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).
What and when was the Black Death?
The bubonic plague was carried by black rats and passed on by their fleas.
It hit London in September 1348 and killed 40% of England’s population.
What ideas did people have about the causes of the Black Death?
- Church claimed that Jews had poisoned the wells➡️Staged trials and massacres of Jews.
- Punishment from God for their sins➡️Flagellants.
- Medieval doctors blamed a ‘pestilential atmosphere’ caused by positioning of planets or earthquakes/volcanoes.
- Spread through the air (miasmas).
What treatments were used for the Black Death?
- Bleeding (four humours) or lancing buboes.
- The Pope sat between two fires for the duration of the plague.
- Encouraged to pray for forgiveness, some people called flagellants inflicted punishments upon themselves.
- Louds noises to break ‘stiff’ air➡️Ringing church bells, firing canons and releasing birds into the room.
- Burning incense and handkerchiefs dipped in aromatic oils.
What and where was the House of Wisdom?
The House of Wisdom was in Baghdad and acted as ‘Islam’s Alexandria’.
