Medicine through time

Question 1

Key words

Answer 1

Malnutrition
Famine
Paralysis
Diagnosing
Physician
Vivisection
Barber surgeon

Question 2

Causes of disease: Medieval England

Answer 2

-God: made people ill as a punishment for those who sin
-The devil: could send disease to test someone’s faith like he did with Job
-Hippocrates four humors: an imbalance of the four humors would lead to illness
-Astrology: believed movement of the planets could affect people’s health physicians would consult star charts and find out when the patient was born to diagnose illness
-Miasma: Harmful fumes and bad smells would cause disease

Question 2

Prevention of disease: Medieval England

Answer 2

-Miasma: Carried sweet smelling herbs, avoid the unwashed and smelly areas, lighting fires to drive away bad smells
-God-Try to please God by praying or becoming flagellants(whipping themselves as a punishment)
-Isolation of those already ill

Question 3

Treatment of disease: Medieval England

Answer 3

Religious: Fasting, pilgrimages to tombs for those said to have healing powers(people visited grave of Edward the Confessor-only English monarch to become a saint), Touched by someone holy(holy oil placed on a kings hand during coronation believed to possess healing powers, kings saw it as something important as it was a way to prove their divine right-Edward I(1272-1307) aimed to touch and heal 2,000 people a year.
Balancing 4 humours-theory of opposite, bloodletting(cutting into vein, leeches suck blood until they were full, cupping-drawing blood out of the skin), purging the body of bad foods(making patient vomit through powerful herbs/poison)
Herbal remedies- herbs such as aloe vera, mint, camomile, rose oils, almonds, turpentine used to treat specific illness such as digestive problems
Common remedy-theriaca(spice mixture contained 70 ingredients)
Bathing-warm baths commonly prescribed to dissolve blockages in the humours, steam out impurities and ease aching joints
Various herbs were added to the water to assist treatment(some were unpleasant-those who suffered paralysis were instructed to boil a fox and bathe in it so they can absorb the fast nimble properties from it)

Question 4

Basic info: Renaissance

Answer 4

Renaissance=Rebirth
Period=1500-1700
-was more interest on how the human body worked
-close study of classical texts led to renewed faith in the theory of four humours and the theory of opposites
-Artists attend dissections of humans and created illustrations for medical books

Question 5

Andrew Vesalius

Answer 5

-born 1514
-studied anatomy and became professor of anatomy and surgery in padua
-did own dissections and wrote books and detailed drawings on his observations
-most famous book ‘On The Fabric of The Human Body’(1543)
-spotted some of Galens mistakes like the jaw was in two parts not one

Question 6

Ambroise Pare

Answer 6

-French battlefield barber surgeon
-In battle he ran out of boiling oil which was used to cauterise gunshot wounds so used old remedy of egg yolk, turpuntine and rose oil and was more effective treatment as didn’t cause the patients to die or be in significant pain
-used ligatures to tie blood vessels and stop bleeding instead of cauterising them which used to kill patients because of the pain or infections