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Y11 - Medicine and WW1 > Medieval Britain > Flashcards

Medieval Britain Flashcards

c1250 - 1500

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

Hippocrates and Galen

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3
Q

What was the Four Humours Theory based on?

A

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

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4
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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5
Q

What was the other rational medical belief?

A

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

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6
Q

Religious beliefs about the causes of disease in Medieval times

A
  • Disease was sent from God to punish the sins of mankind.
  • 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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7
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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8
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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9
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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10
Q

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

A

Yes- Church had final say.

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11
Q

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

A
  • Galen often wrote about a ‘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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12
Q

Methods of prevention in Medieval Britain

A
  • Regimen Sanitatis
  • pray first and then bathe
  • Stay clean to avoid God’s wrath
  • Paying for a special mass
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13
Q

Methods of treatment in Medieval Britain

A
  • Self-flagellation
  • Being touched by the hands of the King - who was believed to be God’s representative on Earth
  • 4 Humors treatments- to rebalance the humours
  • Herbal remedies
  • Supernatural non-religious treatments
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14
Q

Examples of humoural (4 humors theory) 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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15
Q

Three methods of bloodletting

A
  • Cutting a vein
  • Using leeches
  • Cupping
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16
Q

How did people ‘purge’?

A

Used emetics or a laxative to encourage vomiting or diarrhea.

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17
Q

What book was published about herbal remedies?

A

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

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18
Q

Why was flagellation seen as a prevention?

A

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

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19
Q

Methods of diagnosis

A
  • Urine charts
  • Astrology charts
20
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.

21
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
22
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.

23
Q

How many hospitals were there in England by 1500?

A

Around 1,100

24
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 Church in the 1100s
25
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.

26
Q

Quality of hospital care

A
  • Patients shared beds
  • 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
27
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.

28
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.
29
Q

Who mainly carried out surgeries?

A

Barber Surgeons, performed surgeries for a low cost.

30
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.

31
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.
32
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.
33
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.

34
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.

35
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.

36
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
37
Q

Why did change happen so slowly?

A
  • Weak government
  • Poor country
  • Lack of education and scientific knowledge.
38
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.

39
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.

40
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.

41
Q

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

A

A third of the English population between 1348-50.

42
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.

43
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.

44
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’
45
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.
46
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.
47
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.

Y11 - Medicine and WW1 (5 decks)

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