PUBLIC HEALTH Flashcards
What were some of the problems in towns in the the Middle Ages?
- Some towns had public baths called stewes where people bathed together in large wooden tubs.
- Butchers left rotten meat and waste products in the streets.
- Cesspits were usually built next to drinking wells and often leaked into them.
- No-one expected the local authorities to organise the removal of rubbish.
- People could buy water from water sells but it was often taken from polluted rivers.
What were some of the solutions in towns in the Middle Ages?
- Butchers were thrown in the pillory if they sold rotten meat.
- Local authorities in some towns paid for piped water supplies and sewer systems.
- In the 1930’s in London, lead pipes brought water from the River Tyburn to conduits in the streets.
How did Islamic ideas help Public Health in the Middle Ages?
- Built hospitals, mental hospitals, and built libraries, medical schools. → They were built in major cities - 8th Century.
- The mental hospitals were the first hospitals set up.
- Encouraged medical learning “For every disease, Allah has given a cure.” .
What was Public Health like in the Middle Ages?
1298- King Edward I complains that unhygienic conditions in York are a danger to his soldiers preparing for invasion, so the council orders the building of public latrines in the city.
1330- Glamorgan council passes laws to stop butchers throwing animal remains into the High Street, and orders that no-one should throw waste onto the streets or close to the town gates.
1371- The London mayors and councillors try to make the city healthier by prohibiting the killing of large animals within the city walls.
1374- The London local council gives up trying to control building and sewage disposal over the Walbrook Stream. Instead they make householders who used the Stream pay a fee to have it cleaned each year.
1388- Parliament passes a law which fines people £20 for throwing “dung garbage and entrails” into ditches, ponds and rivers. However, it is not easy to make people obey the laws nor to catch those who disobey them.
What are the causes of The Black Death (1347)?
- Miasma
- Out-of-balance humours
- Position of Mars, Saturn (planets), the Sun, and the Moon
- Punishment from God
- Witchcraft
- Jews poisoning wells
- Animals
- Invisible fumes and poisonous air
- Toilets
- Slaughter houses
What are some of the treatments people did to cure the Black Death?
- Praying
- Flagellants
- Ban/expel Jews
- Sit in the sewers
- Run away
- Avoid overeating
- Avoid public baths
- Burn all clothing
- Herbal remedies
- Eating 10 year old treacle
- Burn Jews
- Theory of Opposites (Galen)
What were the stages of The Black Death?
Day 1- Buboes int armpits and groin.
Day 2- Vomiting and developed a fever.
Day 3- Bleeding under skin = caused it to look black.
Day 4- Attacks the nervous system = suffer spasms.
Day 5- Sometimes buboes burst = black liquid ooze out, fill the air with a foul smell.
Why did the Black Death spread so quickly?
[SQUALID]
Street cleaning was poor.
Quarantine was not effective on infected villages.
Unhygienic habits- throwing waste out.
Animals dug up dead bodies.
Laws about cleanliness not enforced properly.
Ignorance of spread of disease.
Dirty streets = encouraged rats to breed.
What were the remedies for the Black Death?
[PUMA]
Prayer.
Unusual remedies. (arsenic, treacle)
Moving/running away.
Avoid contact with people.
What was the impact of the Black Death?
- Reputation of the Church was damaged.
- Feudal system burden.
•Deaths- 40% of England
1/3 of Europe
•Food shortages in towns and cities.
What are some similarities of the Great Plague (1665) and the Black Death (1347)?
- Believed in the theory of miasma.
- Street cleaning.
- Burials were to be after sunset.
- No rotting food to be sold.
- All householders to seep clean the streets outside their houses every day.
- Astrology.
- Punishment from God.
- Unusual remedies (arsenic)
- Lack of government control/intervention.
What are some of the differences between the Great Plague (1665) and the Black Death (1347)?
The Great Plague- government employed watchmen to keep guard of the house.
- The Great Plague- red cross on doors.
- The Great Plague- no animals to be kept in the city.
- The Great Plague- no public entertainment to be held.
- The Great Plague- isolation/quarantine.
- The Great Plague- doctors examining the bodies and report whether they died of the Plague.
What were Medieval Hospitals like?
- Christianity- care over cure
- Islam- cure over care
- Used ideas of Galen and Hippocrates
- Over 700 hospitals were built- Church controlled hospitals
- They were built near rivers and were isolated away from towns
- Certain contagious diseases were banned such as leprosy
- Had clear rules
- Were run by monks and nuns
- Treated 470 patients a year
- Used the Four Humours Theory
- Aided and cared for the people
What were Renaissance Hospitals like?
- Used modern methods to cure patients
- Run by wealthy people
- Medical schools were often attached to hospitals
- Were run by professionals
- Poor people didn’t have to pay for medical treatment/ wealthy people had to pay
- With the new types of hospitals, the social problems of high child mortality was highlighted
- Treated 20,000 patients a year
- Used the Four Humours Theory
- Aided and cared for the people
Renaissance hospitals:
What type of people funded/founded hospitals in the 18th Century?
Wealthy patrons funded hospitals; those with private subscriptions.
Renaissance hospitals:
Other than caring for the sick, what else did 18th Century hospitals do?
Treated different types of services- pregnant women, venereal disease and specialised in different cures.
Renaissance hospitals:
What was new about hospitals at this time?
Specialised hospitals had been built. Major hospitals in cities- trained doctors and those that shadow professors.
Renaissance hospitals:
Why had attitudes to hospitals changed?
The Catholic Church lost their grip on monasteries and religion was declining in importance.
Renaissance hospitals:
In what ways did religion affect hospitals?
Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of all monasteries in England and Wales.
They had been the main providers of medical care for many centuries (for the poor).
Edwin Chadwick:
Who was he and what did he do?
- He was a civil servant.
- In 1838, he was asked to report on the living conditions and the health of the poor.
- He published his report in 1842, which was called “The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain”.
- There is an urgent need to improve living conditions of the poor.
- He said that workers aren’t productive if they are healthy.
- He recommends a “board of health”, people need clean water, and recommends people need better housing.
- Have the power to wash the streets and supply fresh and clean running water.
