Medieval Medicine 410-1500AD

Question 1

Causes. (4)

Answer 1

• Still believe in the 4 humours due to Galen’s ideas being heavily promoted by the church.
• Still believed in miasma-now believed to be caused by the planets and earthquakes now.
• Still believed in God punishing their sins.
• Developed the belief in stars and astrology.

Question 2

Treatments. (8)

Answer 2

• Blood letting-often with leeches-linked to the 4 humours.
• Herbs-Leechbooks.
• Stars.
• Flagellation.
• Prayer and Pilgrimages.
• Examine urine.
• Advised to get exercise and get fresh air.
• The mentally ill would be beaten.

Question 3

What year was the Black Death?

Answer 3

1348-50-1 in 3 died.

Question 4

Causes of the Black Death. (3)

Answer 4

Miasma, God and Touch etc.

Question 5

Treatments of the Black Death. (7)

Answer 5

Poseys,Prayer&Charms,Flagellants,leeches,cutting open the boils and fashion.
Place a live hen next to the swellings to draw out the poisons.

Question 6

Public Health. (3)

Answer 6

• No expertise to maintain the aqueducts or sewers etc.
• Government (King) had a laisse faire attitude.
• No effective sewerage system(waste went into drinking water and privy toilets were holes above cesspits).
• Some government attempts e.g. gongfarmers and acts for people to clean their land and stop slaughtering animals within the city.

Question 7

Training of Doctors. (5)

Answer 7

• Compulsory for Doctors to be trained.
• After 1000AD universities started to develop e.g. Oxford in 1187 and Cambridge in 1209.
• Doctors would study Galen as he was unquestionable via the Church.
• They also studied astrology.
• No dissections as the Church still controlled medicine.

Question 8

Hospitals. (4)

Answer 8

• They were Church controlled.
• Believed in care for all-over treatment of the sick.
• Generally had good water supplies as they were attached to monasteries.
• Usually only one dark room and Doctors would never visit.

Question 9

Statistics for Medieval Hospitals. (4)

Answer 9

• 47 percent for the old and dying
• 31 percent for lepers (no treatment).
• 12 percent shelter for travelers.
• 10 percent cared for the sick!

Question 10

What happened, regarding hospitals, in the 1100s? (6).

Answer 10

Purpose built hospitals began to be built which were bigger e.g. St. Bartholomews in London and by 1400 there were 500 hospitals in England (despite the majority only having 5-6 beds).

Question 11

Other people who cared for the sick. (5)

Answer 11

• Between 400 and 1000AD many people couldn’t access Doctors so consulted wise women.
• Wise women-herbal specialists who consulted leechbooks.
• Astrologers-consulting planetary alignments.
• Priests-for spiritual health, recommended prayer and pilgrimages.
• Barber surgeons-for bleeding.

Question 12

What the name of the most famous Leechbook?

Answer 12

Bald’s Leechbook.

Question 13

What happened in 1258?

Answer 13

Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongols caused information (like Galens books) that had been lost in the west and retained in the east to be brought back to the west due to fleeing scholars.

Question 14

Why can’t we say that medieval people themselves were filthy? (4)

Answer 14

• Guy de Chauliac (the Pope’s doctor) said that a poor diet meant you were more likely to get the plague.
• monasteries had public health systems-‘lavers’(wash rooms) and ‘reredorters’ (latrines) that flush into running sewers, compulsory bath 4 times a year and clean towels.
• towns had bath houses (but these were also restaurants and brothels).
• the doctor Alderotti advised people to stretch their limbs,wash their face,clean their teeth and exercise.

Question 15

Doctors carried a vademecum,what is that?

Answer 15

Essentially a “go-with-me” book of diagnoses and a urine chart (usually they examined the look,smell and taste of the urine and guessed an illness).