part 1: public health in the middle ages

Question 1

romans to then

Answer 1

• romans built extensive public health facilities e.g baths, toilets, sewers
• after they left, they were destroyed or disregarded

Question 2

causes of problems

Answer 2

• toilets
• butchers
• overcrowding

Question 3

toilets

Answer 3

• built on a bridge over thames so waste could be washed away from the city
• however some homes had toilets that emptied directly on streets, or some threw waste into street
• wealthier people paid for own toilets to be built, leading to a pit emptied by a gongfermer
• waste supposed to be taken outside of city but would sometimes empty in river or streets
• IMPACT: human waste on streets, contributing to spread of disease

Question 4

butchers

Answer 4

• allowed to slaughter animals in towns
• would dump waste in streets or rivers
• IMPACT: attracted rats, leading to spread of black death + poor unhygienic conditions helping disease spread

Question 5

what does public health need to improve, link to medieval

Answer 5

• needs support from government, for them to get involved
• however in medieval, public health relied on church

Question 6

working as peasants

Answer 6

• combination of hard labour, poor nutrition and diet meant wouldn’t be in best health
• sickness common feature of life

Question 7

stat

Answer 7

• nearly half population died before reaching adulthood

Question 8

education

Answer 8

• very few could read/write: no education so no progress

Question 9

most dangerous time

Answer 9

• childbirth
• limited understanding of midwifery so many died soon after due to heavy bleeding or infection

Question 10

what did they know?

Answer 10

• knew link between filth and disease but not properly established

Question 11

houses

Answer 11

• homes heated by open fires
• lead to lung disease due to long-term exposure and poorly ventilated spaces
• damp and cold home worsened illness, caused pneumonia

Question 12

food

Answer 12

• markets sold food on streets around dirt and waste

Question 13

water

Answer 13

• 13th cent, lead pipes laid to provide water
• lead is poisonous so could kill
• also leaks so water contaminated + not enough for whole city
• quality so poor that very few drank it and drank beer instead

Question 14

punishments

Answer 14

• 1309, 40p fine was introduced for anyone dumping rubbish on streets
• butchers banned from slaughtering animals

Question 15

new jobs

Answer 15

• new jobs created to try and improve conditions
• gongfermers: emptied out cesspits, supposed to take out of city but would just dump it sometimes
• muck rakers: remove waste from streets
• surveyors of pavements: remove waste from pavements

Question 16

when was the black death?

Answer 16

• 1348/51

Question 17

how did black death arrive and where?

Answer 17

• weymouth, dorset on merchant ships from italy

Question 18

what caused it?

Answer 18

• fleas on backs of black rats carrying Yserina Pestis germ

Question 19

black death link to public health

Answer 19

• living conditions made it ideal for rats to multiply quickly and for germs to spread
• lived close together in tightly packed streets
• only remote villages and farms avoided it

Question 20

two diseases

Answer 20

• bubonic: large swellings, high fever, headaches, spread via fleas
• pneumonic: attacked lungs causing breathing problems, spread through coughing and sneezing

Question 21

statistics

Answer 21

• pneumonic: mortality rate almost 100%, 5-7 days to live once bitten
• 40% of population died in 2-3 years

Question 22

short term consequences

Answer 22

• killed over 1/3 population
• whole villages wiped out
• loss of workers so food shortages
• food prices increase

Question 23

long term consequences

Answer 23

• survivors became better off
• shortage of worked so employers had to pay higher wages
• people had more money to spend on education so could read/write, so spread new ideas quicker
• downfall of church: lost faith and questioned God, turned to different religions

Question 24

beliefs about causes

Answer 24

• miasma
• imbalance of humours
• witchcraft
• punishment from God
• astrology

Question 25

where were bodies burried?

Answer 25

• mass graves called plague pits

Question 26

prevention

Answer 26

• prayer, fasting, confession (religion)
• carrying herbs/flower petals to avoid smell of street, lighting fires (miasma)
• stopped strangers entering villages
• King Edward II wrote to mayor of London ordering him to clean streets
• flagellants: punished themselves, show God they were sorry

Question 27

cures

Answer 27

• bloodletting / purging (four humours)
• herbal remedies