Medieval Medicine

Question 1

What was believed to have caused disease in the medieval period? (Give

Answer 1

Punishment from God, Miasma, Imbalance in the theory if the four humours,

Question 2

How did they diagnose disease in the medieval period?

Answer 2

Astrology, The theory of the four humours, urine charts

Question 3

How did they prevent disease in the medieval period?

Answer 3

Purifying air (posies, pomanders etc), carrying charms or amulets.

Question 4

How did they treat disease during the medieval period?

Answer 4

Prayer and repentance, flagellants, bloodletting, purging, herbal remedies

Question 5

What were the type of people who treated disease?

Answer 5

Physicians, apothecary, barber surgeons, hospitals, wise women

Question 6

Give 3 descriptions about physicians

Answer 6

• male doctors who trained at university for 7 years, they read ancient texts and followed the works of Galen and Hippocrates.
• seeing a physician was very expensive and could only be afforded by the rich.
• physicians used handbooks and clinical observations to check patients conditions.

Question 7

Give 3 descriptions about an apothecary

Answer 7

• sold remedies and gave advice on how best to use them
• apothecaries we’re similar to physicians but trained through apprenticeships instead, most were men.
• apothecaries we’re the most common form of treatment in medieval England and they were most accessible by those who couldn’t afford a physician

Question 8

What was a quack doctor?

Answer 8

People with very little medical insight and sold treatments, they often did more harm than good.

Question 9

Give 3 descriptions of a barber surgeon

Answer 9

• carried out hair cutting aswell as small surgeries
• weren’t doctors so had little medical insight
• minor procedures they would carry out would be pulling teeth, treating cataracts

Question 10

What were the 3 reasons that made surgery so dangerous?

Answer 10

Pain: no anaesthetic, blood loss: couldn’t have transfusions and infection: no antiseptics

Question 11

What was different about hospitals in the medieval period?

Answer 11

• they were set up my monasteries, so were run by monks.
• main purpose was not to test disease, but to take care of pilgrims and the elderly, they provided food, water, and sanctuary.
• provided basic treatments, monks had access to books that contained herbal remedies recipes and how to grow herbs.

Question 12

How did the churches heavy influence impact medicine? (3 points)

Answer 12

• Roman Catholic Church was extremely powerful.
• church encouraged that disease was caused by god, so it prevented finding cures but praying and repenting.
• church made sure that those in university studied the works of Galen, because galena work was so central to medical teaching it was difficult to disagree with him.

Question 13

Why was the church so adamant to implement the work of Galen?

Answer 13

Galen followed the Christian belief that god made bodies and so they were sacred.

Question 14

How influential was the work of Galen and Hippocrates?

Answer 14

• Doctors took a Hippocratic oath
• there books were considered important texts by the church that they got translated into Latin.

Question 15

How is Galen and Hippocrates work still used today?

Answer 15

• Doctors still observe their patients.

Question 16

Why were Galen’s ideas about the body so wrong?

Answer 16

• Dissection on humans wasn’t allowed so He’d only ever dissected animals, so his ideas about anatomy were wrong and doctors couldn’t dissect, so continues to follow Galen’s wrong ideas.

Question 17

What theory did Hippocrates come up with?

Answer 17

The theory if the 4 humours - all humours must be balanced for you to stay healthy.

Question 18

What theory did Hippocrates come up with?

Answer 18

The theory if the opposites - you treat your symptoms to the opposite in order to rebalance. (If you had a high fever you would eat a cucumber which is theoretically cold).

Question 19

What is a flagellant?

Answer 19

Someone who walked around whipping themselves as a form of of repentance.

Question 20

What year did the Black Death hit england?

Answer 20

1348

Question 21

What two illnesses were involved in the Black Death? (how were they created and spread)

Answer 21

Bubonic plague - spread by rats and flees - Caused headaches, high temperature, pus filled swellings.
Pneumonic plague - airborne, spread by coughs and sneezes - attacked the lungs, coughing up blood, painful breathing.

Question 22

What did people believed caused the Black Death?

Answer 22

Sin, humour imbalances, miasma, astrology.

Question 23

How did people try and prevent the Black Death?

Answer 23

Prayer and fasting, bloodletting and purging, purify air by lighting fires and carrying sweet smelling herbs, carried charms or potions containing arsenic.

Question 24

How did governments try and tame the spread of disease?

Answer 24

New cemeteries were built away out of town as it was believed to have been caught by dead bodies
Quarantine
Close parliament

Question 25

What was the regimen sanatatis?

Answer 25

A set of rule books, telling a person how to keep clean to prevent illness.