Medicine In The Middle Ages Flashcards
When did Muhammad die?
632 AD
When did the western Roman Empire collapse?
500 AD
Who led Islam after Muhammad died?
Caliphs
What are caliphs?
Eastern kings/sub kings
What did the caliphs rule in 1000 AD?
A huge empire from west to east
Who built Baghdad and Cairo?
Caliphs
What did caliphs build?
Mosques, schools, universities, cities, public baths, trade routes, hospitals
Did Islam allow dissection of human bodies?
NO
Where was the first paper factory and when?
Baghdad 794 AD
How did Islam preserve the knowledge of Hippocrates and Galen?
Translated their medical books
What Hippocratic idea did Arab doctors use?
Clinical observation
Who invented anaesthetics?
Arab doctors
What were the anaesthetics used by Arab doctors?
Sponges soaked in narcotics and placed on the face
What were Arab doctors views on surgery?
It was a last resort
How did the church affect medicine?
Preserved and passed on knowledge Set up universities and medical schools Insisted spiritual things outranked physical things Limited human dissection Set up hospitals Tried to stop ideas circulating
What was one of the first changes in middle age medicine?
Doctors began to get trained
Where and when was the first medical school set up?
900 AC in Salerno, Italy
What books did medical students work with in the early medical schools?
Galen’s and Hippocrates’
Why were medical teachers in early medical schools not that useful?
They taught students to believe everything they read in books
In the 1200’s, what law was passed that improved quality of doctors?
All doctors had to be approved at Salerno, in order to practise medicine
Name a medical diagnosis idea which resulted from close observation
Urine colour was an aid to diagnosis
What were the 2 groups of surgeons?
Licensed, well paid surgeons
Unqualified barber surgeons
Was Galen allowed to be contradicted in the 14th C?
NO
In the 1300’s, what were the most successful types of surgery?
Treating cataracts or henias
How did surgeons become more skilled at treating broken bones?
They were taken to war to treat the injured
What was the vade mecum?
A book containing tables of the planets, a urine chart and rules for bleeding patients
Were trained doctors available for everyone in the Middle Ages?
No
How did villagers treat minor ailments?
Local people learned healings and used magical or herbal cures
What was cleanliness like in the Middle Ages?
It was a privilege of the rich
How were towns run in the Middle Ages?
By a corporation of rich men from the town
How did people in towns dispose of rubbish/sewage?
They put it on the street or in rivers
Did any town corporations know about cleanliness?
Yes, a few passed laws to stop people dumping rubbish,but they were hard to inforce
How did the clean corporations deal with the rubbish?
They cleared the streets and burnt the rubbish
When did concern about public health first really kick in?
1348, after the plague epidemic
What type of buildings had drainage and water systems?
Predominantly monasteries, sometimes hospitals
When did the Black Death arrive in Europe?
1347-49
How quickly could the Black Death kill someone?
Within a day?
Who did people blame for the Black Death?
God, planets and the air
What does renaissance mean?
Re birth
What was the most important change in technology for knowledge?
When John Gutenberg introduced printing in 1454
Who was Paracelsus?
A town physician and lecturer to university of Basel
What did Paracelsus say about Galen?
That he’s a liar and a fake
Who was Vesalius?
An anatomist
How did Vesalius teach anatomy?
Doing his own dissections, then publishing drawings
