medicine in britain

Question 1

When was the ‘Medieval period’ and what centuries did it cover?

Answer 1

C1250-1500
- mid-13th, 14th, 15th

Question 2

Give 6 key features of medieval life. (6)

Answer 2

• Rural communities – most people lived in the countryside.
• Majority of population worked in fields growing crops on land owned by lords (NB feudal system).
• Not many towns and cities and the had crowded, dirty streets.
• Catholic Church dominated all ideas including medical beliefs.
• limited scientific knowledge

Question 3

Give 5 key effects on medicine of the Catholic Church’s domination. (6)

Answer 3

• Controlled learning (including universities) and therefore controlled ideas.
• Books produced and kept in monasteries and usually only monks and priests could read and write = Church controlled what people read.
• Supported Galen’s ideas as his ideas fitted with Christian beliefs that the body had a soul and had been created by an all-powerful being ie God.
• Discouraged dissection – only to show and confirm Galen’s ideas.
• encouraged care of sick. hospitals housed in nunneries and monerstries

Question 4

What supernatural idea dominated ideas about the cause of illness? (3)

Answer 4

• Disease was a punishment or test from God because of sin.

Question 5

B What natural/rational theory did people have about the cause of disease – and give 4 details about the theory? (1+ 4))

Answer 5

• Theory of the Four Humours: CAUSE - Hippocrates, an Ancient Greek doctor wrote that the body had 4 liquids (blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile) and if out of balance it could cause illness.
• To keep healthy or cure illness the humours had to be balanced – based on a diet, exercise & rest but also bleeding and purging to get rid of excess humours

Question 6

What other natural idea about the cause of illness was popular? (1)

Answer 6

• miasma or bad air

Question 7

Give 4 supernatural ways people tried to prevent illness. (4)

Answer 7

• Keep God happy – follow good Christian life with no sinning and worship god.
• SELF- PUNISHMENT eg Flagellants during the Black Death: if they punished themselves God would not punish them by giving them the plague so they walked through streets whipping themselves.
• CHANTING INCANTATIONS/ PRAYERS
• CARRY LUCKY CHARMS/ AMULETS

Question 8

Give 3 natural ideas about how to prevent illness with a sentence of detail. (3+3)

Answer 8

• NATURAL - HUMOURS
• Keep humours in balance by not overeating, exercising, bleeding and purging.
• NATURAL – BAD AIR
• Keep streets clean – laws passed, purify air with sweet smells, washing.
• REGIMEN SANITATIS
• advice on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle : list of instructions from a physician on exercise, diet and bathing and keeping away from bad air and smells.

Question 9

How were physicians trained during the Middle Ages? (4)

Answer 9

• At universities that followed the Catholic’ churches ideas.
• Galens ideas taught with dissection only to prove Galens work.

Question 10

How did medieval physicians diagnose illness? Give point and some detail. (2+2)

Answer 10

• CHECK BALANCE OF HUMOURS – checked colour, taste, smell of urine in their handbook (vadememcum).
• CHECK ALIGHNMENT OF PLANETS for influence on humours and used zodiac charts to decide when to treat a patient.

Question 11

What supernatural treatments were used to try and cure illness? (5)

Answer 11

• pray, fasting (not eating), going on pilgrimage, paying for special Mass to be said.
• treatments based on specific ideas for specific illnesses eg hanging beak around your neck to prevent toothache.

Question 12

Why did the sick get touched by the monarch? (3)

Answer 12

• Belief in divine right of kings and link to God and so they could cure illness

Question 13

What natural/rational theory was followed to try and cure diseases and who wrote it? (2)

Answer 13

• Theory of Opposites
• Galen, an Ancient Roman doctor developed on Hippocrates idea

Question 14

What was the key idea behind the theory in c? (2)

Answer 14

• believed humours could be balanced by giving the patient the ‘opposite’ of their symptoms.
• Eg if hot give them a cool drink, if cold give them spicy food

Question 15

How could you rebalance the humours? Give point and some detail. (3+3)

Answer 15

• BLEEDING (cutting a vein, leeches or cupping – performed by barber surgeons;)
• PURGING using herbal remedies (vomiting via emetics, laxatives to loosen bowels)
• Herbal remedies to drink, sniff, bath or rub in eg honey, herbs & spices. THERIACAS – spice based mixtures

Question 16

What people were paid to treat illness in the Middle Ages? Give name and a fact. (4+4)

Answer 16

• Physicians (doctors) who had trained at university and ideas based on Galen & Hippocrates – expensive so used by rich in society.
• Apothecaries – like chemists who mixed herbal remedies for all in society
• Barber surgeons who had been apprenticed to other barber surgeons & dealt more with physical problems eg pulling teeth, bleeding, surgery (setting broken limbs) – used by all members of society
• Wise women – local women who knew many herbal remedies mostly used by the poor.

Question 17

Who did most of the care of ill people? (1)

Answer 17

• women in the family

Question 18

Give 5 key points about hospitals in the middle ages. (5)

Answer 18

5 Of any of these:
- Monasteries mainly offered ‘hospitality’ to travellers but had infirmary connected to them.
- 1,100 by 1500 with 30% run by church
- rest run by charity who had money from a wealthy person.
- Followed religious ideas so focus on caring for sick not curing as believed God sent illness so pray only cure.
- Mainly places to rest and recover, kept clean, fresh food. Monks/nuns provided care.
- Usually did not admit people with infection diseases, incurable conditions , mental illness.
- A few specialised hospitals – eg for lepers, insane, old.