The Medieval Period

Question 1

What was the average life expectancy in the Medieval period?

Answer 1

30 years

Question 2

Describe people’s diets in the Medieval period (4)

Answer 2

• only basic food - bread, cheese, weak version of beer, porridge made from vegetables, oats or barley
• water was not always fit for drinking
• often food shortages
• food often lacked vitamins so people could not fight off disease

Question 3

Describe the living conditions in the Medieval period (3)

Answer 3

• animals were often brought inside the home at night during the winter
• homes gave little protection again cold damp weather (many people developed rheumatism, athritis, etc)
• homes were usually just one room with a fire in the middle

Question 4

Describe the working conditions in the Medieval period (7)

Answer 4

• long hours of work - usually dawn until dusk
• hard physical work - ploughing, harvesting crops, etc
• diseases caught from animals
• no doctors were available to people who had accidents while working
• large farm animals could cause injury
• young children wrapped up and taken with mother while she worked on fields
• work involved difficult movement or positions, e.g bending down while reaping crops

Question 5

Describe the features of Medieval public health (8)

Answer 5

• only 13 privvies in London, going directly into river, so people would urinate in the streets
• people would throw faeces in the streets
• wide streets had gutters, one at each side, refuse going directly into river
• narrow streets had one gutter in the middle
• wealthy people had latrines to the side of their house, refuse into river
• cesspits were often by wells
• butchers carried waste through streets to dump into river
• stewes (public baths)

Question 6

Describe five differences between Roman and Medieval public health (change)

Answer 6

R - fresh water system
M - contaminated water used

R - closed sewers and pipes brought water out of city
M - open sewers - not away from city

R - emphasis of hygiene in public baths and all could afford to bathe
M - stewes mainly used by rich people - not about hygiene, but pleasure (prostitutes)

R - poorer citizens could get fresh water from fountains
M - wells were contaminated due to cesspits

R - lots of public latrines - 144 in Rome
M - much less public latrines - 13 in London

Question 7

Describe five similarities between Roman and Medieval public health (continuity)

Answer 7

• Very similar public health in more rural areas
• Lead pipes, public baths, toilets and areas to collect water
• Wealthy had better hygiene and own latrines, as well as supply of water to houses
• Idea of hygiene, but no idea why
• Refuse going into river, contaminating water

Question 8

Who were the six healers available during the Medieval period?

Answer 8

• Barber-surgeons
• Priests, monks and nuns
• Physicians
• Wise women
• Apothecary
• Blood-letter

Question 9

Medieval barber-surgeons: How were they trained, what were their common treatments and how much change from the Roman period?

Answer 9

• trained in a butcher shop
• amputated limbs and bloodletting
• change - introduction of leeches for bloodletting (previously only used by doctors)
• continuity - amputations

Question 10

Medieval priests, monks and nuns: How were they trained, what were their common treatments and how much change from the Roman period?

Answer 10

• trained in a monastery
• used prayer, rest and care, herbal remedies, flagellation
• change - more emphasis on punishing yourself
• continuity - belief in supernatural causes and treatments

Question 11

Medieval physicians: How were they trained, what were their common treatments and how much change from the Roman period?

Answer 11

• trained in a medical school, and passed exams. University for 7 yrs - only 100 in all of England
• used observation and the Theory of Opposites, used astrology to decide on treatment and timing, used patient’s urine
• change - the amount of training received
• continuity - the treatments used

Question 12

Medieval wise women: How were they trained, what were their common treatments and how much change from the Roman period?

Answer 12

• knowledge passed down through female relatives
• used herbal remedies, prayers, charms and spells
• change - fathers had the knowledge in Roman times, introduction of spells
• continuity - idea of a family healer

Question 13

Medieval apothecary: How were they trained, what were their common treatments and how much change from the Roman period?

Answer 13

• trained at home by relatives, mixed remedies for a physician
• used potions
• continuity - idea of a medicine shop for cure

Question 14

Medieval bloodletter: How were they trained, what were their common treatments and how much change from the Roman period?

Answer 14

• apprenticed
• used bloodletting
• change - leeches, someone with the specific job for bloodletting
• continuity - using bloodletting as a treatment

Question 15

In what year did the development of universities happen?

Answer 15

In 1167, in Oxford

Question 16

Describe in detail the training of physicians in the Medieval period (3)

Answer 16

• Trained in universities for 7 years - very expensive
• Students read Galen’s books and attended lectures
• Expected to memorise work and not challenge it

Question 17

What was the best medieval hospital?

Answer 17

The Hotel Dieu in Paris

Question 18

Describe hospitals in the Medieval Period (7)

Answer 18

• part of the work of the Church
• St Bartholomew’s Hospital the first to be founded in London in 1123
• by 1400, there were 500 hospitals, with only 5-6 beds
• if you had a contagious disease you would not be let in
• provided food, rest and care
• nursing and remedies provided by nuns
• care for patients but no medical treatment

Question 19

What happened after the collapse of the Roman Empire?

Answer 19

Western Europe split into many small countries and tribes

Question 20

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, what seven factors destroyed a lot of knowledge and made it impossible to develop new knowledge?

Answer 20

• countries and tribes were often at war
• wars destroyed public health systems and libraries
• rulers of small kingdoms used money to build defences and armies rather than research
• war disrupted trade - countries became poorer
• travel was dangerous so there was lack of communication
• educated and technology was disrupted
• the training of doctors was abandoned

Question 21

Why were people still following Galen in early Medieval England?

Answer 21

• Christianity grew stronger
• There were thousands of churches and monasteries over Europe
• Galen’s books survived in monasteries because his ideas were approved of by the Church (proved soul)
• When universities began to train doctors, Galen’s books were there to read

Question 22

When did Europe begin to recover after the collapse of the Roman Empire and what happened?

Answer 22

• began to recover after about 1000:
• harvests improved
• trade increases
• scholars travelled more freely
• more money around
• Church became rich
• by the 1300s the Church had set up universities and rulers began to clean towns (though not that effective)

Question 23

What year was the Black Death?

Answer 23

1348

Question 24

What was the real origin and cause of the Black Death?

Answer 24

Spread from Central Asia to Europe through rats on trade ships via trade routes

Question 25

What were five symptoms of the Black Death?

Answer 25

• sickness
• spasms
• swellings filled with black pus (buboes)
• fever
• bleeding under skin

Question 26

What was the impact of the Black Death?

Answer 26

• killed more than a third of Europe
• spread over all of Europe
• causes widespread fear as people felt they had no control

Question 27

What did people believe caused the Black Death?

Answer 27

• 4 humours
• Supernatural (God)
• Miasma (bad air)
• Astrology (positioning of planets)
• Activities of outsiders, e.g witches and Jews
• Touch

Question 28

What supernatural treatments did people use to try to cure the Black Death?

Answer 28

• flagellation to appease God

- fasting and praying

Question 29

What natural treatments did people use to try to cure the Black Death?

Answer 29

• Theory of Opposites
• popping buboes
• use toads to suck out pus until they exploded
• herbal remedies

Question 30

What treatments did people try to use to stop miasma during the Black Death?

Answer 30

• smell the waste in their toilets each morning
• carrying herbs and spices to smell
• lighting giant candles

Question 31

How did people try to stop the transfer of the Black Death by touch?

Answer 31

Not letting people enter or leave the infected town or village

Question 32

How did people try to prevent the spread of leprosy in the Medieval period?

Answer 32

• isolated ‘lepers’ from the rest of society by making them stay in ‘leper houses’ to keep them from touching people
• ‘lepers’ had a set of rules of follow, telling them not to enter busy places such as markets, not to touch other people’s belongings or children to prevent the spread of disease from touching people