What were approaches to prevention and treatment, c1250-1500 Flashcards
What were the Religious approaches to prevention and treatment?
What helped cure illness, why was it used and how did it cure it ?
What: Praying for God to help heal your ailment/special mass, pilgrimages to the tombs of people noted for their healing powers became popular, show God how sorry you are by self-flagellation and, fasting.
Why: As the Church taught that disease was sent by God as a punishment for sin, the cure also involved the supernatural (religious acts).
How: It was adviced that as well as medical treatment, you should undergo a course of spiritual healing to become spiritually clean.
What were the Humoural approaches to prevention and treatment?
What helped cure illness, why was it used and how did it cure it ?
What: Phlebotomy or blood-letting/bleeding (Methods include, cutting a vein, cupping and leeches), Purging (using laxatives, enema or emetics).
Why: Believed each symptom represented an imbalance in the humours.
How: Bad humours could be removed from the body by removing some of the blood, humours were created from foods eaten - purging the digestive system removed any leftover food.
(How it affected society): Some emetics contained poison, many people died from blood loss but it was deemed as the patients fault not the barber surgeons or wise womens.
What were examples of herbal remedies in to prevention and treatment?
What helped cure illness, why was it used and how did it cure it ?
What: Theriaca (spice based remedy containing up to 70 ingredients), aloe vera, blanc mangier (made from chicken and almonds).
Why: to encourage the balance of the humours.
How: Theriaca treated poisons and snake bites according to Galen (they were known to treat other illnesses over time), aloe vera improved digestion, blanc mangier treated medieval invalids as ingredients were warm and moist.
What were the roles of hospitals in prevention and treatment?
What helped cure illness, why were they used and how did they cure it ?
What: Nothing. Many hospitals didn’t actually treat the sick and
Why: They offered hospitality to travellers and pilgrims. Medieval hospitals were good places to rest and recover.
How: Since religious men were forbidden from cutting into the body, treatment was very limited.
Extras that might be important:
- This is what the Church wanted: a good recovery was proof of the existence of God and the importance of prayer.
- Infectious or terminal patients were often rejected from hospitals - prayer and penance could do nothing for them.
- The majority of sick people were cared for
at home by women.
- By 1500, there were ~1,100 hospitals
- Bury St Edmund’s had at least six hospitals to cater for lepers, the infirm and the old.
- ~30% of the hospitals in England were owned and run by the Church.
What were the roles and trainings of physicians in prevention and treatment?
What methods were used, why were they used and how did they cure it ?
What: They would look at a sample of the patient’s urine, faeces and blood, consult the astrologicaln or urine charts.
Why: To diagnose illness and recommend a course of treatment - they rarely treated patients themselves.
How: Most physicians were clergymen, which meant it was forbidden for them to carry out procedures such as bleeding. Foreign physicians who had no connection to the Church were able to both diagnose and treat their patients.
Extras that might be important:
- Physicians were very expensive, because there weren’t many of them.
- A medical degree took between seven and ten years to complete, depending on the level and university.
- The regimen sanitatis was a loose set of instructions provided by physicians to help a patient maintain good health.
- First showed in Hippocrates work - later picked up by Galen and Arabic scholars like Avicenna.
- This service was only used by the wealthy.
- What you ate was considered important in preventing an imbalance - eating too much was strongly discouraged.
- Bathing was an important treatment for disease.
What were the roles and trainings of apothecaries in prevention and treatment?
What methods were used, why were they used and how did they cure it ?
What: Had good knowledge of the healing power of herbs and plants - studied manuals like Materia Medica, had a good amount of knowledge from either their own experience or traditions.
Why: Physicians prescribed the medication and apothecaries just mixed the remedy, lots of people would see an apothecary as an alternative to a doctor as they were cheaper.
How: Many apothecaries also took part in alchemy & the supernatural - provided amulets & charms for patients who wanted something else to cure a disease.
Extras that might be important:
- They also prescribed poison (which was against the hippocratic oath all physicians sign) and weren’t bound by the oath so they couldnt be trusted well.
- Since many physicians were also priests (didnt support alchemy or supernatural), this meant that the gap between physicians and apothecaries became even wider.
- Apothecaries were not considered as skilled or
knowledgeable as physicians.
What were the roles and trainings of barber surgeons in prevention and treatment?
What do they do, why were they used and how did they cure it ?
What: In medieval England, a skilled surgeon could set a broken limb, remove an arrow or even successfully remove cataracts from the eyes.
Why: Since good barbers had sharp knives and a steady hand, they regularly performed small surgeries as well, such as pulling teeth and bleeding patients.
How: Barber surgeons were the least qualified medical professionals in England yet the quality of surgery was higher than the quality of medical advice, because it was usually based on experience rather than knowledge from books.
Extras that might be important:
- Some physicians were encouraged to study surgery alongside medicine, so many learned their skills at university.
