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Medicine in Britain, c1250-present - Coggle Diagram

- - - - The Church taught and people believed that God made them ill because he was either displeased with them or was testing their faith. This meant that people believed that there was no need to search for there, rational expiations for disease, which held back medical research and meant that few new ideas about the cause of diseases appeared in medical times.
    - - The alignment of planets and stars was thought to cause some diseases.
      - Astrology was used to help diagnose what was wrong with a patient.
      - Use of astrology wasn't new in 1250 but it increase through this period, especially after the Black Death when the Church became more accepting.
    - - Most of what ordinary people learned was taught by the Church. The Church was also the center of formal learning; it setup and ran universities where physicians were trained.
      - The Church discouraged dissection and in general did not approve of people challenging ideas and authority.
      - Unlike most people, monks and priests could read and write. Most large collections of books were in monasteries. This meant the Church was effectively in charge of what books were read.
      - The church approved of traditional, rational explanations for disease. In particular, it prompted the ideas of Galen as his theories fitted Christian belief that the body had a soul and that all parts had been created by God to work together.
      - The Church also taught that people should follow Jesus' example care for the sick. Many hospitals were housed in monasteries and nunneries.
  - - - The Ancient Greeks thought everyone had a mix of four humours in their body. They believed people became ill when this mix was unbalanced, so to make people better they tried to put this balance right. These ideas continued well into the Middle Ages
    - - In the 2nd century AD, a doctor called Galen developed the idea of the Four Humours further. Besides bleeding and purging to get rid of excess humours, treatment based on his Theory of Opposites aimed to balance the humours by giving the patient the 'opposites' of their symptoms (linked to water and cold) you should eat hot peppers.
    - - Claudius Galen was Greek doctor who worked in Ancient Rome. He wrote many books and his ideas were the basis of medical training in the Middle Ages. He developed Hippocrates' ideas and mainly used bloodletting, or purging to prevent and treat illness, as well as his own treatments based on his Theory of Opposites. He also drew detailed diagrams of human anatomy using knowledge he gained from operating on wounded gladiators and carrying out dissections on dead (mostly animals') bodies.
    - - Hippocrates was an Ancient Greek doctor. His ideas and books were very influential will into medieval times and beyond. He dismissed the idea that Gods caused disease - he believed there was a physical reason for illness, which needed a physical cure. Most of his treatments were based on diet, exercise and rest but he also used bleeding and purging to get red of excess humours. He wrote the Hippocratic Oath, where doctors swore to respect life and prevent harm. His method of clinical observation - studying symptoms, making notes, comparing with similar cases, then diagnosing and treating - is the basis of the approach used today
    - - Another theory about the cause of diseases was that it was transmitted by 'bad air'. This was related to God because bad smell's indicated sin. The theory originated in the Ancient world but continued into the Middle Ages and well into the 19th century.
  - - - Bloodletting was the most common treatment for an imbalance of humours. It was either done by cutting a vain, using leeches or by cupping. Different points in the body were used for different illnesses. Occasionally bloodletting was performed by physicians but, more usually, it was done by barber-surgeons ore non-medical persons.
      - Purging was another treatment used to re-balance the humours. It either involved making a patient vomit or go to the toilet to remover food to the body. Emetics and laxatives were mixed by apothecaries, wise women or, at the patent's home, physicians prescribed treatments and sometime gave enemas themselves.
    - - The most common remedies were traditional ones made with, which were drunk, sniffed ore bathed in. Remedies also included different food to rebalance the humours and ointments to apply to the skin. They were made at home ore mixed and sold by an apothecary.
    - - Praying
      - Fasting
      - Going on pilgrimage
      - Paying for a special Mass to be said
    - - Supernatural treatments included specific ideas for certain illnesses, such as hanging a magpie's beak around your neck to cure toothache.
  - - - Care in the home
        
        Most ill people throughout this period were treated at home by a female family member.
        
        The village 'wise woman', often the Lady of the Manor, would also tend to people in their homes fore free.
      - Physicians
        
        Medically trained at university and passed exams.
        
        Diagnosed illnesses and gave treatments, or sent patients to the apothecary or barber-surgeon.
        
        Very few of them, with women physicians incredibly rare.
      - Apothecaries
        
        Received training but no medical qualifications.
        
        Mixed medicines and ointments based on their own knowledge or direction of a physician.
        
        Cost money (but less than a physician).
      - Barber-surgeons
        
        No training
        
        Carried out bloodletting, pulling teeth and lancing boils. Also cut hair!
        
        Did basic surgery such as amputating limbs (very low success rate).
        
        Cost less than a physician.
    - - Commonly, physicians observed a patients' symptoms and checked their pulse, skin colour and urine (for both colour and taste!).
      - They consulted zodiac charts to help diagnose the illness and to work out the best time to treat the patient.
      - They consulted urine charts in their vademecum (handbook)
      - They then either treaded patients themselves (though this was rare), or sent them to a barber-surgeon or apothecary.
    - - Many hospitals were places where travelers and pilgrims stayed on their journeys.
      - The number increased during the Middle Ages.
      - Man were run by the Church, so the emphasis was on God and healing souls.
      - Some hospitals were built for specific infectious diseases.
      - Patients were given fresh food and plenty of rest.
      - Hospitals were places of recuperation rather than places where patients were treated for disease.
      - Patients and their surrounding were kept very clean.
      - Usually, people with infections disease or incurable conditions were not admitted
  - - - Most historians today thinks this disease was bubonic plague, carried by fleas living on black rats, which brought the disease to different countries on treading ships. Bubonic plagues is passed to human when an infected flea bites them and the disease enter their blood.
    - - Religion: God sent the plague as a punishment for people's sins.
      - Astrology: the position of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn was unusual at this time.
      - Miasma: bad air or smell caused by decaying rubbish.
      - Volcanoes: poisonous gases from European volcanoes and earthquakes carried in the air.
      - Four Humors: most physical believed that disease was caused by an imbalance in the Four Humours.
      - Outsiders: strangers or witches had caused the disease.
    - - Praying and fasting: because people believed that God had sent the disease, it made sense to show God they were sorry by punishing them.
      - Clearing up rubbish in the streets.
      - Smelling their toilets or other bad smells, in the belief this would overcome the plague.
      - Lighting a fire in the room, ringing bells or having birds flying around the room to keep air moving.
      - Carrying herbs and spices to avoid breathing in 'bad air'.
      - Not letting unknow people enter the town or village.
    - - Symptoms of the Black Death included:
        
        swelling of the lymph glands into large lumps filled with pus (know as buboes).
        
        Fever and chills
        
        headache
        
        vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain.
    - - praying and holding lucky charms
      - cutting open buboes to drain the pus.
      - holiding bread against the buboes, then burying it in the ground.
      - eating cool things and taking cold baths.