Medicine Through Time (c.1250 - c.1500 - Medieval Period)

Question 1

Who created the theory of the Four Humours and what was it?

Answer 1

• Hippocrates, a Greek Doctor
• If you are unhealthy, you have an imbalance of the four humours (black bile, yellow bile, blood, phlegm)

Question 2

Who created the ‘Theory of Opposites’ and what was it?

Answer 2

• Galen, a Roman doctor
• If you had too much of a humour, you need to cure it with the opposite (too much phlegm, something cold and wet, is cured by something hot and spicy)

Question 3

Why was the theory of the Four Humours supported by people?

Answer 3

The church supported it and all physicians were taught about it when educated by the church

Question 4

Why was the theory of miasma supported by people?

Answer 4

• Hippocrates and Galen supported it
• King Edward III said ‘The filth from the houses is infecting the air with contagious sickness’ during the Black Death

Question 5

What were the 4 ideas on the causes of disease in the Middle Ages?

Answer 5

1. Four Humours
2. Miasma
3. God
4. Supernatural

Question 6

Why did people believe in Supernatural causes of disease?

Answer 6

1. People in the Middle Ages were superstitious
2. Physicians believed all the stars and planets affected your health and caused disease

Question 7

What religious treatments were used for healing illness?

Answer 7

• Pilgrimages to tombs, where the sick would touch holy relics or pray at a shrine
• Fasting
• Healing prayers and incantations

Question 8

What treatments to do with the Four humours were used for healing illness?

Answer 8

Blood letting through:
Cupping - putting warmed cups onto open cuts to draw out blood
Leeching - using leeches to suck out bad blood
Bathing - warm baths prescribed with herbs to draw out the humours

Question 9

State a supernatural way of curing disease

Answer 9

Barber surgeons used trepanning, which was drilling a hole into the head to release demons

Question 10

What herbal remedies were used for curing illness?

Answer 10

Honey was put on wounds to fight infection

Question 11

3 points about surgery in the Middle Ages

Answer 11

1. Wine was used as an antiseptic
2. Medieval surgeons could do some complex external surgery, like removing eye cataracts and trepanning
3. They could not prevent infections of stop bleeding, resulting in many deaths

Question 12

State 3 prevention methods of diseases

Answer 12

1. People carried sweet smelling herbs and lit fires to overpower bad air
2. Some people wore amulets
3. The practise of staying clean and healthy to avoid illness through Regimen Sanitatis was used

Question 13

Name a problem and a solution surrounding public heath

Answer 13

Problem: Water supplied were polluted by human and industrial waste
Solution: In Gloucester, they used lead pipes and aqueduct to bring in fresh water (however was only for the rich)

Question 14

State 2 points about wise women

Answer 14

• They were local women with experience, who would use herbal remedies and some charms/spells to help cure local villagers
• they were cheap

Question 15

State 2 points about apothecaries

Answer 15

• They mixed various ingredients to produce medicines for physicians
• Trained but had no medical qualifications

Question 16

State 3 points about physicians

Answer 16

1. Medically trained at university for 7 years using Galen and Hippocrates, without dissection, so had little anatomical knowledge
2. Only 100 male physicians in England
3. Carried a Vademecum (book of diagnoses)

Question 17

State 3 points about a Barber Surgeon

Answer 17

1. Could pull out teeth, lance boils, let blood and remove tumours
2. Performed basic surgeries such as amputating limbs
3. Used no antiseptic or anaesthetic - so had a very low success rate for surgery

Question 18

By 1400, how many smaller hospitals set up by wealthy merchant were there in England?

Answer 18

500

Question 19

Who ran hospitals in the medieval period?

Answer 19

The church

Question 20

3 Features of medieval hospitals

Answer 20

1. Focus on ‘care not cure’
2. Patients were given food and warmth to make them feel comfortable
3. Monks would offer prayer as they believed only God could cure you, they also kept hospitals very clean

Question 21

When did the Black Death first reach England, and what percentage of the population were killed by 1349 by it?

Answer 21

1348
- By 1349 it had spread around the rest of Britain, killing 40% of the population

Question 22

What were symptoms of the Black Death?

Answer 22

• Buboes: painful swellings under people’s armpits/groin
• Blisters, high fever, vomiting, fits

Question 23

Ideas on the cause of the Black Death?

Answer 23

• Punishment from God
• Miasma
• The movement of planets, specifically the movement of Saturn and Jupiter

Question 24

Treatments of the Black Death

Answer 24

1. Rubbing a chicken on the bottom of buboes
2. Physicians would pop buboes to release the pressure
3. Sitting close to a fire to drive out the fever

Question 25

State three things that were done to prevent the spread of disease during the Black Death

Answer 25

1. The government introduced ‘quarantine’ and victims were stopped from leaving their houses
2. King Edward ordered the cleaning of he streets to stop, as the odour would drive away the miasma
3. Daily church services to ask God to stop

Question 26

Why were large cities perfect for the spread of the Black Death?

Answer 26

Because people lived so close to each other, 60% of Londoners died

Question 27

What 4 factors limited progress in the Middle Ages?

Answer 27

1. The Church
2. Hippocrates and Galen
3. A respect for tradition
4. The King and Government

Question 28

How did the Church limit progress in the Middle Ages?

Answer 28

• The Church said that anyone who dared to challenge the church would go to hell, so nobody challenged
• The Church controlled all education and libraries

Question 29

How did Galen and Hippocrates limit progress in the Middle Ages?

Answer 29

• Galen had written over 300 medical books, which were detailed and illustrated, so doctors believed everything to be correct

Question 30

How did the King and Government limit progress in the Middle Ages?

Answer 30

• The King of England prioritised defending the country and keeping it peaceful, he was not interested in public health
• The government did not take any taxes to improve people’s health or medicine, so no money was spent to improve medicine

Question 31

What happened in 1440?

Answer 31

Johannes Gutenberg creates the world’s first printing press