Medieval medicine 1250-1500

Question 1

Who was Hippocrates and what were his beliefs?

Answer 1

Greek doctor who created the theory of the four humours

Question 2

What were the four humours?

Answer 2

Black bile, yellow bile, phlegm ,blood

Question 3

Why did Hippocrates say people became ill?

Answer 3

If their humours were not balanced

Question 4

Who was Galen?

Answer 4

A Roman doctor who developed the idea of the four humours

Question 5

What was Galens theory?

Answer 5

To balance humours out

Question 6

What were other ideas about the causes of disease?

Answer 6

Miasma-bad air
God- punishment for their sins
Supernatural-stars and planets effect health

Question 7

Why were urine charts used?

Answer 7

To check the colour, smell and taste to check for Illness and unbalanced humours

Question 8

Religious treatments?

Answer 8

Prayer
Fasting
Pilgrimages to tombs, praying to holy shrines to cure their illness
Paying for mass to be said

Question 9

How were the four humours treated?

Answer 9

Bloodletting which included:
Cupping (putting warm cups onto open cut to draw out blood)
Leeching (using leaches to duck out the blood)

Question 10

How else were the four tumours treated?

Answer 10

Purging (swelling mixed herbs and animal fat to make you sick or taking laxatives to empty bowls)
Bathing (warm baths prescribed with herbs to draw out humours.

Question 11

What were herbal remedies used for?

Answer 11

Smell, drink or bathe in
Honey was also used in wounds

Question 12

What were in the herbal remedies?

Answer 12

Most remedies used herbs, minerals and animal parts – Stye in the eye used onion, garlic, bulls bladder and wine.

Question 13

What was surgery like in the Middle Ages?

Answer 13

Medieval surgeons could do some complex external surgery but were not trained properly and were still unaware about dirt causing infections and were unable to stop heavy bleeding.

Question 14

What was wine used for in the Middle Ages ?

Answer 14

An antiseptic

Question 15

What did they use as an anaesthetic?

Answer 15

Natural substances (opium or hemlock)

Question 16

How did people try and prevent disease in the Middle Ages?

Answer 16

Prayer, Christian lifestyle
People based their treatments on zodiac charts
Carried sweet smelling herbs to ward off miasma as well as lighting fires and ringing bells.

Question 17

What did physicians advise to the rich?

Answer 17

Physicians promoted ‘Regimin Sanitis’ for patients to keep healthy.
This included; avoiding stress, exercising, eating a healthy diet and bathing regularly

Question 18

What was the public health act?

Answer 18

The rich spent money to keep towns clean, they tried to improve sanitation and introduced clean water with London being the first city to have piped water. However the poor still lived is bad conditions

Question 19

What were the health problems in towns?
And what were there solutions?

Answer 19

Waste and litter -laws put in against littering
Too many animals-12 rakers were employed to clean the streets
Dirty water -started using lead pipes
Leaking latrines- laws on locations for private latrines, cesspits built with stone to stop leakage

Question 20

Who were wise women?

Answer 20

-local women with experience
-would use herbal remedies and some charms/spells to help cure local villagers
-were cheap
-often helped with childbirth
-not allowed to be physicians

Question 21

Who were apothecaries?

Answer 21

-like pharmacists
-trained but no medical qualifications ,highly experienced
-mixed various ingredients to make medicines for physicians
-cheaper than a physician

Question 22

Who were physicians?

Answer 22

-medically trained at university for 7 years using Hippocrates and galen
-only 100 male physicians in England
-would diagnose illness and suggest treatment
-took clinical observation
-used four humours,urine charts and astrology to diagnose
-very expensive

Question 23

Who were barber surgeons?

Answer 23

-untrained but experienced surgeon
-use wound man diagram for advice
-performed basic surgery
-used no anaesthetics or antiseptics (low success rate)
-cheapest surgery available

Question 24

What were hospitals like in the Middle Ages?

Answer 24

-run by the church
-did not allow infectious patients
-most did not have doctors but rather a priest with monks and nuns
-focused of ‘care not cure’
-kept very clean
-had gardens herbs and vegetables patches

Question 25

When was the Black Death?

Answer 25

1348-49

Question 26

Where did the Black Death break out?

Answer 26

China then India then across Europe until it reach Dorset England 1348

Question 27

What percentage of the population died by 1949?

Answer 27

40%

Question 28

How many people were being buried a day at one point?

Answer 28

200

Question 29

What were the symptoms of the Black Death?

Answer 29

developed painful swellings under their armpits/groin called buboes. Blisters appeared all over, followed by a high fever, severe headaches, vomiting, fits, unconsciousness and then death.

Question 30

Ideas on the cause of the Black Death?

Answer 30

-god
-movement of planets
-miasma
-Jews by poisoning the wells

Question 31

What actually caused the Black Death?

Answer 31

Fleas on rats which then passed it on to humans, trade amongst ships brought these rats and fleas to England

Question 32

Treatments for the Black Death?

Answer 32

-Rubbing onions, herbs or a chopped up snake on the boils or rubbing a chickens bottom on the buboes
-Physicians would pop the buboes to release the pressure or try bleeding or leeching
-Sitting close to a fire or in a sewer to drive out the fever, or fumigating the house with herbs to get out the bad air
-Praying to God in the hope he would cure illness

Question 33

How was the Black Death tried to be prevented?

Answer 33

• government introduced a quarantine
  -king Edward ordered cleaning of the streets to stop (believing dour would drive away the miasma)
  -carry herbs
  -avoid people
  -pray to god

Question 34

Living conditions in the 1340s?

Answer 34

-large cities made it easier for disease to spread
-horse waste everywhere
-butchering of meat led to waste and blood everywhere had no drainage , sewage rubbish collection, where rats lived and germs grew

Question 35

How much change in ideas of cause was there in the Middle Ages?

Answer 35

No progress- everyone believed god caused disease and no one challenged it as well as miasma and the four humours

Question 36

How much change was there in the treatment of disease?

Answer 36

-britains first hospital (st. Bartholomews opened on 1123 and by 1400 there were over 500
-surgery made some progress due to gained experience
-some remedies used by wise women actually worked (mint)

Question 37

What wasn’t there much progress in treatment during the Middle Ages?

Answer 37

-hospital’s focussed on ‘care not cure’
-during surgery 50% of patients died due to infections and injuries (used dirty equipment and could not stop heavy bleeding)
-most treatments aimed to treat the four humours ,these did not work and often made things worse
-prayer also was not working

Question 38

How much progress was there in prevention during the Middle Ages?

Answer 38

Progress for the rich as they could pay for better living conditions as well as the regimen sanitis as they could afford a good lifestyle however the poor remained in bad living conditions.

Question 39

What factors limited progress?

Answer 39

The church- said anyone who challenges them will go the hell) ,was also, in charge of education, where they taught Galen and Hippocrates ideas, and if they were challenged, they were also challenging God,dissection was also banned
Respect for tradition
The king - the king aims to defend the country, and keep it peaceful not to be interested in public health
The government- did not take any taxes to improve peoples health or medicine

Question 40

When was the Middle Ages?

Answer 40

1250-1500