Medieval Medicine: treatments and preventions Flashcards
What illness did people in medieval England try to cure using the King’s touch?
Scrofula
What was the most common treatment for an imbalance of the humours?
Blood-letting (phlebotomy)
What was the name given to the process of piercing the skin and placing a heated cup over the cuts to draw blood out of the skin?
Cupping
What was purging?
Removing leftover food from the body by vomiting or excreting it
How were leeches used to let blood?
They were kept hungry for a day before being placed on the skin to bleed for up to ten hours
What was Theriaca?
A spice-based mixture with up to 70 ingredients, used by Galen to treat snake bites
What were “holy relics” and how could they be used to cure illness?
A piece of the “true” cross on which Jesus was crucified, or the bones of a saint
Touching the holy relics was thought to cure your illness
What were added to warm baths to help the body recover from illness?
Plants and herbs
Where would people carry out pilgrimages to in order to recover from illness?
The tombs of saints noted for their healing powers
Give an example of a book featuring a range of herbal remedies
Bald’s Leechbook
Who were flagellants?
People who whipped themselves in public to show God they were sorry for their sins
Give two examples of diagrams surgeons would use to help carry out treatments
A wound man: to deal with complex wounds
A vein man: to show where blood-letting should happen on the body
What was a regimen sanitatis?
A set of instructions provided by physicians to help a patient maintain good health
Why was the use of a regimen sanitatis limited?
It was only available for the very rich because it took a long time to write it out
Why did people take baths in medieval England?
Bad smells indicated the presence of miasma
