Medieval Medicine Standstill: Public Health

Question 1

What does public health mean?

Answer 1

Refers to the health and well being of a population as a whole.

Question 2

Main impacts of the Black Death:

Answer 2

• Kills you in a couple of days
• there was no cure
• In 5 years killed 2/3 of Europe’s population.
• Killed 1/3 of England’s population, which was 1.5 million people.
• spread through fleas on rats.
• dead berries in mass graves.

Question 3

What was the black death?

Answer 3

The Black Death was an epidemic disease in the medieval period that began in Asia and spread to Europe through trading path. It arrived in England in 1348. It is a bubonic plague.

Question 4

Where was the arrival of the Black Death traced to in England?

Answer 4

It’s arrival was traced to 2 ships docking in Melcombe harbour in Dorset.

Question 5

What places did the Black Death affect?

Answer 5

Asia, Europe, Middle East and North Africa.

Question 6

When did the Black Death occur?

Answer 6

Originated in the early 14 century and then subsided by the end of 1950. However, small outbreaks kept occurring till about the 18th century.

Question 7

How did malnutrition affect the Black Death?

Answer 7

It dramatised the plague as people have very weak immune systems easily susceptible to the plague as their body could not fight it off and had not defence.

Question 8

What is the difference between bubonic and pneumonic?

Answer 8

Pneumonic affected respiratory system and bubonic refers to affected lymph notes.

Question 9

Examples of the Bubonic aspects of the Black Death?

Answer 9

• Rat fleas fed of the rats too so they died of plague as well.
• victims would get fever and find large lumps(buboes) in armpits or groin. They would develop a rash of red and black spots.
• most victims dies within a few days.
• the germ lives in the blood of black fats and the gut of fleas.
• the fleas would bite people and affect them.

Question 10

Examples of the Pneumonic aspects of the Black Death?

Answer 10

• it attacked the lungs and victims would cough up blood and spray deadly germs as they coughed.
• the victims breath would begin to smell as their lungs rotted inside of them.
• came form the microbe:pastuerella pestis.
• about 7/10 victims died within a week.
• could be caught through infected air.

Question 11

Why was no cure found?

Answer 11

Because at that time people didn’t understand what germs and microbes were so didn’t understand why things like this occurred. Microbes were found 1868.

Question 12

What did people in the medieval period blame the Black Death on?

Answer 12

• Bad smells from over flowing privy, rotting food which corrupt the air.
• invisible fumes spreading across country.
• the Four Humours were out of balance in each victim.
• it was caused by a huge earthquake in China in 1347.
• the Jews poisoned the wells and springs.
• god was angry- not enough people were going to church or behaving properly.
• astronomy: planets were not correctly lined e.g Saturn was in conjunction with Mars and Jupiter and this always meant something bad was happening.

Question 13

What was done in villages and towns to avoid the Black Death?

Answer 13

• March through the streets praying to God to be spared from the plague. This was ordered by the king.
• stop people from entering or leaving village.
• carry a posey of sweat smelling herbs and spices to keep away evil smells.
• clean up filth from the streets. Ordered by king.
• limit the number of mourners at a funeral.
• burn clothes of plague victims and avoid all plague victims.
• avoid eating too much.
• attend church every day and pray for your soul.
• bathe in urine 3x a day or drink it 1x.
• drink a mixture of vinegar and mercury.

Question 14

What was done by people in villages and towns to cure the Black Death victims?

Answer 14

• Pop open buboes to release the disease.
• take laxatives to Male you go to toilet(to flush out disease).
• carry out flagellation- walking through street praying to God and whipping yourself.
• have yourself bled to release evil spirits from you body.
• attach a live chicken or pigeon to buboes to drive away disease.

Question 15

Why did some attempts to avoid the plague or treat it just dramatise it?

Answer 15

Blood letting or eating less and much more often weakened immune system so they couldn’t fight of disease.or for example attaching a chicken could give them E. coli or drinking urine could give them another illness which just made them more susceptible to the plague.

Question 16

What factors of poor public health led to the Black Death?

Answer 16

• Over crowded populations in villages and towns and houses were built close together so disease spread quickly.
• people didn’t bathe or wash their hands. Peasants had a bath around 1x a year meaning they were dirty and carried/ spread microbes.
• villages/towns full of live stock, which attracted fleas.
• Dirty streams were full of rubbish, waste and animal dung. This attracted rats who carries with them the disease and fleas.

Question 17

Religious impacts the Black Death had:

Answer 17

• Nobles decided to hire private chapels so others couldn’t pass the plague on. -religion became privatised. Nobles wanted to be separated from peasants.
• religion lost some of its power and authority after plague.
• some survivors rejected religion and turned to science for explanation.
• church lost many experienced clergy to the plague.
• many churchmen accused of cowardice for deserting their village changing many people opinions towards church.

Question 18

Social impacts of the Black Death:

Answer 18

-physiological problems (surviving with the loss of friends, family and 1/3 of England’s population).
-many children made orphans when left by their dead parents.
-printing press was developed to mass produce things quickly to get word out. It was cheap to but so all could afford it. Rather than monks writing out books.
-Nobles left without working force as peasants moved on to better jobs with more money as they were needed to plough fields, collect harvest etc.
-Nobles looted cities for pay and food.
-medieval lords turned to sheep farming, required less work force, which further reduced the supply of basic food e.g bread.
Misunderstanding of the cause of the plague caused wide spread persecution of minority’s such as foreigners, beggars and lepers.

Question 19

Economic impacts of Black Death:

Answer 19

-in some places such as Italy there was more food available (to trade with) and farmers were able to grow luxury items because of this such as olive oil. Same happened in England.
-as people does wages grew. Peasants/ poor could now invest in land and became land owners.
-some turned to mills to do their work with no peasants.
-however, some towns faced food shortages as crops had not been harvested due to the lack of peasants to do so. Harvest rotted in fields and animals escaped into forest.
Many peasants took the opportunity to improve their life style and demanded higher wages.
-infiltration occurred: less food means food prices went up in some areas food prices quadrupled and became unaffordable.

Question 20

What did Guy Dechaulic do during the plague?

Answer 20

Looked at symptoms of plague rather than philosophy and wrote a book, that’s became popular and a big influence for many years.

Question 21

Political impacts of Black Death:

Answer 21

• Laws at the time stated that peasants could only leave their village if they had their lords permission. After plague, lords encouraged peasants to their village to come work for them.
• the feudal system was breaking down, so to stop peasants moving to find better wages, the government introduced the statue of Labourers in 1351. It said no peasant could be paid more than the wages in 1346. No lord or master could offer more wages than in 1346. No peasant could leave the village they belonged to.
• Anger creates by the statue of Labourers along with the increased tax that peanuts now had to pay (less of them to pay for kings war abroad) caused the peasants revolt in 1381.

Question 22

What was the statue of Labourers?

Answer 22

the feudal system was breaking down, so to stop peasants moving to find better wages, the government introduced the statue of Labourers in 1351. It said no peasant could be paid more than the wages in 1346. No lord or master could offer more wages than in 1346. No peasant could leave the village they belonged to.

Question 23

What happened as a result of the peanuts anger towards the Statue of Labourers?

Answer 23

Anger creates by the statue of Labourers along with the increased tax that peanuts now had to pay (less of them to pay for kings war abroad) caused the peasants revolt in 1381.

Question 24

How did the water supply in towns have a negative impact on the public health in towns and what attempts wrest dine to increase sanitation?

Answer 24

Threat: Wells for fetching water and chess pools we often built close together, could contaminate water supply with urine/waste.

Attempt: some towns installed pipes made of wood or lead to ensure a clean supply of water.

Question 25

How did the toilets in towns have a negative impact on the public health in towns and what attempts wrest dine to increase sanitation?

Answer 25

Threat: some public privies had been built over rivers. This meant there was no need for a cesspit and polluted water.

Attempt: some towns built new privies from money left to the town by wealthy deceased citizens. Emptied by farmers who needed manure.

Question 26

How did bad smells in towns have a negative impact on the public health in towns and what attempts wrest dine to increase sanitation?

Answer 26

Threat: animals were everywhere. Horses for transport; creating tonnes of dung every week; or domestic pigs roaming around eating scraps from streets.

Attempt: town authorities employed people/ teams if rakers to remove animal dung from the streets.

Question 27

How did industry supply in towns have a negative impact on the public health in towns and what attempts were done to increase sanitation?

Answer 27

Threat: butchers often through animal blood and guts on the street or in a water source. They would butcher animals in crowded places rather than segregated areas.

Question 28

Why were towns such unhealthy places with poor public health?

Answer 28

They were very overcrowded and sanitation was limited also other factors such as:
-water supply
-toilets
-state of streets
-bad smells
-industry
Added to poor health and sanitation in towns.

Question 29

State 3 reasons why monasteries were much healthier places with better public health!

Answer 29

• they were wealthy in Middle Ages. People gave money, valuables and lands in return for prayers to be said for them once they died.
• they also tended to be built away from towns because monks believed that people were sinful so isolated themselves. This also protected them from epidemics such as, plagues as they lived in recluse.
• monks were educated and disciplined, with access to books and manuscripts providing knowledge in the use of herbs and healing.

Question 30

How did access to water contribute to monasteries having better health?

Answer 30

-abbeys were situated in an isolated place but near (or on a river). Rievaulx Abbey actually diverted a river to ensure a reliable source of water. Needed water to supply their mill and deliver water to kitchen and bee houses.

At Fountains Abbey river flows from west to east and takes dirty water away from the toilets which are positioned over river. They didn’t use the river for drinking as they got this water from wells.

Question 31

How did physic garden contribute to monasteries having better public health?

Answer 31

Their infirmaries had good supplies of water so the patients could be bathed and their clothes boiled clean. In their physic garden they grew moats and herbs such as, ginger, peony, cinnamon and balsam in order to help heal patients. They also spent money on wine, aniseed, cloves, vinegar, olive oil, liquorish and more for the care of others.

Question 32

How did getting washed contribute to monasteries having better health?

Answer 32

All monasteries has an elaborate system of pipes to deliver water to wash basins. Filtering systems were also installed to remove impurities by allowing dirt to settle out of water. They had excellent facilities for monks to wash. They used the lavatorium room for this and water from here could be entered into rivers.

Question 33

How did privies contribute to monasteries having better health?

Answer 33

They had otters under them to collect urine. Used urine for bleaching cloth produced from sheep. Other products from the toilet were emptied into a pit, from which the waste was dug out and used as manure. They flushed them clean from time to time by diverting river water through them to clear them away.

Question 34

How did physic contribute to monasteries having better health?

Answer 34

Their infirmaries had good supplies of water so the patients could be bathed and their clothes boiled clean. In their physic garden they grew moats and herbs such as, ginger, peony, cinnamon and balsam in order to help heal patients. They also spent money on wine, aniseed, cloves, vinegar, olive oil, liquorish and more for the care of others.