Medicine Through Time

Question 1

What year was 50AD called?

Answer 1

Ancient Rome and Early Medieval

Question 2

Which time period was 50AD - 1350?

Answer 2

Late Medieval and Renaissance

Question 3

Which time period was 1350 - 1750?

Answer 3

Industrial

Question 4

Which time period was 1750 - 1900?

Answer 4

Modern

Question 5

Which time period was 1900 - today?

Answer 5

Present day

Question 6

When was the first plastic surgery?

Answer 6

1BC

Question 7

When were condoms first used?

Answer 7

1564

Question 8

When were the first vaccinations?

Answer 8

1796

Question 9

When were germs first identified as the cause of disease?

Answer 9

1861

Question 10

When were contact lenses first founded?

Answer 10

1887

Question 11

When was the first recorded case of AIDs?

Answer 11

1980

Question 12

When was the first womb transplant?

Answer 12

2011

Question 13

What did the Ancient Romans believed caused illness?

Answer 13

Bad smells, Gods and the Four Humours

Question 14

What were the Four Humours?

Answer 14

Black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood

Question 15

In Ancient Rome, what supernatural approaches were used to treat people?

Answer 15

Priest believed that Gods caused and cured illnesses, Prayers, Sacred Necklaces and Charms.

Question 16

In Ancient Rome, what natural approaches were used to treat people?

Answer 16

Remedies, Pastes, Drilling burholes and Amputations

Question 17

Who was Asclepios?

Answer 17

God of Healing

Question 18

What was an Asclepion?

Answer 18

Temple of Healing

Question 19

What did the Ancient Romans believe about the four humours?

Answer 19

That too much of one humour would cause illness.

Question 20

How were the Romans recommended to eat during the Winter?

Answer 20

People should eat as much as possible and drink as little as possible. Foods included: unwatered wine, bread, roast meat and few veg.

Question 21

How were the Romans recommended to eat during the Summer?

Answer 21

People should drink as much as possible and eat as little as possible. Foods included: watered wine, barley cakes and boiled meat.

Question 22

What were Romans recommended to do with their hair and face?

Answer 22

They should wash their face with pure water, clean their nose and ears with well-perfumed oil.

Question 23

How were Romans recommended to exercise?

Answer 23

They should walk 2000 metres before sunrise. Fast in the Winter and slow in the Summer.
They also had Olympics every 4 years.

Question 24

What were Romans recommended to do before every meal?

Answer 24

Go for a long walk to clear the body out.

Question 25

How were Romans recommended to keep their teeth clean?

Answer 25

Use their finger to rub in peppermint.

Question 26

Who would usually treat disease during the Roman period?

Answer 26

A family healer, the local shop, a doctor, a surgeon or a priest.

Question 27

What treatments did the wise women use during the Roman period?

Answer 27

Herbal remedies, mainly made from plants but also including animal fats and minerals. Many of these remedies must have helped people otherwise they would have not have kept using them. To make you feel better your mother may have given you a combination of onion juice, honey and valerian or poppy juice. We know now that honey can kill infections. The plant valerian worked as a sedative and pain reliever. The poppy plant was used for pain relief and for tooth ache and coughs.

Question 28

What would happen if you came from a wealthy family during the Roman period and you caught a disease?

Answer 28

Your father would look up treatments in a medical book, such as the huge compendum of herbal cures collected by Dioscorides. Modern scientific test show that at least 20% of these remedies contained ingredients such as honey or garlic which helped patients by killing bacteria in infections.

Question 29

How did Romans believe that illness could be avoided?

Answer 29

Exercise daily.

Question 30

What were some of the supernatural treatments for disease during the Roman period?

Answer 30

A charm could be worn to scare off evil spirits. People would also pray to their household gods for good health and a cure. They would also pray to the gods of healing. The greatest god of healing was Asclepius.

Question 31

If a Roman could not shake off an illness after praying to their household gods, what would they do?

Answer 31

They would go to a temple to see the god’s priests and seek help. Sometimes they would leave carvings of the sick part of the body. At the temple in Lydney, Gloucestershire, people prayed to the god Nodens. This temple had a bath house, a guesthouse with a covered courtyard and an abaton where people slept and were visited by god in their dreams. The priest also encouraged patients to exercise, cleanse themselves in the baths and build up their strength by eating regular meals and having plenty of rest.

Question 32

What did Galen encourage people to do?

Answer 32

He followed Hippocrates in giving advice on diet and exercise to prevent illness.

Question 33

How did Galen treat disease?

Answer 33

His most common treatment was bleeding patients to restore the balance of the humours. He used bleeding for more than Hippocrates, who preferred to interfere with the body as little as possible.

Question 34

Which idea did Galen develop?

Answer 34

The idea of ‘Opposites’ to balance the humours. For example, if a patient’s symptom was too much phlegm then the illness was caused by a cold. Galen’s treatment was the opposite of cold - heat!

Question 35

What did Hippocrates encourage doctors to do?

Answer 35

Look for natural causes of disease rather than praying to the gods for help.

Question 36

What reason would you have to go and see a trained doctor during the Roman times?

Answer 36

If your mother’s remedies and your prayers had still not helped.

Question 37

How were doctors trained during the Roman period?

Answer 37

By acting as apprentices to experienced doctors.

Question 38

Was medical training compulsory to be a doctor during the Roman times?

Answer 38

No.

Question 39

What were the 2 advantages of Hippocrates encouraging doctors to observe and record carefully?

Answer 39

Doctors were more likely to choose the right cure if they took care to find the cause of the problem. These notes could then help with the diagnosis and treatment of future patients.

Question 40

Why did Galen disagree with Hippocrates about dissection?

Answer 40

He believed that physicians should find out as much as possible about the structure and workings of the body, if possible dissecting human bodies themselves. If this was not possible, he advised doctors to dissect apes because they were most like humans.

Question 41

How did Galen demonstrate his discoveries about the workings of the nervous system?

Answer 41

By dissecting a pig. As the pig squealed on the table, Galen cut into it’s neck, finding the nerves. He could have cut right through the nerve to stop the pig squealing but that did not appear to Galen’s showmanship. Instead he announced ‘I will cut this nerve but the pig will keep squealing’. He cut , and the pig kept squealing. He cut again, building up the tension, and again the pig kept squealing. Then he announced ‘when I cut this nerve, the pig will stop squealing’. He cut and the pig was silent.

Question 42

What did Galen discover about the heart and the brain?

Answer 42

He discovered that the brain, not the heart, controlled speech and that the arteries and not just the veins, carried blood around the body.

Question 43

How did Hippocrates recommend staying healthy?

Answer 43

A light diet, gentle exercise and rest to keep the body’s four humours balanced.

Question 44

What did Galen believe caused disease?

Answer 44

The Four Humours - Like Hippocrates, he believed that illness was caused by the imbalances in the four humours.
Observation - Like Hippocrates, Galen also encouraged doctors to observe and examine patients carefully, taking the pulse and detailed notes of symptoms. In AD167 Galen made detailed notes on the plague sweeping across the empire. He recorded how his patients had fever, thirst, diarrhoea, skin rash and spat blood. His notes were so thorough this plague became known as ‘Galen’s Plague’.

Question 45

Where and when was Hippocrates born?

Answer 45

460BC on the island of Cos where he worked as a doctor and teacher of doctors. He died in 370BC.

Question 46

Explain what the Hippocratic Oath was.

Answer 46

The oath was created by Hippocrates to give people confidence in doctors. It makes clear that docotrs are not magicians. they have to keep high standards of treatment and behaviour and work for the benefits of their patients, not to make themselves wealthy.

Question 47

What was the Hippocratic collection?

Answer 47

A set of books written by Hippocrates and other doctors. This collection is important because it is the first detailed list of symptoms and treatments. Doctors continued to use the theories and methods in the books for many centuries.

Question 48

Who was Galen?

Answer 48

Claudius Galen was born in Pergamum, Greece in 129AD, the son of an architect. Galen’s father had a dream in which Asclepius said that his son would become a physician. Galen began studying medicine when he was 16, even travelling to study at the great medical school in Alexandria. He also became a surgeon at a gladiators’ school, gaining experience treating wounds and increasing his knowledge of anatomy.

Question 49

What happened when Galen was 20?

Answer 49

Galen moved to Rome. He was a great showman and put on public performances, dissecting animals and giving talks. He also had a terrible temper, inherited from his mother, whom he said ‘bit her maids and was always shouting at my father’. When the plague broke out, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius summoned Galen to take care of the royal family and he remained doctor to the emperors for the rest of his life.

Question 50

What work did Galen do?

Answer 50

What really made Galen famous were the books he wrote. They combined Greek ideas with what he learned from his own work in Alexandria and Rome, and presented it all so convincingly that they became the basis for medical teaching and learning for the next 1500 years. For most of that time no one dared to say Galen was wrong.

Question 51

What was Galen’s influence?

Answer 51

Galen wrote 350 books, covering every aspect of medicine in an extremely detailed and well-organised way. He included the work of earlier doctors such as Hippocrates, but also added his own work on treatments and on the structure and workings of the body. It seemed that Galen had covered everything so people believed that his books had all the answers. That was one reason why Galen’s books became the basis for medical training for over a thousand years.

Question 52

Why did so many people believe that Galen was right?

Answer 52

His ideas fitted in with the Christian Church; which controlled education in Europe in the Middle Ages. Although Galen was not Christian, he believed that the body had been created by one god who had made all the parts of the body fit together perfectly. This matched the Christian belief that God had created human beings so for centuries Christians did not dare to question Galen’s ideas.

Question 53

What is public health?

Answer 53

The measures put in place by a government to look after the health of it’s people.

Question 54

Who were the first to have a system of public health and promote hygiene for everyone?

Answer 54

Romans.

Question 55

What was significant about 100BC?

Answer 55

Soldiers were told not to stay too long near swampy waters.
Regular exercise was recommended.
Sewage was carried out of the city.
14 aqueducts piped water in houses in Rome.
Living conditions and people were kept clean.

Question 56

Describe the process of going to the Roman Baths in 100BC.

Answer 56

First they undressed.
Then they had al their hair plucked off by slaves with tweezers.
Next they were massaged with oil. This was then scraped off with a curved instrument called a strigil, which took the dirt and sweat off their bodies.
There was a steam room like a modern sauna and a large swimming pool.
There was an ice-cold plunge pool.
They were taken to a warm room where they could relax and get dressed.

Question 57

What were the key features of Roman public health schemes in towns?
Water pipes

Answer 57

Water pipes carrying the water around the towns were made from lead or timber. Some people would have developed lead poisoning but the Romans could not know this was happening.

Question 58

What were the key features of Roman public health schemes in towns?

Answer 58

Reservoirs held the water supply and distributed it to the piping system.
Forts had their own bath-house, water supply and latrines. Many also had hospitals for the soldiers.
Public latrines were often flushed by water from the public baths and then drained into the sewers. They often seated 20 people in one room.
Public fountains provided water for drinking and washing. Most people got their water from fountains, street pumps and rain barrels because they were not rich enough to have water piped into their houses.
Private homes of the rich were supplied with water but even here the water had to be carried upstairs in buckets by slaves. If there was a drought, the supply to houses was cut off to save water.

Question 59

Explain how work effected life expectancy during the Roman period.

Answer 59

Long hours - usually dawn till dusk.
Hard, physical work - proughing, harvesting crops etc
No doctors were able to treat people who had accidents while working.
Young children were wrapped up and taken with the mother while she worked in the fields.
Work often involved difficult movement of positions. e.g. bending down constantly while reaping crops.
Diseases were often caught from animals.

Question 60

Explain how food/diet effected life expectancy during the Roman period.

Answer 60

Basic food - bread, cheese, a weak version of beer, porridge made from vegetables and oats or barley.
Water was not always fit for drinking.
There were often food shortages. e.g. in the Winter, times of drought or in times of extreme weather.
Food often lacked vitamins so people could not always fight off disease.

Question 61

Explain how housing effected life expectancy during the Roman period.

Answer 61

Homes were usually just one room with a fire in the middle.
Animals were often brought inside the home at night during the Winter.
Homes gave little protection against the cold, damp weather and many people developed rheumatism, arthritis etc.

Question 62

Explain how disease effected life expectancy during the Roman period.

Answer 62

Animals were often brought inside the home during the Winter.
Diseases were sometimes caught from animals.
Water was not always fit for drinking.
There were often food shortages e.g. in Winter, times of drought, or in times of extreme wet weather.
Any problems during childbirth often resulted in the death of mother and/or child.
Many people kept large farm animals and these could cause injury e.g. being knocked over, a broken leg.
Food often lacked vitamins so people could not always fight off disease.
Homes gave little protection against the cold, damp weather and many people developed rheumatism, arthritis etc.

Question 63

Who did people during medieval times think caused disease?

Answer 63

God or the Devil - continuing from the Romans
The 4 Humours - continuing form the Romans
Bad Air (Miasma) - continuing from the Romans
Desperate explanations
Astrology

Question 64

Who were the early medieval doctors?

Answer 64

Barber-Surgeon 
Priest
Trained Physician
Wise Woman
Apothecary
Blood Letter

Question 65

How was the barber-surgeon trained in the medieval times?

Answer 65

In a butcher shop.

Question 66

How was the priest trained during the medieval times?

Answer 66

By the local monastery.

Question 67

How was the physician trained during the medieval times?

Answer 67

Medical school, passed exams.

Question 68

How was the wise woman trained in the medieval times?

Answer 68

Knowledge passed down from female ancestors.

Question 69

How was the apothecary trained in the medieval times?

Answer 69

At home by relatives.

Question 70

How was the blood letter trained in the medieval times?

Answer 70

Apprentice.

Question 71

What were the barber-surgeon’s most common treatments during the medieval times?

Answer 71

Amputating limbs and blood-letting.

Question 72

What were the priest’s most common treatments during the medieval times?

Answer 72

Prayer, rest, care, herbal remedies and flagellation (self-punishment).

Question 73

What were the trained physician’s most common treatments during the medieval times?

Answer 73

Observation and theory of Opposites

Question 74

What were the wise woman’s most common treatments during the medieval times?

Answer 74

Herbal remedies, prayers, charms and spells.

Question 75

What were the apothecary’s most common treatments during the medieval times?

Answer 75

Potions.

Question 76

What were the blood-letter’s most common treatments during the medieval times?

Answer 76

Blood letting.

Question 77

What happened to public health during the medieval times?

Answer 77

Wide streets had 2 gutters, one on either side. Narrow streets had one gutter going down the middle.
There were open sewers carrying refuse to the river.
By the 1380s, there were at least 13 common privies(public conveniences) in the city. One on Temple Bridge was built over the Thames.