Health and the People Medieval medicine and the Renaissance

Question 1

Who was Hippocrates?

Answer 1

Doctor who was born in Kos, Greece, in about 460BC. He is known as the ‘father of modern medicine’.

Question 2

What did the Hippocratic oath promise?

Answer 2

That doctors will do their best to treat their patients and keep information confidential

Question 3

What ideas about the body did Hippocrates develop?

Answer 3

The idea of the four humours. That the body was made up of blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. If they were out of balance illness would occur.

The idea of clinical observation and the body being viewed holistically rather than in parts.

Question 3

Who was Galen?

Answer 3

Roman doctor who was born in AD129. He developed the theory of opposites, which concerned how people could be treated using the four humours.

Question 4

What ideas about anatomy did Galen discover and how?

Answer 4

That the brain controls speech. That blood flows through the heart through tiny holes in the septum. That the human jaw bone is two separate bones. By dissecting pigs and monkeys.

Question 5

What mistakes did Galen make when making discoveries about anatomy?

Answer 5

Blood passes through veins and arteries not holes in the septum. The human jaw bone is one bone not two separate bones.

Question 6

What were some methods of medieval treatment?

Answer 6

Prayer. Astrology. Trepanning.
Bloodletting. Purging. Herbal remedies.

Question 7

Who provided treatment in Medieval times?

Answer 7

Monasteries where monks lived which were based on prayer and herbal remedies. Local wise women with herbal remedies. Trained physician for rich people.

Question 8

What was the church’s role in Medieval medicine?

Answer 8

They trained doctors and provided healthcare in infirmaries. Priests prayed for the sick as their duty to help who needed it. Supported Galen’s ideas.

Question 9

How did the Church help but also slow down medical progress?

Answer 9

They provided care in monasteries for free. Monks copied out Galen and Hippocrates’ work and preserved their knowledge to later be developed.

They limited doctors’ ability to challenge Galen. Many treatments were based on prayer as a result of illness caused by God.

Question 10

What was the role of Islam in Medieval medicine?

Answer 10

Qur’an tells Muslims they have a duty to care for people who are sick. They have a duty to give money to charity which was used to build some hospitals. They were not limited by Galen’s ideas.

Question 11

Who was Al-Razi and how did he help medieval medical progress?

Answer 11

Doctor who helped plan the building of a hospital in Iraq which was the first documented general hospital in the world. First person to work out the difference between smallpox and measles. Wrote over 200 books taught in universities in Europe.

Question 12

Who was Avicenna and how did he help medieval medical progress?

Answer 12

Doctor and astronomer who explored ideas about anatomy and human development in his book “The canon of medicine” (1025). One of the first doctors to build on the works of Galen and not just copy them.

Question 13

What was trepanning (medieval surgery)?

Answer 13

Cutting a hole into a person’s skull to allow “bad spirits” to leave the body. Most people died but evidence of survival has been found.

Question 14

What was cauterisation (medieval surgery)?

Answer 14

Heating a piece of iron in a fire and pressing it onto a wound to seal blood vessels. High risk of infection and death.

Question 15

What anaesthetics were used for medieval surgery?

Answer 15

Mostly herbal remedies using things like opium and hemlock (poisonous). Sometimes alcohol was used.

Question 16

Who were important surgeons in medieval times?

Answer 16

John Bradmore- Healed Henry IV’s son from a wounded cheek by an arrow using honey and wine. invented equipment to remove arrow.

Hugh and Theodoric of Lucia- Questioned Galen saying pus was a sign of healing. Used wine to clean wounds and as antiseptic.

Barber surgeons- Removed teeth. Performed amputations and Bloodletting. They would also treat injured soldiers from war.

Question 17

What were the conditions like in medieval towns (public health)?

Answer 17

The streets were filthy and there was poor sanitation. After the Romans left, public baths and toilets etc were destroyed or left in terrible condition.

Question 18

What were the problems with toilets and butchers for public health in medieval times?

Answer 18

Toilets were built over the River Thames and so waste would be dumped where people received water from. Some households threw waste onto the street.

Butchers would dump waste they could not sell in the streets or the river. Open drains ran down the middle of streets washing waste into rivers. This attracted rats and later led to the Black Death.

Question 19

What were solutions for bad public health in medieval times?

Answer 19

People had to pay a 40p fine (£400 now) as punishment for leaving rubbish on streets. Butchers were banned from slaughtering animals on the street.

Question 20

What new jobs were created to improve medieval public health?

Answer 20

Gongfermers -Emptying out cesspits. They were supposed to take sewage and waste out of city but some left it.

Muck rackers- Street cleaners

Surveyors of the pavement -removed rubbish and waste from pavements.

Question 21

What were monasteries like in medieval times (public health)?

Answer 21

Conditions were cleaner and more hygienic than towns. Often had a supply of running water, as they were usually built near a river which would carry away sewage and provide clean drinking water.

Question 22

What was the Black Death (public health)?

Answer 22

1348-1349 pandemic across Europe. Killed up to half of Europe.

Question 23

What were the three types of plague (public health)?

Answer 23

Bubonic- Caused large swellings called buboes under the armpits, on the neck and in the groin. Kills 50%.

Pneumonic- Spread through coughs and sneezing. 90% death rate.

Septicaemic- Attacks blood. 100% death rate.

Question 24

What did people believe caused the Black Death? (public health)?

Answer 24

God was punishing people for not their sin. Theory of miasma corrupting the air. Four Humours were out of balance in each victim.

Question 25

What actually caused the Black Death (public health)?

Answer 25

Rats carrying stains of the bubonic plague which lived in fleas and hopped onto humans when rats died. Merchants trading worldwide brought the disease form China.

Question 26

How did people attempt to cure or treat the Black Death (public health)?

Answer 26

Flagellants whipped themselves to show God they were punishing themselves for their sins. Prayer. Bloodletting. Herbal remedies. Rubbing onions on buboes that they thought also combatted miasma with its fumes.

Question 27

What is the meaning of ‘Renaissance’?

Answer 27

French word that means ‘rebirth’. Significant discoveries in medicine made. Andreas Vesalius proved that some of Galen’s ancient ideas were wrong and others began to do the same.

Question 28

What was created in 1440 that led to further medical progress during the Renaissance?

Answer 28

The printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. new ideas were written down, they could quickly be copied many times and communicated to people across Europe.

Question 29

Who was Andreas Vesalius and what did he do to help medical progress during the Renaissance?

Answer 29

He specialised in anatomy and studied the body closely through dissection. He wrote the book “On the Fabric of the Human Body” in 1543 a very detailed and accurate guide for doctors on how the human body worked. His discoveries proved that Galen had made some mistakes such as with the jawbone and blood.

Question 30

Why was Andreas Vesalius significant to medical progress during the Renaissance and later?

Answer 30

Encouraged people to question Galen. Accuracy of anatomical knowledge meant new advances could be made in medicine.

Question 31

Who was Ambroise Paré and what did he do to help medical progress during the Renaissance?

Answer 31

He worked as a barber surgeon in the French army. Cauterisation was used to help wounds but he one day ran out of oil. He used egg yolk, rose oil and turpentine and found an effective treatment that was less painful by chance.

Question 32

How did Pare help with amputations during the Renaissance?

Answer 32

He used ligatures to tie blood vessels and stop bleeding which stopped blood loss but did not reduce death rate due to lack of knowledge of germ theory.

Question 33

Why was Ambroise Paré significant to medical progress during the Renaissance?

Answer 33

Paré showed that new methods could be more successful than older ideas. Ligatures would be useful when germ theory and carbolic acid was discovered.

Question 34

Who was William Harvey and how did he contribute to medical progress during the Renaissance?

Answer 34

English doctor who studied where Andreas Vesalius did and became physician of King James I. He dissected frogs and found that blood was pumped by the heart around the body. Found that blood vessels make blood flow in one direction. Published “An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood” on his findings in 1628

Question 35

Why was Harvey significant to medical progress during the Renaissance?

Answer 35

Proved Galen to be incorrect. Idea of circulation led to blood transfusions from animals to humans.

Question 36

What was the Great Plague during the Renaissance?

Answer 36

The plague (Black Death) returned to England in 1665 and killed 100,000 people in LDN.

Question 37

What did the government do to help stop The Great Plague during the Renaissance?

Answer 37

They introduced quarantine for ships coming into London. Red Cross was painted on the door of infected houses. Searchers were employed to find cause of death. Stray cats and dogs were killed because they believed to cause it.

Same cures from old plague were used.

Question 38

How did the Great Fire of London help stop the plague during the renaissance?

Answer 38

There was much rebuilding of the capital. The rebuilt city had no open sewers in the streets and buildings were more spread out reducing chance of outbreak.

Question 39

How were the sick treated during the Renaissance?

Answer 39

Hospitals- Received money from wealthy donors or royal endowments

Physicians- Tended to treat richer people or royalty still used Galen and Hippocrates’ methods.

Apothecaries- Sold remedies and medicines to surgeons and members of the public using herbal remedies.

Quack doctors- Unqualified and claimed to be selling miracle cures (unicorn horns) as it was profitable.

Question 40

Who was John Hunter and how did he help medical progress during the Renaissance?

Answer 40

Trained surgeon. Tried to prove that syphilis and gonorrhoea were caused by the same disease by injecting patient with gonorrhoea pus. Failed as he also infected them with syphillis.
He collected many animal and human skeletons to know how the body worked (14,000 items).
He disproved the idea that a gunshot injury poisoned the area around the wound.

Question 41

Why was Hunter significant to medical progress during the Renaissance?

Answer 41

Hunter encouraged surgeons to follow scientific methods when developing their practice. He wrote many books. Collection of human and animal body parts is now in the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons.

Question 42

What was smallpox?

Answer 42

Disease that caused severe rashes all over the body. 30% death rate. Biggest killer disease in 1700s.

Question 43

What was inoculation?

Answer 43

Giving someone a small amount of pus from a smallpox victim, which protected them against the disease.

Question 44

What were the problems with inoculation?

Answer 44

-strong religious objections
-sometimes people died
-innoculated people could still pass on the disease
-poorest people could not afford inoculation

Question 45

How did Edward Jenner help defeat smallpox?

Answer 45

1.He had heard local gossip from milkmaids saying that those who caught cowpox did not catch smallpox
2.Inserted cowpox into 8 year old James Phipp then gave him smallpox 6 weeks later.
3.Tested out method 16 times and all were successful but he could not prove why. named it vaccination after latin for cow “vacca”
4.William Woodville and George Pearson carried out experiments but their equipment was contaminated.

Question 46

Why did people oppose Jenner’s vaccine?

Answer 46

Believed vaccine interfered with God’s will. Some thought it unsafe saying people would grow horns. Jenner was unable to explain how it worked due to lack of knowledge of germ theory.

Question 47

Why was Edward Jenner significant to medical progress during the Renaissance?

Answer 47

1853 vaccination became compulsory. showed importance of scientific method. Smallpox eradicated by 1980.