Middle Ages / Medieval Flashcards
What did people believe caused disease in the Middle Ages?
- Imbalance of four humours
- Miasma
- Punishment from God
- Misalignment of planets
Who’s ideas were still followed in the Middle Ages?
Galen and Hippocrates
How long were Galen’s ideas believed for?
1500 years
Describe what public health was like in the Middle Ages?
- Open sewers carried sewage to the river
- Gutters carrying sewage through the middle of the streets
- Rubbish thrown into streets
- Wells
- Very few public toilets “privies”
- Few public baths + were visited less frequently
Name 2 things that were thrown into the rivers?
- Sewage
- Butchers threw rotten meat
What were wells often built close to?
Cesspools - spread disease from the sewage in the cesspool to the drinking water
What did some rich houses have?
Private latrines - over streams or pits lined with stone tiles and cement.
How much did a latrine cost to build in 1391?
£4
What was the only city that had public toilets?
London
Why did the catholic church support Galen in the Middle Ages?
Because he said that the body contained a place for the soul which agreed with the church’s idea that God created man.
Why were doctors only taught Galen’s ideas and not allowed to challenge them?
Because the church controlled doctors’ training and agreed and used Galen’s work.
No one could challenge Galen’s work without challenging the church and God.
Who were the different healers in the Middle Ages?
- Barber surgeon
- Priest
- Trained physician
- Wise woman
- Apothecary
- Blood-letter
What were common methods of treating diseases in the Middle Ages?
- Blood letting + leeches
- Prayer
- Herbal remedies
- Charms
- Potions
- Theory of Opposites
How did people prevent disease in the Middle Ages?
- Flagellation (whipping)
- Smelling even worse smells - burning barrels of tar / smelling sewage
- Charm to ward off evil spirits
- Prayer
When did the Black Death hit England?
1348
What were the symptoms of the Black Death?
- Sickness
- Spasms
- Buboes (swellings filled with pus)
- Fever
- Bleeding under the skin
Where could you acquire charms from in the middle ages?
The church or a wise woman
How was flagellation believed to prevent disease?
The pain from whipping themselves was supposed to be an alternate punishment to the disease and so God would not punish them more.
What did leprosy cause?
Wounds on the skin and organ withering.
How did leprosy spread?
A long duration of close contact.
How long was the life expectancy of a person who caught leprosy?
6 to 10 years
How were people with leprosy prevented from coming into contact with healthy people?
- Patients were kept in hospitals / lazar houses
- Patients were forbidden from entering churches, markets, mills, taverns or any assembly of people.
Why was preventing people with leprosy from coming into contact with healthy people effective in preventing the spread of the disease?
Leprosy was spread by bodily contact and it could not spread if there was no contact.
By when had leprosy diminished all over Europe?
The end of the Middle Ages
How were doctors trained in the Middle Ages?
By the Catholic Church
Where were the poor treated in the Middle Ages and what did they receive?
Monasteries (Instead of hospitals)
Food, rest and prayer
Why was public health poor in the Middle Ages?
People did not know that unsanitary conditions led to the spread of disease.
What were public baths called in the Middle Ages?
Stewes
