Medicine- of the Medieval Kind
Throughout history, people have had many different ideas about what illness is, where it comes from, and how you can treat it. Unfortunately, the ideas that ancient doctors had concerning medicine were almost always incorrect. The middle age time period experienced many changes in medicine, as they went from believing in a lot of untrue and ancient ideas, to discovering many truths about medicine.
Religious Influences
Medicine in the middle ages was ruled by religion. Herbal remedies and cures based on superstition were seen as witchcraft by the church, and consequently outlawed. Disease was believed to be the punishment of God, and it was thought that only prayer and repentance could heal you. Hospitals were often held in religious establishments, and pretty much the only care their patients received was food and comfort. Even most doctors were priests or religious scholars.
Healing
A women being bled.
Physical injuries like broken bones, burns, and cuts were treatable. However, most of their techniques were crude, especially surgery. Amputations, setting broken bones, and binding wounds was a relatively common practice for healers. Wine was pored in wounds to prevent infection, and Opium was sometimes used as an anesthetic. Opium was expensive though, so it was rarely used. Bloodletting, or bleeding, was used to treat many illnesses. Blood was either drained directly through a cut, or bloodsucking leeches would be placed on the skin to suck it out. Unfortunately for many, bloodletting killed more people than it was said to save.
Hygiene and Affects
After the fall of the Roman Empire, people no longer put any importance on hygiene. Commoners didn’t have access to a sewage system, and the systems that existed were inadequate. Most rarely ever bathed or drank clean water. The only treatment of a bad tooth was to pull it out, and people cleaned their teeth with a cloth. People often covered floors with rushes (grassy plants), which was very bad for people’s health. This lack of hygiene made disease an extremely common occurrence. However, further on the Middle Ages, hygiene did become more of a concern.
Black Death
An artists view of the plague.
In 1347, a terrible plague known as the Black Death began in Istanbul (modern-day Turkey), and was soon brought by traders to Europe. The victims of it soon had swollen glands and dark spots. They experienced sever vomiting, chills, convulsions, and were feverish. The plague devastated Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. By 1400, it had killed 20 to 30 million people, and had also killed 1/3 of Europe’s population. The main reason the plague was so destructive, was because no one had tried to control or get rid of the rats that carried the disease.
There were many different ways that people tried to cure the plague, from somewhat sensible ideas to ridiculous ones. One idea was that the disease was in the blood, and you had to cut open the veins leading to the heart. This was the most common treatment used to fight the disease. It was also said, that you could instead cut open the swellings to let the disease out, and then you should put a mixture of white lily roots, tree risen, and dried human feces (or stool) on the cuts. Others said that if you got the disease, you should bathe in rose water and vinegar. Another supposed cure was to have the diseased drink a glass of their own urine twice a day. Some believed that a live hen could draw the disease out of the swellings, if the hen was placed near them. People were told not to eat things that smelt badly quickly, like meat and cheese. Sweet smelling flowers were supposed to help prevent you being infected. Some people even began to live or visit sewers. They figured out that the disease was airborne, and thought that the smell of rotting human waste would discourage the cleaner, disease-ridden air from coming close to them. This actually caused a lot of people to die from other disease too. There were many different supposed treatments, because people were seemingly desperate to find a cure.
There were many different ways that people tried to cure the plague, from somewhat sensible ideas to ridiculous ones. One idea was that the disease was in the blood, and you had to cut open the veins leading to the heart. This was the most common treatment used to fight the disease. It was also said, that you could instead cut open the swellings to let the disease out, and then you should put a mixture of white lily roots, tree risen, and dried human feces (or stool) on the cuts. Others said that if you got the disease, you should bathe in rose water and vinegar. Another supposed cure was to have the diseased drink a glass of their own urine twice a day. Some believed that a live hen could draw the disease out of the swellings, if the hen was placed near them. People were told not to eat things that smelt badly quickly, like meat and cheese. Sweet smelling flowers were supposed to help prevent you being infected. Some people even began to live or visit sewers. They figured out that the disease was airborne, and thought that the smell of rotting human waste would discourage the cleaner, disease-ridden air from coming close to them. This actually caused a lot of people to die from other disease too. There were many different supposed treatments, because people were seemingly desperate to find a cure.
Astrology
A doctors chart showing the zodiac signs.
Some doctors used astrology to help heal patients. They had charts that showed what not to do to patients that were born under a certain zodiac sign. For example, if doctors were treating a Gemini, they would know not to make any cuts on their hands, arms, or shoulders. Likewise, if they were treating a Virgo, then the doctors knew not to cut their stomach or any of their internals. Some doctors also believed that movements in the sky could change how effective a cure was at that time.
Four Humors
A very important idea in medicine was that illness was caused by an imbalance of the four humors. The theory was first introduces by Hippocrates and further encouraged by many others, including Galen. According to the belief, humors are four substances in your body: black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. When they are in balance, you are healthy. When they are imbalanced, then you are unhealthy.
They also thought that if you had too much or too little of one substance, then both your physical health and your personality would be affected. The theory says that blood makes you courageous, hopeful, happy, and amorous. This causes you to be red-cheeked, and plump. Too much or too little blood makes you irresponsible, gluttonous, and lusty. Yellow bile makes you red-haired, wiry, and thin. It makes you ambitious and energetic when in balance, and causes you to feel aggressive, vengeful, and bad-tempered when unbalanced. Yellow bile causes warm diseases. Phlegm makes you fair. You are passive, intuitive and peaceful. When it is unbalanced you are lazy, cowardly, and too emotional. You are pale too. It causes cold diseases. Black Bile makes you thoughtful and introspective when in balance, while it makes you depressed, self-hating, and narcissistic when it’s not. You are also pale and thin, while you are slim and fair with balanced black bile. Purging (vomiting), and bloodletting was a popular treatment for these imbalances. Certain herbs were also said to help keep things in balance.
They also thought that if you had too much or too little of one substance, then both your physical health and your personality would be affected. The theory says that blood makes you courageous, hopeful, happy, and amorous. This causes you to be red-cheeked, and plump. Too much or too little blood makes you irresponsible, gluttonous, and lusty. Yellow bile makes you red-haired, wiry, and thin. It makes you ambitious and energetic when in balance, and causes you to feel aggressive, vengeful, and bad-tempered when unbalanced. Yellow bile causes warm diseases. Phlegm makes you fair. You are passive, intuitive and peaceful. When it is unbalanced you are lazy, cowardly, and too emotional. You are pale too. It causes cold diseases. Black Bile makes you thoughtful and introspective when in balance, while it makes you depressed, self-hating, and narcissistic when it’s not. You are also pale and thin, while you are slim and fair with balanced black bile. Purging (vomiting), and bloodletting was a popular treatment for these imbalances. Certain herbs were also said to help keep things in balance.
Important Discoveries
It was only in the Renaissance that people began to search for a more scientific basis for medicine. People made many breakthroughs in the field. Renaissance medicine was at first based on the teachings of the roman physician Galen. Due to roman laws, he wasn’t able to dissect any human bodies, so he made do with the bodies of animals. His observations were complied into the book called “On the Use of the Parts of the Human Body”. This book became the most used medical text in Europe. However, because of the bodies he dissected, his observations were often incorrect. When professors began to finally dissect bodies themselves, they blamed any contradictions between what they saw with their own eyes, and what Galen’s book told them, on the body being abnormal (which it wasn’t). Galen’s ideas were practically worshipped in the medical field. Those that dared to question Galen’s ideas were often criticized, ridiculed, and even punished.
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), a physician, became frustrated with the dependence other doctors had on Galen. He decided that he would chart the human body based on his own dissections. He stole the bodies of executed criminals, took them home, and cut them up. Andreas’s observations were compiled into a book entitled “The Structure of the Human Body”, that was published in 1543. It was the first time in history that the human body had been accurately mapped and described.
There was another great person that mapped the body too. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) took the dead bodies of criminals, and secretly dissected over thirty of them in Santo Spirito Mortuary. He studied many corpses, and drew hundreds of drawings about the body. The drawings have often been called “stunningly accurate”. Leonardo himself described his experience as “living through the night hours in the company of quartered and flayed corpses fearful to behold”. In 1514, the church eventually caught on to what he was doing, and charged him with worshipping the dead. Leonardo was then forced to stop his dissecting.
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), a physician, became frustrated with the dependence other doctors had on Galen. He decided that he would chart the human body based on his own dissections. He stole the bodies of executed criminals, took them home, and cut them up. Andreas’s observations were compiled into a book entitled “The Structure of the Human Body”, that was published in 1543. It was the first time in history that the human body had been accurately mapped and described.
There was another great person that mapped the body too. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) took the dead bodies of criminals, and secretly dissected over thirty of them in Santo Spirito Mortuary. He studied many corpses, and drew hundreds of drawings about the body. The drawings have often been called “stunningly accurate”. Leonardo himself described his experience as “living through the night hours in the company of quartered and flayed corpses fearful to behold”. In 1514, the church eventually caught on to what he was doing, and charged him with worshipping the dead. Leonardo was then forced to stop his dissecting.
Ambroise tying blood vessels.
Ambroise Paré was a skilled French army surgeon. He proved that tying the blood vessels was a much better way of stopping bleeding than cauterizing, which is when you burn a wound with hot oil or hot iron.
Paracelsus was someone who passionately fought against the untrue beliefs that most doctors had. He was against both Galen’s teachings, and the theory of the four humors. He also had a habit of publically burning medical texts. He helped develop the idea that helpful medical substances could be found in herbs and minerals. Paracelsus was the first person to ever claim a disease was a separate illness with specific symptoms. He said that each disease had a cure, and that illness was not caused by an imbalance in the body, but by an outside agent (something that is outside the body). This idea launched the start of modern medicine.
Legacy
As you have seen from previous chapters, many things about medicine were discovered during the middle ages. The human body was described, mapped, and drawn for the first time in history, and we defiantly still use this knowledge. A better way of stopping bleeding was also discovered. Cauterizing a wound is a very painful, and we are quite lucky to know have the knowledge that enables us to stop doing it. Probably the most important medical legacy that the Middle Ages left behind was the theory that was put forth by Paracelsus. The idea that disease was caused by an outside agent was an extremely important discovery. It marks the beginning of modern medicine, and many ideas that came after the unveiling were based upon it. The middle ages have left behind a huge legacy in medicine.
Links:
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