Medieval Medicine

Question 1

Give two ideas of Hippocrates

Answer 1

Four Humours
Clinical Observation
Hippocratic Oath
Hippocratic Corpus (books)

Question 2

Give two ideas of Galen

Answer 2

Treatment of Opposites
Brain controls the body
Based human anatomy on monkeys & other animals

Question 3

Give three reasons why Galen and Hippocrates were so important

Answer 3

Church promoted them
Basis of medicine until 1800 - logical/easy to use
People were reluctant to embrace new ideas

Question 4

When did the Black Death first arrive in England?

Answer 4

1348

Question 5

Give two medieval causes of Black Death.

Answer 5

God sent it as a punishment
Movement of planets and stars
Miasma

Question 6

What is the difference between bubonic and pneumonic plague?

Answer 6

Bubonic plague has buboes (swellings)
Pneumonic plague infects the lungs and can spread directly between people.

Question 7

How many people died of plague during the original outbreak?

Answer 7

Estimated 40%. As high as 60% in London based on wills

Question 8

Give three medieval treatments for plague

Answer 8

Bleeding
Herbal treatments
Praying to God

Question 9

What is a physician?

Answer 9

A medieval doctor who was university trained

Question 10

What is a barber-surgeon?

Answer 10

A surgeon who could stitch wounds, amputate limbs and carry out bleeding

Question 11

What is an apothecary?

Answer 11

A medieval chemist.

Question 12

What is a wise women?

Answer 12

A local woman with knowledge of plants and herbs

Question 13

How did monasteries helped the sick?

Answer 13

Most had some medical facilities as well as a medicinal garden where herbs and plants were grown.
Access to better hygiene, good food & clean water.

Question 14

When was St Bartholomews’ hospital first opened?

Answer 14

1123

Question 15

Give three medieval treatments for illness

Answer 15

Bleeding and Purging
Herbal remedies
Prayer and holy relics
Simple surgery

Question 16

Give three ways in which the Church was important to medieval medicine

Answer 16

Controlled education
Promoted Galen
Believed that God could cause and cure disease
Banned Dissection

Question 17

Give two examples of progress during the medieval period

Answer 17

Attempts to improve public health - laws baning butchering of animals in the streets, fines for littering & rakers eployed to clean streets.
Improvemkents in surgery - John Bradmore’s operation on Henry V

Question 18

What were the Flagellants?

Answer 18

Religious sect during the Black Death - mkarched through towns whipping themselves to atone for their sins in the hope God would save them.

Question 19

How did the Crusades help medicine to develop?

Answer 19

Doctors frequently travelled to the Holy Land & learned new ideas from Islamic kingdoms.
Provided access to medical books from ancient Greece & Rome which had been lost after the collapse of the Roman Empire

Question 20

When was Bald’s Leech Book (a collection of herbal remedies) written?

Answer 20

950 AD