Treatments

Question 1

What is purging?

Answer 1

Ridding the body of an ‘excess’ such as blood or vomit

Question 2

What is leeching?

Answer 2

The use of leeches for bloodletting

Question 3

What is cupping?

Answer 3

Using glass cups to draw blood to the surface

Question 4

What is fasting?

Answer 4

To avoid eating or drinking

Question 5

What’s trepanning?

Answer 5

Cutting a hole in the skull

Question 6

What were medieval hospitals like?

Answer 6

Provided food water bedding etc, shared beds, comfortable, clean, rest & recover, no real treatments, funded by wills, ran by the church, infectious insane or pregnant women rejected, expensive, crowded, focused on care rather than curing, only prayers can cure, forbidden to cut body so limits treatment

Question 7

What was it like being treated at home in medieval times?

Answer 7

Restorative foods & herbs, women had well respected healing skills, more knowledge/experience, carried out minor surgeries/bleeding, anyone can, no training, limited tools/equipment, limited money & food etc, possibly not constant care

Question 8

What’s miasma and how was it prevented?

Answer 8

Miasma was bad air that would cause disease (usually a bad smell) it was believed that you could purify the air by carrying posies of herbs and flowers, lighting fires and ringing bells