Medicine In The Middle Ages Flashcards
Describe the conditions in the Middle Ages
Faeces in the street
Rotten air
Rats & flies
Butchers selling rotten meat
People threw rubbish out of their windows
Polluted water / rivers
What years were the Middle Ages?
450AD-1500AD
Which king noticed the link between dirt and disease?
King Edward III
What did King Edward III do when he found the link between dirty water and disease?
1372- people could be fined for having filth outside their house
‘Gong farmers’ were employed to collect faeces off the floor and sell it to farmers
Became illegal for butchers to sell meat
What year could be start to be fined for having filth outside their houses?
1372
How well were King Edward III’s laws enforced.
Not well as there was no police force
How did doctors treat illness in the Middle Ages?
Followed theory of 4 humours
Doctors looked things up in old medical books
Purged patients
Bleed patients (sometimes use leeches)
How did doctors check for illness in the Middle Ages?
They would examine urine, blood, tongue, pulse, poo and more
What did doctors think about urine in the Middle Ages
Every shade of urine had a definite meaning
What were specialist medicine makers called in the Middle Ages?
Apothecaries and they worked in an apothecary
How were surgeons viewed in the Middle Ages?
Viewed no better than butchers
Did not have to go to university but had to pass an exam to get a license
What did barber-surgeons do?
Could perform treatments or cut hair
Pulled teeth, lanced boils, treated burns, broken bones and let blood
What did military-surgeons do?
Dealt with battle wounds eg. Stab wounds & removing arrowheads
Did people in the Middle Ages believe in supernatural medicine?
Yes, and they went on pilgrimages
What is a ‘Quack Doctor’?
Fake doctors
Did people still follow Galen’s ideas in the dark ages?
Mostly, but it was the first time people were starting to challenge his ideas
Eg. Galen believed pus was good in wounds when others though it wasn’t
Who was the doctor that poured alcohol on wounds in the middle ages?
Henri De Mondeville
He didnt know it at the time but we now know that alcohol acts as an anti septic
Were there hospitals in the Middle Ages?
Yes but most people didnt use them
Births and ills were sorted out at home
Who funded the hospitals
The church
Who were housed in hospitals?
The poor, pregnant and elderly
Who acted as the nurses in hospitals?
Nuns - occasionally a professional doctor would come
What remedies did hospitals use?
Natural & supernatural
Why weren’t the most sick people allowed in hospitals?
It was too much effort to care for them
What happened to lepers in the Middle Ages?
Viewed badly in society
Stayed in leper houses to keep them away from society
Leper houses provided no treatment but a bed & a meal
What were almshouses?
Places were the pregnant and the elderly went to stay- no doctors there but priests helped
Where were the main hospitals found?
In monasteries
They had doctors with Greek and roman medical books
