Medicine Through Time (c.1250 - c.1500 - Medieval Period) Flashcards
Who created the theory of the Four Humours and what was it?
- Hippocrates, a Greek Doctor
- If you are unhealthy, you have an imbalance of the four humours (black bile, yellow bile, blood, phlegm)
Who created the ‘Theory of Opposites’ and what was it?
- Galen, a Roman doctor
- If you had too much of a humour, you need to cure it with the opposite (too much phlegm, something cold and wet, is cured by something hot and spicy)
Why was the theory of the Four Humours supported by people?
The church supported it and all physicians were taught about it when educated by the church
Why was the theory of miasma supported by people?
- Hippocrates and Galen supported it
- King Edward III said ‘The filth from the houses is infecting the air with contagious sickness’ during the Black Death
What were the 4 ideas on the causes of disease in the Middle Ages?
- Four Humours
- Miasma
- God
- Supernatural
Why did people believe in Supernatural causes of disease?
- People in the Middle Ages were superstitious
- Physicians believed all the stars and planets affected your health and caused disease
What religious treatments were used for healing illness?
- Pilgrimages to tombs, where the sick would touch holy relics or pray at a shrine
- Fasting
- Healing prayers and incantations
What treatments to do with the Four humours were used for healing illness?
Blood letting through:
Cupping - putting warmed cups onto open cuts to draw out blood
Leeching - using leeches to suck out bad blood
Bathing - warm baths prescribed with herbs to draw out the humours
State a supernatural way of curing disease
Barber surgeons used trepanning, which was drilling a hole into the head to release demons
What herbal remedies were used for curing illness?
Honey was put on wounds to fight infection
3 points about surgery in the Middle Ages
- Wine was used as an antiseptic
- Medieval surgeons could do some complex external surgery, like removing eye cataracts and trepanning
- They could not prevent infections of stop bleeding, resulting in many deaths
State 3 prevention methods of diseases
- People carried sweet smelling herbs and lit fires to overpower bad air
- Some people wore amulets
- The practise of staying clean and healthy to avoid illness through Regimen Sanitatis was used
Name a problem and a solution surrounding public heath
Problem: Water supplied were polluted by human and industrial waste
Solution: In Gloucester, they used lead pipes and aqueduct to bring in fresh water (however was only for the rich)
State 2 points about wise women
- They were local women with experience, who would use herbal remedies and some charms/spells to help cure local villagers
- they were cheap
State 2 points about apothecaries
- They mixed various ingredients to produce medicines for physicians
- Trained but had no medical qualifications
State 3 points about physicians
- Medically trained at university for 7 years using Galen and Hippocrates, without dissection, so had little anatomical knowledge
- Only 100 male physicians in England
- Carried a Vademecum (book of diagnoses)
State 3 points about a Barber Surgeon
- Could pull out teeth, lance boils, let blood and remove tumours
- Performed basic surgeries such as amputating limbs
- Used no antiseptic or anaesthetic - so had a very low success rate for surgery
By 1400, how many smaller hospitals set up by wealthy merchant were there in England?
500
Who ran hospitals in the medieval period?
The church
3 Features of medieval hospitals
- Focus on ‘care not cure’
- Patients were given food and warmth to make them feel comfortable
- Monks would offer prayer as they believed only God could cure you, they also kept hospitals very clean
When did the Black Death first reach England, and what percentage of the population were killed by 1349 by it?
1348
- By 1349 it had spread around the rest of Britain, killing 40% of the population
What were symptoms of the Black Death?
- Buboes: painful swellings under people’s armpits/groin
- Blisters, high fever, vomiting, fits
Ideas on the cause of the Black Death?
- Punishment from God
- Miasma
- The movement of planets, specifically the movement of Saturn and Jupiter
Treatments of the Black Death
- Rubbing a chicken on the bottom of buboes
- Physicians would pop buboes to release the pressure
- Sitting close to a fire to drive out the fever
