Part 1: Medicine in Medieval Britain

Question 1

Positives of War

1. How did war help surgery?
2. Who was a War surgeon?
3. what did he make?
4. What antiseptic was discovered during war?
5. What other developments were made?

Answer 1

1. army surgeons became quick at amputations
2. John Arderne, worked in the hundred year war (born 1307)
3. developed painkiller (hemlock, opium and henbane) stopped need for cauterisation which killed many. urged Drs to not use methods of Galen and Hippocrates
4. wine
5. new methods and tools to cause less damage

Question 2

Negatives Of War

1. what did war cause
2. problems with opium

Answer 2

1. Was a main killer

2. could sometimes kill patients

Question 3

Superstition and Religion

1. which churches set up hospitals?
2. who were fladgulence?
3. how many hospitals did churches develop in C12 and 13th?
4. What were the negatives of them?
5. what else did churches set up?
6. what were limitations to these?

Answer 3

1. St Giles Hospital, St Bartholemewels (1123)
2. people who whipped themselves for forgiveness whilst praying
3. over 160
4. some refused to treat women or very sick people and had very few surgeons or physicians, believed prayer was a cure
5. set up university schools of medicine
6. trained using texts of Hippocrates and Galen

Question 4

Superstition and Religion:

7. Who was killed for questioning the churches methods?
8. Why did churches prevent dissection?
9. What did people believed caused disease?
10. what was a physic garden?
11. soutra?

Answer 4

7. Roger Bacon tried to show importance of scientific methods
8. they believed your body had to be whole to be accepted to heaven
9. people believed sudden disease or misfortune was the super natural
10. plants grown for treatment
11. excavated any the church, had good herbal remedies

Question 5

Chance

1. John Arderne?
2. Sir John of Bridlington?

Answer 5

1. discovered opium accidentally

2. His grave was seen as a source of miracles

Question 6

Government

1. Coventry?
2. Negatives of Govt?

Answer 6

1. in 1421 rules were made to clean streets, set up waste disposal and toilets from streams were removed
2. didn’t care about people and no pressure to improve conditions

Question 7

Communication

1. who translated Hippocrates and Galen medical knowledge?
2. war?

Answer 7

1. Avicenna

2. leaflets were printed for treating common injuries

Question 8

Science and Technology

1. barber surgeons?
2. Apothecary?
3. Wisewomen?
4. problems with dissection?
5. Robert Grosseteste?
6. what were the four humours and how are they fixed?

Answer 8

1. carried out minor operations, set broken bones, pulled teeth
2. sold medicines, herbs and spices
3. had skills and wisdom passed down through families, had remedies but mostly incorrect e.g. treated warts with eels head
4. as only animals were dissected it gave wrong ideas of the body
5. teacher at Oxford, leading advocate for scientific enquiry in experiment his work in optics helped develop glasses
6. blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm fixed by bleeding

Question 9

Individuals

1. Hippocrates?
2. Galen?
3. Bishop Walter?

Answer 9

1. Greek physician, believed in four humours, that you are unwell when they are unbalanced, first to regard body as whole
2. dissected animals and emphasised importance of pulse, came up with theory of opposites
3. set up st Giles hospital in 1249

Question 10

Other:

1. bath houses
2. Zodiac Chart
3. urine

Answer 10

1. could pay to have a bath, set up in towns, improved hygiene
2. said which parts of the body were linked to astrological signs so what would work for patients, used by physicians
3. was a vital diagnostic tool

Question 11

The Black Death

1. which year?
2. what types of plague was it and what do they mean?
3. symptoms?
4. where did it begin?
5. How many victims?

Answer 11

1. 1348
2. bubonic spread by fleas, pneumonic - contact with victims blood or breath
3. buboes, fever, coughing, vomiting
4. Asia, travelled along trade routes
5. 1/2 Europe population and 1.5 million in Britain

Question 12

The Black Death:

1. what was it believed to be caused by?
2. what caused it?
3. what did people do

Answer 12

1. punishment from god
2. bacteria in fleas stomachs, lived on rats, people lived closely
3. fleeing towns,
   quarantine put in place by government
   things like strapping chickens to buboes

Question 13

Consequences of the Black Death:

1. food shortages?
2. New laws?
3. feudal system?

Answer 13

1. food wasn’t harvested so rotted as fields were unploughed and prices went up
2. meant peasants could only leave land with lords permission, if they left they couldn’t return
3. peasants who survived believed they were protected (and lords were desperate) so demanded higher wages so the feudal system was made:
   - tied peasants to land so they couldn’t leave to look for higher wages
   - caused rage, statute of labourers introduced in 1351