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History of Medicine (c1250 - present day) > Medieval Britain > Flashcards

Medieval Britain Flashcards

c1250 - 1500

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1
Q

Time period of the Medieval Britain

A

c.1250-1500

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2
Q

Who were two significant individuals from the Ancient World?

A
  • Greeks: Hippocrates- a physician who emphasised importance of close observation of patients & making detailed notes of their conditions.
  • Romans: Galen- a surgeon and doctor.
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3
Q

The Theory of the Four Humours

A

Hippocrates linked a patient’s characteristics to way of diagnosing illness which was called the Four Humours theory. The four humours were choleric- hot and dry- melancholic- cold and dry- sanguine- hot and wet- and phlegmatic- cold and wet.

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4
Q

What was the Four Humours Theory based on?

A

The theory of the Four Humours was based on the principle of everything in the world being made of four. Four seasons / Four “elements” / Four Humours.

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5
Q

What else were the Humours linked to?

A
  • Humours were also linked with seasons, star signs and personalities too.
  • e.g. too much blood in summer = people got fevers
    too much phlegm in winter = explaining colds.
  • The star signs for each season were subsequently linked with each humour - e.g. Capricorn (December/January) was linked with phlegm.
  • If someone was depressed = too much melancholic
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6
Q

What was the Theory of Opposites?

A
  • Galen developed the theory that you could balance out Humours by giving someone the opposite to their symptoms.
  • E.g if someone had a cold- involving cold and wet phlegm- he would offer them advice to eat a hot pepper- hot and dry.
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7
Q

What was the other rational Roman belief?

A

Miasma/miasmata- the belief that bad smelling air had the ability to make a person sick.

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8
Q

What did the Romans do to deal with miasmata?

A
  • Tried to keep cities clean
  • Ensure waste and sewage was removed from an area
  • Not station an army close to a cesspit (an open sewage pit)
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9
Q

Where did the Greeks go to treat disease?

A

Asclepsions:

  • They built Asclepions where people would rest + wait for Asclepius- Greek god of healing - to visit them in the night and heal them.
  • The first places for the sick to go and rest to get better
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10
Q

What did Asclepsions have to offer?

A
  • Baths

- Gymnasiums

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11
Q

What were Asclepsions?

A

More like temples than hospitals; they believed in healing power of Gods + saw them as more important than anything else the Asclepsions had to offer.

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12
Q

Religious beliefs about the causes of disease in Medieval times

A
  • Disease was sent from God to punish the sins of mankind.
  • Interactionalistic duality- the belief that God and Satan are in a constant battle and when Satan begins to win, people get sick.
  • Not keeping clean (both yourself and your home) would anger God —> make you more likely to be cursed with illness.
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13
Q

Rational beliefs about the causes of disease in Medieval times

A
  • Miasma- Belief that the air was filled with harmful fumes.
  • Contagion- People had hunches that diseases like leprosy, although “sent from God”, could be caught.
  • Four Humours- imbalance in the humours would lead to mental and physical illness.
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14
Q

Supernatural beliefs about the causes of disease in Medieval times

A
  • Astrology- people used astrology and the presence as comets in the sky as explanations of disease.
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15
Q

Why was the Church so powerful in Medieval times in terms of both religious and non-religious matters?

A
  • Only Church at the start of the Middle Ages.
  • Lack of scientific knowledge- people looked to the Church for explanations
  • Fear of God
  • They limited any new ideas, keeping the Church’s strength high
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16
Q

Were supernatural/religious beliefs in the causes of disease more influential than rational ones?

A

Yes- Church had final say. However, they didn’t completely shy away from all rational thought, like the ideas of Galen (and by extension Hippocrates), and the theory of Miasma.

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17
Q

Why did the Church allow the theories of Galen (and by extension Hippocrates)?

A
  • Galen often wrote about a monotheistic deity known as the ‘creator’; this fitted with Christian belief in God
  • Galen believed in the idea of the soul; again, this fitted with Christian beliefs
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18
Q

Methods of prevention in Medieval Britain

A
  • Regimen Sanitatis -pray first and then bathe
  • Stay clean to avoid God’s wrath
  • Healing prayers + incantations
  • Paying for a special mass
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19
Q

Methods of treatment in Medieval Britain

A
  • Exorcisms
  • Self-flagellation
  • Being touched by the hands of the King - who was believed to be God’s representative on Earth
  • Humoural treatments- to rebalance the humours
  • Herbal remedies
  • Supernatural non-religious treatments
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20
Q

Examples of humoural treatments in Medieval Britain

A
  • Blood-letting (now known as phlebotomy) - normally done by Barber Surgeons + wise women.
  • Purging- encouragement of vomiting or diarrhea
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21
Q

Three methods of bloodletting

A
  • Cutting a vein
  • Using leeches
  • Cupping
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22
Q

How did people achieve ‘purging’?

A

Used emetics or a laxative to encourage vomiting or diarrhea.

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23
Q

What was an example of a commonly used herbal remedy mix?

A

Therica which included up to 70 ingredients including ginger and saffron.

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24
Q

What book was published about herbal remedies?

A

Materia Medica, which detailed 600 plants, trees and minerals.

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25
Q

What book was published about supernatural but non-religious treatments?

A

Circa Instans published in the 12th century detailed minerals and metals and how to use them in spells and chants.

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26
Q

Why was self-flagellation seen as a preventions?

A

By showing repentance for your sins, there was no reason for God to punish you with illness.

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27
Q

Why were exorcisms seen as a treatment?

A

Possession by a demon was the sole explanation for heathenism, seizures, violent mental disorders, etc. Exorcism was thought to expel the demon.

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28
Q

What did an exorcism involve?

A

Often, it involved subjecting the ‘possessed’ individual to abuse such as starvation and torture.

29
Q

Methods of diagnosis

A
  • Urine charts
  • Astrology charts
  • Patient’s d.o.b
30
Q

How educated were physicians and what did they do?

A

Physicians- university trained + v.expensive. They would diagnose a patient’s illness rather than treat it.

31
Q

How educated were apothecaries and what did they do?

A
  • Mix herbal remedies.

- Good knowledge of herbs due to training + good knowledge of Materia Medica

32
Q

Were apothecaries considered to be as skilled as physicians?

A

No- however, they were cheaper, so lots of people would visit the apothecary as a cheap alternative to a physician.

33
Q

How many hospitals were there in England by 1500?

A

Around 1,100

34
Q

Were hospitals equally concentrated in towns and villages?

A

No- Some towns had more hospitals than others.

35
Q

How many hospitals were owned and operated by the Church and who provided hospital care?

A
  • 30%; many hospitals were in Monasteries
  • Hospital care was provided by Monks and Nuns, who were also responsible for developing some of earliest hospitals in England.
  • E.g. St. Barts was originally set up by the Clergy in the 1100s
36
Q

Were hospitals good places to go for treatment?

A

Hospitals were good places to rest and you would often receive a good diet and a clean environment.

37
Q

Quality of hospital care

A
  • Patients shared beds except in Henry VII’s Savoy hospital (1512)
  • Insane and pregnant people often rejected
  • Spiritual care taken care of by Priests and monks
  • Church wanted hospitals to be proof of healing power of prayer; terminal patients were refused help.
  • Physicians + Barber surgeons not employed by English hospitals; treatment was limited
38
Q

Did people prefer to be treated at home or at the hospital?

A

Majority of care was done in the home due to distrust of physicians.

39
Q

Examples of care in the home

A
  • Women expected to care for sick + grow plants known for their healing abilities.
  • Some records suggest women in the home carried out bleedings + minor surgery.
40
Q

Who mainly carried out surgeries?

A

Barber Surgeons, hairdressers who also performed surgeries for a low cost.

41
Q

How did Barber Surgeons advertise their services?

A

Until 1307, they advertised their services by putting a bowl of blood in their shop windows. After that they used a bloody bandage which became the red and white striped pole we see outside of barbers’ today.

42
Q

What were skilled surgeons capable of?

A

Skilled surgeons would be able to successfully remove cataracts, set a broken bone or remove an arrow from the eye.

43
Q

Exact examples of surgery attempted by Barber Surgeons

A
  • Pulling teeth
  • Performing enemas
  • Treatments connected to phlebotomy such as cupping, blood-letting and applying leeches.
  • Cutting hair (ik this isn’t a surgery but it was in the slides)
44
Q

Why were skilled surgeons difficult to come by?

A

The Church controlled education and limited learning through experience.

45
Q

Were surgeries often successful?

A
  • When more sophisticated operations were attempted by Barber surgeons, such as amputations, it would often lead to death through massive blood loss.
  • Surgery was, for many, a fate worse than death.
46
Q

Government attitude towards public health at the start of the Middle Ages

A

Public Health was not a priority for the government & local government had little power.

47
Q

What did people do to try to improve public health?

A

People largely took matters into their own hands such as by building latrines on side of their houses which would deposit excrement directly onto the street.

48
Q

What issue was caused by ordinary people trying to improve public health?

A

Excrement would clog up streets due to sewer systems clogging up and not functioning.

49
Q

What were factors that influenced changes in public health in the Medieval Britain?

A
  • Growing unhappiness of general population

- Arrival of the Black Death in Europe in 1347

50
Q

Why did change happen so slowly?

A
  • Weak government
  • Poor country
  • Lack of education and scientific knowledge.
51
Q

What laws did the government eventually put in place to improve public health?

A

1347- Fines for dropping litter in the street.
1348- Quarantine laws were put in place stop people moving around too much because of the Black Death.
1348- Local authorities stopped cleaning the streets; they believed the foul stench of rubbish + rotting bodies would drive off the miasma that was causing the plague.

52
Q

Did the implementation of these laws matter?

A

No- were not really preventative, as they were implemented once the problem of the Black Death had already started.

53
Q

What did the implementation of these laws so late show?

A

Showed how much ignorance there was during the Middle Ages about what the government could do to help public health.

54
Q

What was the Black Death?

A

An outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacteria yersinia pestis, but people at the time had no idea that this was the cause.

55
Q

When was the Black Death and how many people were killed by it?

A

A third of the English population between 1348-50.

56
Q

What was the main symptom of the Black Death?

A

Growing buboes (huge blisters), getting a swelling in the armpit or groin which was filled with pus. If you caught the plague, you’d most likely die within 5 days.

57
Q

Was the Black Death the only outbreak of plague in medieval times?

A

No- There were outbreaks of Plague every 10-20 years during Medieval times, but this outbreak was particularly bad.

58
Q

Beliefs about the causes of the Black Death 1348-1350

A
  • God had deserted mankind because of our sinfulness.
  • An unusual positioning of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn during 1345.
  • Impure air - miasma - that corrupted the body’s humours.
  • The Jewish population and other ‘outsiders’
59
Q

Beliefs about how the Black Death 1348-1350 could be prevented

A
  • Pray to God and fast (go without food).
  • Show God you were sorry by self-flagellation
    (whipping yourself).
  • Escape- run far away and to fresh air.
  • Avoid family members with the illness.
60
Q

Beliefs about how the Black Death 1348-1350 could treated

A
  • No treatment - it was God’s will, you just had to suffer.
  • Bleeding and purging was attempted but it just made people worse.
  • Lighting a fire and boiling vinegar to purify the air.
  • Trying a mix of herbs and herbal remedies like myrrh and therica.
61
Q

Government’s beliefs about how the Black Death 1348-1350 could be prevented

A
  • 1348- New quarantine laws were gradually put in place to stop people moving around too much.
  • Considered banning preaching and religious processions; these weren’t enforced.
  • 1348- Local authorities stopped cleaning the streets; they believed the foul stench of rubbish + rotting bodies would drive off the miasma that was causing the plague.
62
Q

The factors that influenced slow progress in Medieval Britain compared to the Ancient World

A
  • Religion
  • Government
  • War
63
Q

How did religion influence slow progress in Medieval britain compared to the Ancient World?

A

Church controlled learning in universities + availability of books + didn’t allow new ideas. The only rational ideas they supported were those of Galen and Hippocrates.

64
Q

What political event influenced slow progress in Medieval Britain compared to the Ancient World?

A

Collapse of Roman Empire meant Britain lost a strong centralised government. medieval Kings = unconcerned w/ how they could maintain power + control their populations rather than what they could provide for them.

65
Q

How did the Church take advantage of this government event and how did this influence slow progress in Medieval Britain compared to the Ancient World?

A

With this “gap” in power, influence of the Catholic Church grew and people began to look to the Church for authority on living life; Church began to dominate every aspect of people’s lives.

66
Q

How did war in pre- Medieval Britain cause systems to regress?

A

Pre-Medieval Britain suffered series of invasions- from Jutes, Angles and Saxons- that weakened the systems the Romans had put in place e.g. public health systems.

67
Q

How did these conflicts before the Middle Ages influence slow progress in Medieval Britain compared to the Ancient World?

A

These systems weren’t repaired/strengthened during Middle Ages, meaning that many sewers and public baths fell into disrepair.

68
Q

Were any developments enabled by religion?

A

Yes- Hospital care was catalysed by role of religion in society, despite medical ideas generally being held back by the influence of religion during this time period.

69
Q

What type of herbs did people use for purging?

A

Strong + bitter herbs were used like aniseed or parsley. Sometimes, herbs contained poisons like black hellebore.

History of Medicine (c1250 - present day) (6 decks)

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