Medicine 1 Flashcards
Medieval - natural causes of disease
- 4 humours imbalance
- miasma
Where did four humours theory originate from
- Ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates
- brought back to Western Europe via Islamic world after fall of Roman Empire
Four humours
- blood
- phlegm
- yellow bile
- black bile
How did 4 humours cause disease
Being out of balance
Where did miasma theory originate from
- Ancient Greece/Rome
- incorporated by Galen into four humours theory
Miasma theory
- bad air causes disease when breathed in
- comes from human waste/dead bodies etc.
How long did miasma theory last
Until 1860s (germ theory)
Medieval - natural disease treatments
- bloodletting/purging
- purifying air
- remedies
Medieval treatment - balancing humours
balanced humours
- bloodletting/leeching - sometimes caused death
- laxatives - purge fluids through excretion
- Galen - theory of opposites: too much cold, wet phlegm - hot, dry chicken/pepper
Medieval treatment - purifying air
- cleaned streets
- physicians carried posies/oranges
- burning juniper/myrrh/incense
Medieval treatment - remedies
- bought from apothocary / wise woman / homemade
- contained herbs, spices, animal parts, minerals
- some superstitious remedies - powdered unicorn’s horn
- remedies passed down or written in books - herbals
Significance of four humours + miasma theories
- began looking at natural disease causes
- people realised they weren’t powerless against disease
Medieval - supernatural causes of disease
- punishment from god
- demons/witches
- evil spirits living inside someone
Treatment for disease caused by punishment from God
- praying to saints
- repentance for sin
- pilgrimage to holy shrine
- flagellants - public whippings
Treatment for disease caused by demons/witches
Witch trials + executions
Treatment for disease caused by evil spirits living inside someone
Church performed exorcisms
How was astrology used to diagnose disease
- people thought movement of planets/stars could cause disease
- almanac - calendar with info on positions, used to predict patient’s health
- star signs thought to affect parts of body
Hippocrates - parts
- Hippocratic oath
- observations
- four humours
- writing
Hippocrates - hippocratic oath
- had to be (still is) taken by newly qualified doctors
- says they must treat patients to best of ability, never intentionally harm them
- increased increased confidence in doctors
Hippocrates - observations
- thought it was important to observe patient’s symptoms + development of disease
- doctors more likely to find right cure
- notes useful to treat future patients
Hippocrates - writing
- detailed lists of symptoms + treatments written over 150 years
- not all written by Hippocrates
Galen - parts
- pig experiment
- observations
- theory of opposites
- dissection
- writing
- perfect design
Galen - pig experiment
- wanted fame + fortune - public dissections
- cut into pigs neck + cut nerves to stop squealing
- got attention - became doctor for Roman Emperor
Galen - observations
- agreed with Hippocrates
- examined patient’s lifestyle + blood + urine + faeces
Galen - dissection
- dissected human bodies in Alexandria (Egypt), animals in Rome
- correct findings - brain controlled speech, not heart
- wrong findings - jaw made of 2 bones
- proved anatomy of humans/animals similar
Galen - writing
About 300 books - used for next 1500 years
Galen - perfect design
- showed different parts of body fit together perfectly
- fits with beliefs of Christian church
Impact of Galen
- medical progress stopped
- people didn’t disagree with Galen as he was said to be greatest surgeon
- stopped research of new theories
- his mistakes passed on
- church stopped new findings - Galen’s beliefs fit with theirs
Medieval - how did Christian church influence medieval medicine
- prevented people finding cures as everything was punishment from God
- only accepted Galen’s ideas as believed God created human bodies to be perfect
- outlawed dissection - doctors has to learn about anatomy through Galen’s wrong ideas
Medical schools
- taught methods of Hippocrates/Galen
- influence by church
- schools in Paris Bologna ect.
Medieval growing professionalism
- barber surgeons
- wise women
- drugs/wine used to anaesthetise patients
- many successful eye cataract surgeries
- physicians - male doctors trained at university for 7 years
Medieval women in medicine
- poor treated at home by female family with remedies
- women could train + apprentice to get midwife license
Medieval war surgery
- skilled in treating broken/fractured wounds - cauterzation
- some soldiers treated each other
Medieval barber surgeons
- bled + purge + remove small tumours
- sewing + cauterization
- used zodiacs to plan surgery
- wine + poppy seed as antiseptic
- tools wrapped in linen, smothered in honey to keep clean
Medieval surgeons
- Hugh of Lucca
- Theodoric of Lucca
- John of Ardene
- Henride Mondeville
Hugh of Lucca
- 13th century surgeon at Bologna university
- used wine as antispetic
- new methods of removing arrows
Theodoric of Lucca
Recognised pus in wound is bad thing
John of Ardene
- 1376 - created anaesthetic recipe with hemlock + opium + henbane
- worked with carefully controlled doses
- likely to kill
- wrote surgical ‘Practica’ (1376) - surgical manual
Henride Mondeville
- military surgery/teacher
- taught to bath + close wounds to stop pus forming
Who could go to medieval hospitals
People with diseases that others couldn’t catch
Medieval hospitals hopitality
- bathed on entry
- nuns baked your clothes overnight
- given clean sheets
Medieval hospitals treatment
- food + rest
- nuns gave herbal remedies
- focused on prayer
- priest said mass 7 times a day in each ward, joined by patients
Development of medieval hospitals
- 160 built in England over 12th/13th centuries
- 500 in England by 1400
Almhouses
- small hospitals for elderly + those who couldn’t work
- stop them living on street
Leper houses
Hospitals built outside towns to separate leprosy victims from healthier people
Islamic treatments
- first pharmacies - chemists caught cheating customers were beaten
- doctors treated poor for free, got money from wealthy patients
- used teachings of Hippocrates/Galen + astrology + prayer + copper sulfate drugs
Islamic physicians
- Abulcasis
- Avicenna / Iba Sina
Avicenna / Iba Sina
Wrote ‘canon of medicine’ - main textbook for medical students in Islamic world
Albucasis
- new surgical instruments
- tied blood vessels
- popularised cauterisation
- wrote 30 vol book ‘Al Tasrif’ (1000)
Islamic hospitals
- Quaran teaches Muslims to care for others - set up hospitals to help sick
- hospital in Cairo gave money to leavers - didn’t have to go straight back to work
- had places of learning + libaries
Islam medical knowledge
- Baghdad AD794 - paper factory where Hippocrates’ + Galen’s work copied + translated
- took medical knowledge from Koran - believed Allah put cure for all diseases on Earth, have to find them
Islamic alchemy
- invented techniques - distillation, sublimation
- prepared drugs - laudanum, benzoin, camphor
Medieval towns housing conditions
- made of wood - often fires
- overcrowded
Medieval towns sewage problems
- waste chucked into rivers/streets
- sewage from latrines leaked into wells
- drinking water became contaminated
Medieval towns waste problems
- businesses/homes not separated
- butchers threw toxic waste into residential streets
Medieval actions to deal with public health in towns
- 1388 - government ordered town authorities to keep streets free of waste
- London/York - banned waste dumping in street + built latrines over rives
- London - banned waste being thrown in Thames, carters hired to collect waste + take out of city
- York - ordered toxic businesses (like butchers) to move outside city walls
Great Conduit
13th century - water channel bringing clean water into London
In what ways were medieval monasteries clean
- cleaner water than towns - separated dirty/clean water
- good system of getting rid of waste/sewage
- latrines in separate buildings
Medieval monasteries care/hospitality
- sick monks cared for in infirmaries - kitchen served good meals (meat)
- cared for poor when sick
- gave shelter to travellers
- Benedictine Monks believed it was most important Christian duty to care for others
Why was it easier to create healthy conditions in medieval monasteries than towns
- monasteries wealthy - could afford better infrastructure (latrine buildings)
- towns had to rely on funding from wealthy individuals
+ - monasteries had small population + 1 leader (abbot), could easily enforce rules of cleanliness / waste disposal
- getting hundreds of townspeople to adopt cleaner habits difficult, especially with no 1 person in charge
When did Black Death first come to Britain
1348
Types of Black Death plagues
- bubonic
- pneumonic
Bubonic plague
- spread by bites of fleas from rats carried on ships
- caused painful swelling buboes in armpits + groin
- caused fever + headaches
- died after several days
Pneumonic plague
- spread by coughs/sneezes
- attacked lungs - caused difficulty breathing + throwing up blood
How many people did Black Death kill
About 1/3 of population in 1348-50
Believed causes of Black Death
- punishment from God for sin
- miasma
- Jews poisoning wells to wipe out Christians
Prevention of Black Death
- atonement - flagellents walked streets barefoot twice a day in procession with cross, whipped themselves, fell to ground 3 times
- limit human contact - King Edward III closed parliment in January 1349
- avoid dead victims - Winchester townspeople insisted new cemeteries built outside town
- clean streets - muck rakers
- local government officials wore special suits, improved quarantine
