Medieval 410-1500AD

Question 1

Causes (4)

Answer 1

Miasma theory- air disturbed by planets and earthquakes
Punishment from God
4 humours- due to religious influence
Developed beliefs in stars, planets and astrology

Question 2

Treatments (8)

Answer 2

Exercise, fresh air
Flagellation 
Blood letting, often with leeches, linked with 4 humours
Pilgrimage
Prayer
Herbs- consulted leechbooks
Mentally ill beaten
Examination of urine

Question 3

Causes of 1347 Black Death (8)

Answer 3

Outlandish clothing
Plot from the Jews to take over Christianity by infecting them with the disease
Punishment from God
Astrology
Naughty children
Miasma theory
Imbalance in 4 humours
Earthquakes

Question 4

Treatments of 1347 Black Death (6)

Answer 4

Flagellants- went round whipping themselves to seek God’s forgiveness
More traditional clothing worn
Prayer
Jews tortured until they confessed, burned at the stake
Theory of opposites
Herbal remedies

Question 5

Public health (6)

Answer 5

Deteriorates after Roman period as people do not have the expertise to maintain aqueducts and sewers
Government have a Laissez Faire approach-do not see it as their responsibility to maintain clean standard of living
No effective sewers, water left on the streets and transported t rivers and streams where it is consumed
Gongfermers appointed
Acts passed to ensure people clean up outside of their homes
Act passed which banned the slaughtering of animals inside the city walls (not enforced)

Question 6

Training of doctors (6)

Answer 6

Compulsory to be trained
Between 400-1000 AD many did not have access to doctors, consulted wise women
After 1000 universities began to open eg. Oxford in 1167
Very few could afford training doctors rare in Middle Ages
Doctors continued to study Galen as his work went unquestioned
No dissections as the church still controlled medicine

Question 7

Hospitals (9)

Answer 7

Church controlled medicine and care
Believed in caring for all; even the poorest
Typically had a water supply as they were attached to monasteries
47% cared for the old and dying
31% cared for lepers
12% give shelters to travellers
Only 10% cred for the sick
Focus was on care, rather than treatments as there would be no doctors visiting
By 1400 there were 300 hospitals in England (majority only had 5-6 beds)

Question 8

Others who cared for the sick (4)

Answer 8

Wise women- herbal specialists who would consult leechbooks (most famous was Bald’s leechbook with recipes eg. cat gut, garlic, onion etc)
Astrologers- movement of stars
Priests- would provide assistance on spiritual health, would recommend pilgrimage and prayer
Surgeons for bleeding

Question 9

Influence of Islam

Answer 9

Individuals - Ibn Al Nafis (discovered Galen’s theory that blood flowed round the body was wrong)
- Avicenna (wrote ‘the canon of medicine, covered all aspects of medicine known at the time)
- Rhazes (first doctor to distinguish between measles and smallpox)
Hospitals- Quran taught that we have a duty of care towards one another
- offered treatment as well as support and care
- mentally ill treat with respect
Preservation of medical notes- ideas of Galen recorded and developed, Baghdad became the centre of translation of Greek manuscripts

Question 10

Influence of Christianity (8)

Answer 10

Helped- taught that we have a duty of care to help the sick, monks offered free medical advice
- many hospitals set up by church, especially between 1000 and 1399, small, often only had 12 patient space
- hospitals set up by lepers, by 1225 about 19,000 existed
- established universities in 1300s where doctors could be trained
Hindered- mentally ill were believed to have been punished by God
- dissections banned
- taught that old ways were not expected to be questioned and that prayer was more likely to cure a patient than anything else
- monks and nuns ran hospitals, focused upon care and comfortable patients rather than cure, doctors rarely present