Medieval ➡️c.500AD- c.1400AD Flashcards
Define astrology.
Medieval people believed events and body affected by planets and stars-e.g: Zodiac Man.
Who was Avicenna?
a.k.a: Ibn Sina.
Suggested taking patients pulse.
Canon of Medicine➡️Compilation of Arabic and Galen’s ideas.
Who was Ibn al-Nafis?
Islamic surgeon.
Dissection was banned, so he observed during surgery.
Challenged Galen➡️Blood doesn’t pass through septum➡️Ignored.
What is the Qur’an and how did it influence Islamic medicine?
Religious book of Islam:
- Knowledge was important➡️Medical study.
- Hygiene important➡️Public Health e.g: public baths, piped water ➡️”Cleanliness is half of faith”.
- Care important➡️Hospitals (60+ in Baghdad) and women cared for sick in family.
- Dissection banned.
Who was Rhazes?
Islamic doctor.
- Urine chart➡️Diagnosis on colour of urine.
- Treatise on smallpox➡️Measles and smallpox different➡️Keep seperate.
- Meat test➡️Hung meat around Baghdad➡️Meat taken longest to go bad= best place to build hospital➡️Based on miasmas.
What ideas did people have about the causes of illness in the Medieval times?
- Continued belief in Four Humours & Miasmas.
- Astrology and Stars.
What treatments were used in Medieval medicine?
- Bleeding➡️Cuts or leeches.
- Cautery Irons➡️Burn wounds closed.
- New anaesthetics➡️Dwale= Wine, hemlock and henbane.
- Trephining.
- Improved public health following the Black Death.
Who provided medical care in the Medieval times?
- Barber surgeons➡️Poorly trained with basic techniques: amputation, bleeding, dentistry and cauterisation.
- Master Surgeons➡️Professionals trained at medical schools➡️Followed Galen without challenging.
How and why did medicine improve in the Medieval times?
- Master surgeons needed a licence from the Guild of Surgeons.
- First medical school set up 900AD in Salerno.
- Specialist doctors➡️E.g: John of Arderne (anal specialist).
- New ways to stop blood loss➡️Cauterization.
- New surgical tools➡️E.g: cataracts.
- War= key reason for progress➡️knowledge from Middle East passed on during Crusades.
- Some challenges to Galen➡️E.g: Theodoric of Lucca (although his ideas were ignored).
How and why did medicine stay the same in the Medieval times?
- Few Master surgeons and they were expensive.
- Master surgeons followed Galen without challenging him.
- Four Humours was still the basis for most treatments.
- New anaesthetic wasn’t very effective➡️People still died from infection, blood loss and shock/pain.
How did the Church help medicine in the Medieval times?
- Church promoted Galen, which helped because although some of his ideas were wrong, some were not far from the truth/true.
- The Church helped people who were sick by keeping them warm, rested and fed.
- The Church introduced the first medical school where dissection could be carried out, although students weren’t encouraged/meant to think of any new ideas.
What efforts were made in Medieval times to improve living conditions/public health in London?
- 1343➡️Butchers were ordered to use a segregated area for butchering animals.
- By the 1370s➡️At least 12 teams of gongfermers with horses and carts, removing dung from the streets.
- By the 1380s➡️At least 13 common privies in the city.
Why did public health decline following the collapse of Rome?
- Sewers and aqueducts were destroyed➡️Links to dirty water and health lost.
- Constant warfare➡️Little money to invest and people huddled behind city walls.
- Superstitious society➡️Few rational laws.
What were conditions likely to be like in a Medieval town?
- Increasingley dark and crowded.
- Filthy streets and houses.
- Rivers used for drinking water and waste.
- Open sewers in the streets➡️”Gardey Loo!”.
- No town planning, could build anywhere.
- Diseases rife➡️Typhus, cholera and typhoid.
Why were there some better features in Medieval public health?
- Wealthy people continued to be clean➡️Symbol of status➡️Bath parties.
- Religion➡️Desire to keep clean to please God➡️Monasteries had complex water systems.
After Black Death some attempts were made to clean up:
- King ordered streets to be cleaned.
- Gongfermers hired to remove waste.
- “Gardey Loo” illegal by 1372 (although laws not always enforced).