Medicine topic 1 Flashcards
Background info
- war destroyed roman public health systems.
- rulers built up armies rather than improving medical skills.
- reduced comms between doctors.
- medical training abandoned.
- church set up uni where doctors train
- trained doctors taken to war to gain experience as surgeons.
- rulers cleaned up towns.
- merchants share ideas round Europe.
Monasteries
- only priests+monks read
- the only libraries were in monasteries.
- often near fresh water supply, waste carted away as manure.
- isolated, protected from epidemics.
- cleanliness seen as next to godliness.
- heads, faces, feet washed twice a week. Monks had good diets.
Medieval hospitals
- set up in monasteries, ran by monks and nuns.
- 700 between years 1000-1500.
- genuine ill people often turned away for fear of disease spreading.
- relied upon charity to stay open.
- different types of hospital for different things, eg ‘bedlam’ hospital for mentally ill. Leprosy hospitals outside of town.
Return of Galen
- Galen referred to ‘the creator’ in his work so was spread as the truth by the church (biggest influencer).
- doctors believed his work couldn’t be improved.
- accepted as truth in schools.
- Roger bacon arrested for suggesting to not trust old books.
Arab medicine
- their religion said Allah had made a cure for every disease, encouraged them
- work of Galen/Hippocrates preserved
- bimaristans (hospitals) treated everyone, progressive idea.
- Avicenna wrote ‘the Canon of Medicine’ listed properties of 760 different treatments, still used today.
- Muslim surgeon Abulcasis developed 26 new instruments. Used ligatures to tie off blood vessels before Paré
Supernatural beliefs and treatments
- belief in miraculous healing: buy relics, pray, go on pilgrimages.
- illness seen as a punishment for sin.
- doctors said magical words when treating patients, consulted stars.
- self flagellation.
Medieval doctors
- spent 7 years training.
- used urine and astrology charts to diagnose illness.
- still did barbaric things to ‘balance the humours’.
- suggested ‘praying’ as a cure for patients.
Surgeons
- barbershop surgeons: cut hair and amputated.
- small operations: bloodletting, tooth extraction.
- John of Arderne wrote Practica. Knowledge gained in the Hundred Years’ War + opium as anaesthetic.
- he tried to separate surgeons from basic barber surgeons by flooring a ‘guild of surgeons’.
Surgery
- bloodletting and amputation most common
- epilepsy was believed to be caused by a demon in the brain: hole drilled in (trepanning).
- hemlock used as anaesthetic.
- cauterisation to stop bleeding wound.
- arrow cups developed to remove arrows from war wounds.
- pus discovered to be vital for wound.
- wine used as antiseptic.
The Black Death
- arrived in England 1348.
- killed third of Europe’s population.
- combo of bubonic and pneumonic plague.
- bubonic: lumps on groin, under arms. Spread by fleas.
- pneumonic: affected lungs, deadlier.
- ‘cures’: self flag, drink mercury, smell flowers, rub raw chicken on buboes.
- ‘causes’: Jews, god, miasma, position of planets, vanity.
Real causes of the Plague
- Poor medical knowledge: doctors didn’t understand
- Poor public health: germs could grow, rats thrived.
- Bad harvests: 1300- climate change occurred and harvest failed.
- Global Trade: spices from China reached Europe. Plague is believed to have originated from there.
- Rats carried strains of bubonic plague
Stages of the Black Death
Day 1: buboes grew on armpits and the groin.
Day 2: the patient develops a fever and vomits a lot.
Day 3: bleeding under skin caused black blotches on the body.
Day 4: nervous system is attacked, muscle spasms. Patients can’t control movement.
Day 5: if the buboe burst the patient might live as the black fluids came out. Normally they died.
How the plague spread.
- 1330s: starts in China.
- 1347: armies attacking Crimea catapulted plague corpses into Caffa. Italian merchants took plague with them to Sicily, 1347.
- June 1348: arrived in Dorset, spread around south England by end of year.
- 1349: spreads to wales, Ireland, north.
- Scots invaded north England, got plague, so spread through Scotland.
- first plague died out in 1350.
- returned between 1361 and 1364. 5 more times before 1405. Killed kids.
Plague to Plague
Bubonic plague (buboes) lead to
Pneumonic plague (lungs)
lead to
Septicaemia plague, killed 100% of its victims.
Effects of the Black Plague
Psychological: wild lives, others felt deep despair. Many were angry and bitter, blaming the Church.
Lead to Protestant religion in 15th.
Social: poor people wanted better, fought against the feudal system.
Economic: great shortage of workers.
Parliament passed laws to stop wages rising, poor people became angry- helped cause Peasants Revolt of 1381.
