Medieval Medicine

Question 1

Which two men contributed more than any others to the Western view of medicine and health in the medieval period?

Answer 1

Hippocrates and Galen

Question 2

What was the name of the theory used by Hippocrates and Galen to understand and explain the workings of the human body?

Answer 2

The Theory of the Four Humours

Question 3

What were the Four Humours?

Answer 3

Blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile

Question 4

According to the four humours, what caused pain and ill-health?

Answer 4

The humours not being in balance. eg. there being too much or too little of one of them

Question 5

What two treatments were commonly used to restore the balance of the four humours?

Answer 5

Bleeding and Purging

Question 6

What three methods were used for bleeding?

Answer 6

Cutting a vein, leeches and cupping

Question 7

What medical technique was taught using Galen’s books?

Answer 7

Dissection

Question 8

What liquid was often used as a diagnostic tool?

Answer 8

Urine

Question 9

What was the name of the medical practitioners who carried out minor operations?

Answer 9

Barber-surgeons

Question 10

Which doctors were medically educated at University for 7-10 years?

Answer 10

Physicians

Question 11

What was the name of the medical practitioners who sold medicine, herbs and spices?

Answer 11

Apothecaries

Question 12

What could be brought from an apothecary that physicians did not approve of?

Answer 12

poison

Question 13

What was the name of the monk and lecturer who tried to use scientific method and observation in medicine?

Answer 13

Roger Bacon

Question 14

What happened to Roger Bacon when he questioned the Church’s stance on Galen?

Answer 14

He was arrested for spreading anti-Church views

Question 15

In what ways was Hippocrates significant to the development of medieval medicine? (3 ways)

Answer 15

a) He contributed to medieval understanding of body and disease.
b) His belief that the humours needed to be kept in balance contributed to medieval treatments eg. bleeding
c) His belief in the importance of clinical observation contributed to medieval methods of diagnosis eg. urine

Question 16

In what ways was Galen significant to the development of medieval medicine? (2 ways)

Answer 16

a) His texts were accepted as University medical texts SO his ideas profoundly influences medieval ideas of medicine
b) Dissection was taught from Galen’s book SO medieval understanding of the human body was based on Galen’s ideas

Question 17

How did the Church contribute to the development of medicine in medieval England? (3 ways)

Answer 17

a) The Church played a large part in developing hundreds of hospitals to treat the sick which impacted on the future organisation of healthcare.
b) The Church set up University schools of medicine SO physicians could be trained using the texts of Hippocrates and Galen.
c) Monks copied old texts which helped medical knowledge survive and spread.

Question 18

How did the Church limit the development of medicine in medieval England? (3 ways)

Answer 18

a) The Church made it difficult for scholars to dissect human bodies (due to their belief in the afterlife) so most understanding of the human body was based on Galen’s dissections of animals.
b) The Church would not let physicians touch patients let alone perform surgeries.
c) The Church only let trainees read about the ideas of Hippocrates and Galen and arrested scholars who questioned their ideas. This limited the use of scientific method and observation to develop medical understanding further.

Question 19

In which year did the Black Death reach England?

Answer 19

1348

Question 20

Name the four symptoms of the Black Death

Answer 20

1. Boils and black buboes under the armpits and on the groin
2. Chest pains and breathing troubles
3. Sneezing and coughing up blood
4. fever and muscle spasms

Question 21

Who did people blame for the Black Death?

Answer 21

God and the Jews

Question 22

How did people believe that the Jews had spread the disease?

Answer 22

By poisoning water

Question 23

Did the King or local councils take any action?

Answer 23

Yes they ordered the streets to be kept clean, public toilets to be removed or cleaned, homeless pigs to be got rid of and the selling of rotten food on marketing stalls to be stopped

Question 24

What natural explanation did Medieval people give for the Black Death?

Answer 24

Miasma = bad air or smells.

Question 25

What fraction of the population are said to have died from the Black Death?

Answer 25

A third.

Question 26

What laws preventing people from moving around during the Black Death?

Answer 26

Quarantine laws.

Question 27

What was the name of a medieval medicine book carried by doctors?

Answer 27

A vademecum

Question 28

What was Hippocrates’ Clinical Observation?

Answer 28

The importance of carefully following a process of Diagnosis, Prognosis, Observation and Treatment to assess and compare symptoms. Hippocrates also stressed the importance of recording symptoms and successful treatments.

Question 29

Where did you have to go to find a hospital or library?

Answer 29

A Church or monastery

Question 30

Why did the Church support Galen’s work?

Answer 30

Because he used religious terms such as ‘the creator’ and that the body was created in ‘perfect design’ in his work.

Question 31

There were no anaesthetics to take away pain but, what herbs were used to make patients drowsy during simple operations?

Answer 31

opium

Question 32

What does supernatural mean?

Answer 32

It means something is not scientific but involves superstition (things beyond the earth) eg. the planets or evil spirits.

Question 33

What does natural or rational mean?

Answer 33

It means something is logical or explained through science. eg. miasma theory and the theory of the four humours.

Question 34

What were quarantine laws?

Answer 34

They were laws that meant the goods and passengers on a ship had to be isolated for 40 days before they could enter a new country or city.