Medicine Unit 1 Flashcards
What period of time does the medieval unit focus on?
1000AD - 1450AD
What did people believe caused illnesses?
The four humours
God
Miasma
Supernatural - e.g. misalignment of stars or planets
Everyday life
What were the four humours made up of? What element did they link with?
Yellow bile - fire
Black bile - earth
Phlegm - water
Blood - air
Who taught and introduced the four humours?
Hippocrates
How would illnesses be treated if you believed in the four humours?
A treatment would be offered that related to the element that linked with each humour
E.g. put feet in water if you had phlegm
How did the four humours have to be to be healthy?
They had to be balanced
Who would treat illnesses in the medieval period?
Apothecaries
Doctors - there weren’t many doctors
Wise women
Barber surgeon
What would apothecaries do to treat you?
Sell medicines like herbs and spices
What would doctors do to treat you?
Treated based on teaching of the four humours
What would wise women do to treat you?
Give you homemade potions and remedies
What would barber surgeons do to treat you?
Perform operation
E.g. tooth extraction, bloodletting & amputations
What were 6 common treatments in the medieval period? Give a brief definition if necessary.
Bloodletting - bleeding done usually by leeching
Cauterisation - when fire was applied to a wound to stop it bleeding
Amputation - cutting off limbs, no anaesthetic, often ended with infections
Herbs
Prayers & pilgrimage - praying to god to heal you and going to shrines to be healed
Trepanning - a hole was drilled in head to get rid of demons
Who was Hippocrates?
Greek doctor
How has Hippocrates impacted medicine long term?
There’s a Hippocratic oath
Some of his discoveries are still believed - diet impact health and clinical observations
What did Hippocrates believe? Why does that make him significant?
- Clinical observation (when poor health was observed) - found out diet impact health
- The body shouldn’t be looked at as a whole but as individual body parts
- Balance of the four humour was necessary
- Said every illness had a natural cause not a supernatural cause e.g. God
Long term impact on medicine
Some of his discoveries are believed today
Taught that illness wasn’t caused by God
Why was Hippocrates slightly insignificant?
Went against church teachings that God cause illness as punishment or test of faith - made him unpopular and many didn’t follow his teachings
Introduced four humours - believed for many centuries and because people believed it, they didn’t look for other real causes to illness
Who was Galen?
Greek doctor
What did Galen discover? How does this make him significant?
- Developed the human anatomy (whilst at gladiator school)
- Performed dissections to get a better understanding
One of the first people to perform dissections, it’s how we understand how bodies work today
The development of the human anatomy was and is still important