Make connections between the following words Theriaca Posies

Make connections between the following words: Theriaca Posies. God Leeches Enema Buboes Blockages Purging Planets Prayers Balance Sin Miasma Women Alignment Remedies Bathing Blood Apothecary Humours Cupping Aloe vera

Medicine in Medieval England, c 1250 c 1500 – Ideas about causes, treatments and methods of prevention 1. What did people believe caused disease and illness? 2. What different treatments did people try at the time to make you better? 3. What methods of preventing ill health did people use?

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Medicine in Medieval – Ideas about causes What can you remember?

Medicine in Medieval – Ideas about causes Supernatural/religious explanations • Leprosy – e. g. from bible – fingers fall off – banished to leper houses (fear MAIN BELIEF: contagious breath) • God sent illness as a punishment for sins/devil sends to test someone’s MAIN BELIEF: faith/cleanse the soul • Alignment of planets and stars helped DIAGNOSE illness WHY? • Majority = VERY religious – Catholic WHY? Church, services, money to church • Considered important due to work of (tithe), no formal education, just Hippocrates taught by church • After Black Death, more popular and • Illness common, inc. malnutrition, but Church accept it more – bad lack of sci knowledge so Church alignment of planets causing the answers the mysterious question of illness disease

Medicine in Medieval – Ideas about causes Theory of Opposites Natural explanations MAIN BELIEF: • Detailed and seemed to fit well with • Theory of the Four Humours (Ancient symptoms Greece – Hippocrates) – Body made • Plus Church supported it! up of 4 humours (blood, phlegm, MAIN BELIEF: black bile, yellow bile) – if out of • Miasma – bad air filled with harmful balance, became ill fumes – breathe in, get ill WHY? • Could visibly see this e. g. snotty when • Hippocrates and Galen wrote about had cold miasmata, linked to swamps, corpses • Could link to the seasons, and link to and rotting matter astrology, personality traits • Link to God – clean, sweet-smelling • Galen (Rome) developed the ideas home is spiritual cleanliness, bad further – wrote lots of books! Plus smell shows sinfulness

Medicine in Medieval – Ideas about causes theories, dissections illegal or used to Why continuity? PROVE GALEN RIGHT GALEN/HIPPOCRATES INFLUENCE: • Works translated and copied by monks • Printing press only at end of Medieval period – no impact til later – books • Church supported their ideas – Galen copied out by hand said body designed for purpose, CHURCH: suggesting God, plus have soul • Didn’t like change – if challenge Galen, • Only their books in libraries/unis etc could be punished BOOK LEARNING: • Control medical learning • Good physician considered to have read • Promoted Galen/Hippocrates many books, not treated lots of patients! Attitudes in Society: • Unis encouraged reading over practice • Strong belief in God • Encourage reading of classical texts e. g. • Physicians who didn’t follow 4 humours Galen wouldn't get work LACK OF ALTERNATIVES: • Belief that since medicine had always been done this way, no need to change • Lack of sci evidence to support other

Medicine in Medieval – Treatments What can you remember?

Medicine in Medieval – Treatments Religious/Supernatural Treatments NON CHURCH • Using charms or amulets CHURCH • Healing prayers/incantations (spells) • Physicians consulted star charts when • Paying for a special mass (service) to diagnosing illness, and link these to treatments – check these at each be said stage of treatment • Fasting (going without food) • Pilgrimages to tombs of those noted to have healing powers • Offerings to shrines, touching holy relics • Sometimes encouraged to let disease run its course as God sent it to purge soul

Medicine in Medieval – Treatments Natural Treatments expensive HUMOURAL TREATMENTS • Common remedy – THERIACA – spicebased mixture, up to 70 ingredients! • Each symptom treated separately as Used for variety of illnesses represented imbalance of humours • Different foods prescribed to balance • Blood-letting (Phlebotomy) – barber humours e. g. blanc mangier surgeons/wise women – cutting vein, (chicken/almonds) for invalids leeches, cupping • Purging – emptying digestive system – BATHING emetic to make you vomit e. g. bitter • Warm baths to help body draw in heat herbs like scammony/aniseed/parsley, to dissolve blockages in humours or laxative to empty bowels e. g. linseeds • Herbal remedies put in bath fried in hot fat, or enema (clyster) • Superstitions e. g. boil a fox in water and REMEDIES bathe in it!!! • Herbal infusions to drink, sniff, bathe in • Aloe vera for digestion, mint, camomile, rose oils, almonds, turpentine – often

Medicine in Medieval – Prevention What can you remember?

Medicine in Medieval – Prevention Preventing disease CHURCH • Lead a life free from sin • Regular prayer, confessions, offering tithes HYGIENE • Guided by Regimen Sanitatis • E. g. exercise, not overeat, regular bathing, breathe clean air • Bathing to avoid miasma • Cleanliness next to godliness • Make homes smell sweat and fresh DIET • Avoid eating too much • Many purge themselves to prevent getting ill PURIFYING THE AIR • Attempt to keep air free from miasmata by purifying it • E. g. spreading sweet herbs like lavender • Carry flowers (posy), place in jewellery (pomander) • Local authorities remove rotting animals from street, clean public toilets

Medicine in Medieval – Caring for Sick What can you remember?

Medicine in Medieval – Caring for the Sick Medieval Healers • Herbal manuals e. g. Materia Medica PHYSICIANS • Plus lots of experience • New unis e. g. Oxford, Paris, Padua • Not seen as skilled like Physicians • Medicine more professional – degree 7 -10 • Cheap compared to Physicians years • Prescribed poison and alchemy and • Diagnose illness and recommend supernatural e. g. amulets, charms treatments – don’t do the treatments SURGEONS • Urine sample, faeces, blood • Barber surgeons least qualified • Astrological charts • Small surgeries, pulling teeth, bleeding • Check humoural tendencies patients • Very expensive • Some highly trained – some physicians encouraged to study surgery alongside APOTHECARIES medicine • Mixed herbal remedies – good knowledge • Skilled surgeon could set broken limb, of healing power of herbs remove arrow, remove cataracts from eye

Medicine in Medieval – Caring for the Sick • If people get better, church says god Medieval Hospitals/Home allowed it HOSPITALS • No physicians in English hospitals • 1, 100 hospitals by 1500 • Not to treat sick, but offer hospitality to • No infectious patients travellers – rest and recuperate HOME • 30% owned by Church, run by monks • Most people cared for in home and nuns • Women expected to do this – make • Rest funded by endowment (paid by comfortable, restorative foods, mixing dead wealthy person), still often run by herbal remedies church • Grow herbs for healing e. g. marigolds • Rest, recover, clean beds/clothing and clover • No insane or pregnant people • Women skilled and respected • Priests saw to spiritual welfare • Minor surgeries at times e. g. bleeding • Prayers encouraged

Explain why there was continuity in ideas about the causes of disease during the period c 1250 -c 1500 You may use the following information in your answer: The Church Galen You must also use information of your own. [12 marks]

Explain why there was little change in the care provided by hospitals in the period c 1250 -c 1500 You may use the following information in your answer: • Ideas of the Church • Herbal remedies You must also use information of your own. [12 marks]

Explain why there were different ways of treating the sick during the Middle Ages. You may use the following information in your answer: • Four humours • Family healers You must also use information of your own. [12 marks]

‘The main reason there was continuity in beliefs about causes of disease and illness in the period c 1250 -1500 was due to the influence of the Church. ’ How far do you agree? (Stimulus points: Galen, lack of printing press).