Medicine Through Time Flashcards
What is the theory of the four humours?
The body was made up of four humours; blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. Too much or too little of any one of these humours (an imbalance) would cause and illness.
What were the Roman ideas about the cause of disease?
The Romans took their ideas about medicine from the Greeks, for example Hippocrates and the four humours.
They also believed that disease was a punishment from the gods and thought praying was a cure.
They also believed bad air and smells caused sickness and so built away from swamps and kept places clean.
What did the Romans provide in terms of public health?
Public Toilets - Sewers washed waste away to near by rivers
Water Pipes - Built from lead and transported water to houses, public fountains and public baths
What did Galen do?
He adapted the theory of the four humours by suggesting new ways to balance humours. For example, he prescribed hot chilli peppers for an imbalance of phlegm.
He also carried out dissections on animals and mapped out the human body (which was wrong) and this was followed until the renaissance period.
What happened after the Romans left Britain?
The government couldn’t maintain the public health facilities and so they were left to fall into disrepair. The only thing that survived was the Christian Church.
What ideas were there about disease during the Middle Ages?
People in the Middle Ages still believed in the work of Hippocrates and the theory of the four humours as this is what the church believed.
They also believed that illness was a punishment from God and prayer and self-harm would cure them.
Like the Romans, they believed bad air would cause sickness.
What influence did the Christian Church have during the Middle Ages?
The Church taught illness was a punishment from God and people should suffer
The Church supported Galen and Hippocrates because they supported the idea that God created all Humans
The monasteries and convents had the best libraries and some provided training for doctors. And so they controlled education and encouraged others not to prove Galen wrong.
What treatment was available during the Middle Ages?
Physicians and doctors had training at a church-run university
Doctors studied urine charts and astrology for diagnostics and treatment
Doctors only treated the rich. The poor had treatment at home or at a village healers
Doctors didn’t attend childbirth and women were like midwives
Wise women provided herbal remedies and advice
Hospitals were places of rest and recuperation
