Medicine In Medieval England Flashcards
c1250-c1500
What were 3 Supernatural and Religious ideas about the cause of disease?
- God: punishment/ test
- Witches and Spirits
- Astrology: used star signs and an almanac to diagnose diseases
What were Hippocrates’ 3 main ideas about causes?
- Clinical Observation: stated that a doctor should examine a patients symptoms to diagnose the disease
- The Four Humours Theory
- Hippocratic Oath: ensures that doctors treat patients ethically
What were the Four Humours?
- Phlegm
- Blood
- Black bile
- Yellow bile
What were the remedies that cured each humour?
- Phlegm: breathing steam/ eating vegetables and water
- Blood: Bloodletting/ eating red meat and drinking red wine
- Black bile: Laxatives/ eating more vegetables
- Yellow Bile: Throw up/ change diet
What were Galen’s 5 main ideas about medicine?
- Clinical observation
- Four Humours Theory
- Theory of opposites
- Miasma
- Herbal Remedies
Why were Galen’s ideas not to be frowned upon and why were they followed and obeyed for such a long period of time?
He was monotheistic, so was greatly supported by the church. The church had a lot of power and influence in medieval England.
What 3 things could barber surgeons do?
- Cut hair
- Do bloodletting
- Amputate limbs (Ineffective)
What did apothecaries do?
Mixed and sold herbal remedies. They were cheaper than a doctor (physician)
What was a medieval doctor (physician)?
A man/woman who had been train in Hippocratic or Galenic methods.
What 4 tools did physicians have?
- a book which recorded possible illnesses
- leeches for blood letting
- objects to combat miasma
- a zodiac chart to predict future illnesses
What were medieval hospitals like?
The poor were treated at hospitals set up by monasteries. Treatment was poor and many were left to die and not treated at all as they did not want diseases to spread.
What were 8 religious treatments for disease?
Prayer, exorcism, wash with holy water, kill witches, regularly attend church, pilgrimage, fast, confess.
What were the 4 main treatments in the medieval period?
- Bloodletting (removing blood to balance humours)
- Purging (emetic, laxatives, clyster: clean out the digestive system and insides of the body)
- Bathing (Dissolve blockages of humours/ can be used with remedies for cleansing or removing miasma)
- Remedies (mixtures of spices and herbs to cleanse 4 humours)
What were 5 main beliefs about the causes of the Black Death?
- Miasma
- God test/ sin
- Unusual positioning of planets (astrology)
- Jewish were blamed
- Carried by people stuffed with evil humours
What were the 4 main methods of treatment for the Black Death?
- Prayer
- Confessions to God
- People did joyful things such as dancing and avoided being sad
- Common people did anything they could
What years was the Black Death?
1348-49
What were the 7 main methods of prevention for the Black Death?
- Escape/ run away
- Don’t visit those with the plague
- Quarantines
- Avoid bathing
- Clean the streets
- Attend church
- Bleeding and purging
What were the 3 main reasons why there was so little change in the medieval period?
- Church
- Individuals
- Education
Why was the church so influential for continuity in the medieval period? (5 points)
- Only religious organisation in Europe until the 1500s.
- Said God sent disease as a punishment or test, meaning there was no reason to look for other causes. (God controlled every other aspect of life, so why wouldn’t he control disease?)
- Fear of going against what the Church said (would go to hell if opposed)
- Galen’s ideas fit in with the idea that one God created the perfect body
- Everyone was religious (shorter lifespan, afterlife more influential)
Why was Education so influential for continuity in the medieval period? (4 Points)
- Controlled by Church, followed same ideas
- Doctors training was to just read Galen and Hippocrates theories and assume they were 100% correct.
- Doctors were discouraged to attempt to find new ideas or carry out further research
- Dissections were shown to doctors to prove Galen’s theory correct
Why were Key Individuals so influential for continuity in the medieval period? (4 Points)
- No individuals made great breakthroughs in the medieval period
- Hippocrates and Galen’s work was very important even though they were centuries before
- Evidence “proved” that their theories were correct (e.g. 4 Humours)
- Testing these theories were prioritised over creating new ones
