medicine through time Flashcards
religious:
ideas about causes of disease
medieval period
- punishment for sin.
- test of faith.
- abandonment of God (B. Plague).
supernatural:
ideas about causes of disease
medieval period
- positioning of planets & stars (astrology).
- other superstitious beliefs e.g., witches.
rational:
ideas about causes of disease
medieval period
- unpleasant air that corrupted the body’s four humours (miasma).
- imbalance of the four humours.
religious:
ideas about treatment of disease and illness
medieval period
- praying e.g., asking for forgiveness, accounting/admitting the sins you have committed (repentance).
- fasting.
- pilgrimages to holy relics (touch them).
- burning candles at the length of the diseases area.
supernatural:
ideas about treatment of disease and illness
medieval period
- saying spells/carrying amulets.
- bathing with a dead fox to heal paralysis (fox’s stealth and speed will flow through water and go into person’s body).
- physicians used horoscopes to diagnose and treat patients.
rational:
ideas about treatment of disease and illness
medieval period
- purging/sweating.
- bleeding/leeches (bloodletting).
- treated at home by family female members.
- eating a particular food that contrasts the sickness.
- taking herbal remedies.
religious:
ideas about prevention of disease and illness
medieval period
- praying.
- fasting.
- wearing blessed charms.
- paying for a special mass (tithes).
supernatural:
ideas about prevention of disease and illness
medieval period
- wearing charms to ward of bad spirits & miasma.
rational:
ideas about prevention of disease and illness
medieval period
- improved and better lifestyle, hygiene, and diet (regimen sanitates - only available to rich people).
medical roles:
how was care ‘carried’ out on patients?
medieval period
f. family members: vast majorities cared by them - cost no money (they made restorative foods + mixed herbal remedies).
physician: diagnosed illness and recommended treatment - awfully expensive due to few numbers (they rarely treated the patient)
apothecary: mixed herbal remedies with a good knowledge on them - cheaper that phys. (not the best as they sometimes prescribed poison).
barber surgeon: performed small surgeries and haircuts - some surgeons highly trained (could perform large surgeries e.g. set a broken limb, remove an arrow)
medical infirmary:
how hospitals acted towards disease and illness
medieval period
- many hosp. didn’t treat the sick but showed hospitality to pilgrims + travellers.
- 30% of hosp. were owned + run by church (run by monks and nuns).
- medieval hosp. were places of rest + recovery (kept clean and tidy) - successful for those who weren’t terminally ill.
↳ those who recovered were proof that
prayer worked. - infectious or terminal patients often rejected as prayer + penance could not help them (pregnant and insane patients often rejected too).
- lazar homes or isolated island communities for lepers
all:
ideas about cause of the Black Death
medieval period - CASE STUDY
religious: God punishing the people for their sin, abandonment of God, test of faith.
supernatural: position of planets + stars (alignment of Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn).
rational: miasma from volcanoes/earthquakes, bad diet + lifestyle, jews (in Europe not in England).
outbreak occurred in 1348
all:
approaches to treatment of the Black Death
medieval period - CASE STUDY
religious: prayer (confess sins/ask for forgiveness).
rational: bleeding, purging, sniffing strong herbs, fires lit to remove bad air.
outbreak occurred in 1348
all:
approaches to prevention of the Black Death
medieval period - CASE STUDY
religious: praying, fasting, pilgrimages, making offerings, self-flagellation (to show how sorry you are).
rational: wearing posy of flowers/fragrant herbs to ward of miasma, avoid bathing (believed water would open skin pores to corrupted air), escape the plague, doing joyful things, avoided family members who caught the plague and their houses.
government: new quarantine laws (people new to an area had to quarantine for 40 days in case they had plague), considered banning religious processions (stop large crowding) but not enough power to do so - rich people roamed freely and the church run as normal, stopped cleaning streets (believed foul stench would ward of miasma.
outbreak occurred in 1348
religious:
changes in ideas about causes of disease
renaissance period
- most people recognised that God did not send disease.
- reduced control of the church led to spread of ideas quicker + more scientific approaches to diagnosis.
- c1440 - printing press took publishing out of churches hand so new ideas could be spread that challenged Galen.
religious:
continuity in ideas about causes of disease
renaissance period
- in times of epidemic, religious causes were still considered e.g., G. Plague.
supernatural:
changes in ideas about causes of disease
renaissance period
- astrology was much less popular from 1500.
- new ideas led to less people believing in supernatural causes of disease.
supernatural:
continuity in ideas about causes of disease
renaissance period
- in times of epidemics, people still wore charms to ward off the disease.