Medieval Medicine

Question 1

What is meant by the word ‘astrology’?

Answer 1

The alignment of the stars and planets

Question 2

What institution controlled knowledge and education in the Medieval Period?

Answer 2

The Church

Question 3

Whose ideas did the Church support in the Middle Ages?

Answer 3

Galen and Hippocrates

Question 4

What are the Four Humours?

Answer 4

• Phlegm
• Black Bile
• Yellow Bile
• Blood

Question 5

What is ‘miasma’?

Answer 5

The belief that disease and illness was spread through ‘bad air’.

Question 6

Who developed the Theory of Opposites?

Answer 6

Galen

Question 7

What was the Theory of Opposites?

Answer 7

The belief that your humours could be balanced out, and your disease could be cured, by giving a patient the opposite of their symptoms. Eg eating hot peppers, to combat a cold.

Question 8

Identify two rational treatments associated with the Four Humours.

Answer 8

Bloodletting and purging.

Question 9

What were the most common remedies for disease in the Middle Ages?

Answer 9

Traditional herbal remedies, as well as foods to balance out humours.

Question 10

Identify as many religious preventions and treatments as you can that were in use in the Middle Ages.

Answer 10

Obeying the Ten Commandments (prevention)
Carrying lucky charms (prevention)
Chanting incantations (prevention)
Self-flagellation (prevention)
Pilgrimage (treatment)
Prayer (treatment)
Fasting (treatment)
Paying for a special church service (Mass) to be held (treatment)

Question 11

Identify as many rational methods of preventing disease that were in use in the Middle Ages as you can.

Answer 11

Keeping the streets clean
Purifying the air
Bleeding and purging
Not overeating
Exercising
Bathing and washing

Question 12

Identify the four kinds of people who might have treated the sick in the Middle Ages.

Answer 12

Barber-surgeons
Apothecaries
Physicians
Female family members

Question 13

What was a barber surgeon in Medieval England?

Answer 13

• No training
• Carried out small procedures (bloodletting, pulling teeth)
• Basic surgery eg amputation (but very low success rate)
• Cheaper than a physician

Question 14

What was an apothecary in Medieval England?

Answer 14

• Received training but had no medical qualifications
• Mixed medicines and ointments based on their knowledge, or the directions of a physician
• Cost money (but less than a physician)

Question 15

Identify key features of a Medieval physician.

Answer 15

• Medically trained at university and passed exams
• Diagnosed illnesses and gave treatments or sent patients to an apothecary or barber surgeon.
• Expensive, so mainly used by the wealthy
• Very few physicians

Question 16

What might a Medieval physician do when a patient visited them?

Answer 16

• Observe symptoms, check pulse skin colour and urine
• Consult urine charts
• Consult star charts
• Usually would sent patient to apothecary or barber surgeon for treatment

Question 17

What were hospitals like in Medieval England?

Answer 17

• Provided a place for travelers and pilgrims to rest on their journey
• Run by the Church, the emphasis was on God healing souls
• Very clean
• Patients with infectious diseases not admitted

Question 18

When did the Black Death arrive in Britain?

Answer 18

1348

Question 19

What was the astrological explanation for the Black Death?

Answer 19

The unusual position of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn

Question 20

What was the Regimen Sanitatis?

Answer 20

A set of instructions issued by the Church on how to keep clean and avoid disease.

Question 21

Who controlled the publication of books in the Middle Ages?

Answer 21

The Church

Question 22

What was training for physicians like in the Middle Ages?

Answer 22

Theory based. Reading from the works of Galen and Hippocrates. Limited practical exposure. No dissection..