GCSE History- Medicine through Time

1250-1500

Christianity, specifically Catholicism

miasma (bad air)

bad alignment of planets (astrology)

punishment from God

test of faith (from God or the Devil)

hippocrates and galen

5th Century BC - came up with the theory of the four humors

• black bile

• blood

• phlegm

• yellow bile, or choler

the four humours had to be balanced but if imbalanced, would cause you to become ill.

2nd Century BC - came up with the theory of opposites (development of Hippocrates). the humours were associated with key characteristics.

e.g. a person with a high temperature would be hot and sweating, therefore ‘hot’ and ‘wet’ were the issues, so the patient had too much blood in their body

he believed in the soul and his teachings fit with those of the Catholic Church

humoural treatments: blood letting (leeches, cutting a vein)

Purging: laxatives or emetics to promote vomiting

herbal remedies: mixed by apothecaries, e.g, theriaca 70 herbs

prayers, confession of sins, offering tithes

carrying posies, burning herbs in your home

following Regimen Sanitatis

11,000

to diagnose a patient with an illness and recommend them treatment

to mix and sell herbal remedies by studying the manual ‘Medi

religion - many people recognised that God didn’t send diseases

astrology - some still believed that astrology could influence disease

miasma - many still beleved

transference

herbal remedies (cinchona bark to treat malaria)

chemical cures (antimony)

lifestyle changes - regimen sanitatis, bathing was less fashionable

miasma - people set bonfires off to ward off bad air, the streets were cleaned of sewage

corrected 300 of Galen’s mistakes, known as the Father of Anatomy

published ‘on the fabric of the human body’ which was later used to train physicians

proved that the heart works as a pump to move blood around

disproved the idea that the blood was made in the liver

published ‘an anatomical account of the motion of the heart and blood’ which allowed doctors to learn from his discoveries.

believed that disease didn’t vary from person to person

he closely observed the symptoms of a patient, then treated the disease with remedies

published ‘Observationes Medicae’ in 1676, which lead to a more scientific approach to medicine after the 1700s.

unusual planet alignment, God, miasma

transference

patients wrapped in woollen clothes

prayers for the sick

bloodletting/purging

praying

quarantine

pomanders

chewing tobacco