on Galen?

Answer 11

Followed him but was willing to build upon and criticise his work. One of his books was ‘Doubts about Galen’

Question 12

Name Avicenna’s book

Answer 12

Canon of Medicine

Question 13

What was the Canon of Medicine and what information did it include?

Answer 13

A great encyclopaedia of ancient Greek and Islamic medicine. It listed the medical properties of 760 different drugs

Question 14

What evidence is there for the Canon of Medicine’s success?

Answer 14

It became the standard European medical textbook used to teach doctors in the West until the 17th century

Question 15

Where did medieval surgeons learn?

Answer 15

Watching and copying other surgeons, or on the battlefield

Question 16

State 4 reasons why medieval surgery was risky for the patient

Answer 16

• Surgeons operated without painkillers • no idea that dirt carried disease
• thought pus in a wound was a good sign
• could not help patients with deep wounds

Question 17

Name 4 common medieval surgical procedures

Answer 17

Bloodletting, trepanning, amputation, cauterisation

Question 18

What is bloodletting and why was it done?

Answer 18

Draining blood from the body. Done to balance the 4 humours

Question 19

What was trepanning and why was it done?

Answer 19

Drilling a hole into the skull to ‘let the demon out’ e.g. for epilepsy

Question 20

What was cauterisation and why was it done?

Answer 20

Burning a wound to stop the flow of blood using a heated iron

Question 21

What anaesthetics were used in medieval surgery? What was the problem with them?

Answer 21

Mandrake root, opium, and hemlock. No knowledge of different doses needed for different patients, and too much might kill them

Question 22

What common view did Hugh of Luca and his son Theodoric criticise?

Answer 22

That pus was needed for a wound to heal

Question 23

What new idea did Hugh of Luca and his son have about infection?

Answer 23

Used wine on wounds to reduce the chances of infection

Question 24

Why didn’t Hugh of Luca’s idea of using wine on wounds catch on?

Answer 24

• Clashed with Hippocrates
• Were unable to explain why it worked as there was no knowledge of germs
• Opposed by De Chauliac

Question 25

Who was the French surgeon who wrote ‘Great Surgery’ (1363)?

Answer 25

Guy De Chauliac

Question 26

Who did De Chauliac constantly quote in his book and how many times?

Answer 26

Quoted Galen about 890 times

Question 27

Who set up the ‘Guild of Surgeons’?

Answer 27

John of Arderne

Question 28

What was the aim of the Guild of Surgeons?

Answer 28

To make surgery a well-respected profession

Question 29

Where did John or Arderne gain his experience?

Answer 29

The Hundred Years War between France and England

Question 30

What operations did John of Arderne specialise in and who was it a common condition for?

Answer 30

Anal abscesses, common in knights who spend long periods on horseback

Question 31

What was the most frequently used ‘surgery’?

Answer 31

Bloodletting