Middle ages: causes, diagnosis, preventions, treatments Flashcards
Give 5 things people thought caused disease in Medieval times.
- God & Satan
- Miasma
- Contagion hunch*
- Sanitation
- 4 humours (Hippocrates)
*people thought diseases, e.g. leprosy, could be spread.
Who did most diagnoses in Medieval times?
Physicians, who were university trained and expensive.
Give 3 ways disease was diagnosed in Medieval times.
- Urine charts: used colour, smell, taste
- Theory of opposites (Galen, from 4 humours)
- Astrology: star charts & horoscopes
Give 2 ways disease was prevented in Medieval times.
- Regimen sanitatis: Church-issued journal, said to bathe and pray beforehand, and to burn herbs + incense to remove miasma
- Materia Medica
Give the 3 main types of Medieval treatments.
- Humoural
- Religious
- Herbal
Give 3 Medieval humoural treatments.
- Purging (if you had too much of a humour)
- Sweating (as above)
- Phlebotomy (bloodletting): cutting, cupping, leeches
Give 5 Medieval religious treatments.
- Prayers & incantations (spells). Circa Instans was a guide on using minerals & metals in spells
- Pilgrimages to the tombs of poeple who’d been healers
- Priests performed exorcisms on the mentally ill
- Paying for vicars to say special masses
- People believed the King’s hand’s could heal the ill, as he was God’s representative
Give 3 Medieval herbal treatments.
- The Materia Medicae detailed 600 herbal remedies, using things like plants, trees and minerals.
- Theriac was a popular mixture of 70 herbs, including ginger & saffron
- Enemas contained emetics (strong, bitter herbs, e.g. linseed, chamomile) to induce diarrhea using a pig’s bladder pump
What role did Medeival people believe God + Satan played in causing disease?
The Church dominated society and taught that disease was sent by God, as a punishment for sin, or by Satan, to test faith. If prayers couldn’t cure a disease, it would need to run its course.
If the Church couldn’t explain a disease, it was associated with the Devil. People with Leprosy, for example, were treated very poorly and had to wear a bell to indicate their condition.
How did people link illness to the planets and how was astrology used to diagnose illness?
There was widespread superstition; people used astrology and the presence of comets in the sky as explanations for disease. Physicians used star charts and horoscopes to diagnose illness.
What was miasmata/miasma?
The belief that breathing in bad fumes caused illness.
What was the idea of sanitation?
Not keeping yourself and your home clean would anger God and illness would be more likely.
Explain the four humours. How did people use it to explain sickness?
Based on observation, Hippocrates (in Ancient times) theorised that illness was when someone had too much of a certain humour: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile.
Medieval people believed that an imbalance in the humours would lead to mental and physical illness.
For example, if someone had a cold, they had too much phlegm. If they were sad, they had too much black bile, believed to be the cause of melancholy.
What theory extended from the four humours?
From the Four Humours, Galen developed the Theory of Opposites: a method of balancing out the humours to cure illness.
This was done by giving people the opposite humour; e.g. giving pepper to someone with a cold.
What did people believe about contagion?
People thought that diseases like leprosy, although sent from God, could be caught.
