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Medieval medicine - Coggle Diagram

- - - - strong smelling herbs
      - bursting buboes
      - bleeding / purging
    - - confession & prayer
      - clear nobody could cure it
      - avoid garlic & hot food
    - - candle vigils
      - pilgrimages
      - confession of sins
  - - - carrying flowers & strong herbs
      - avoid bathing (opening pores to bad air)
      - leave the are "Go quickly, go far & return slowly
    - - stop visiting family with disease
      - avoid those with the disease
      - do joyful things
    - - fasting
      - self flagellation
      - pray
  - - - filth in the streets
      - impure air comes from poisonous fumes
      - impure air - miasma (disruption to humours)
    - - looking at the victim
      - touching a victim
      - Jewish people
    - - punishment for the sin of the world
      - unusual placement of mars jupiter & saturn
      - god deserting mankind
- - - - smells & vapour were also associated with God
      - homes that smelt badly suggested sin & corruption
      - Galen & Hippocrates suggested swamps, corpses & rotting matter transmitted disease
      - if a person was unwashed they would be avoided
      - bad air that was filled with harmful fumes
    - - it was thought to be the best way to check the balance of the humours
      - physicians would check colour, thickness, smell & taste before making a diagnosis
      - physicians carefully examined urine in order to make diagnosis
      - medieval physicians did not blame urine for making people ill
- - - - emetics consisted of strong bitter herbs (eg, scammony or parsley)
      - laxatives were common
      - done by vomiting (emetics) or a laxative / enema to clear system
      - sometimes people would need additional help so a physician would administer enema
      - a common treatment was purging the digestive system of left over food
      - John of Arderne (english surgeon) mixed water, honey, oil, wheat bran, soap & herbs
      - the humours were created from the food eaten
      - this was squirted up into the patient's anus using a greased pipe, fixed to a pig's bladder, whilst the patient rubbed their stomach
    - - theriaca - spice-based mixture containing up to 70 ingredients
      - different foods encouraged the balance of humours
      - aloe vera was used to improve digestion
      - blanc mangier (chicken & almonds) recommended for medieval invalids because the ingredients were warm & moist
      - herbal infusions to drink, sniff or bathe in
    - - cut a vein
        
        most straight forward
        
        phlebotomy charts like the vein man were used to show points in the body where bleeding was recommended for specific illness
      - leeches
        
        bleeding could continue for up to 10 hours after leech was full
        
        used for people whose age or condition made traditional bleeding too dangerous
        
        fresh leeches were collected, washed and kept hungry for a day before being placed on the skin
      - bad humours can be removed from the body by blood - usually by surgeons & wise women
      - cupping
        
        used for women, children & very old
        
        people believed different areas treated different illnesses
        
        a heated cup placed over the cuts to create a vacuum which drew blood
        
        back of the neck was good for eye troubles
        
        skin was pierced by a knife
      - most common treatment for imbalance in the humours
    - - steam out impurities & ease aching joints
      - for people with paralysis a fox was boiled then the person bathed in the water
      - warm baths helped the body draw in heat to dissolve blockages in the humours
- - - - yellow bile- hot & dry (summer)
      - black bile- cold & dry (autumn)
      - blood- hot & wet (spring)
      - phlegm- cold & wet (winter)
  - - - did the famous vivisection on a pig to prove that the brain controls the body not the heart, by finding the nerves in the neck
    - - Galen believed in Hippocrate's four humours. You could balance the humours using the opposite. If a patient suffers with too much phelgm (cold) Galen recomended eating someting hot eg a chilli-pepper
    - - The body was fitted together perfectly as a well-designed whole. The church was very accepting of this theory because a higher power such as God must've designed & created humans
- - - - medieval doctors were known as physicians
      - they diagnosed illness & recommended a course of treatment
      - a medical degree took between 7-10 years
      - rarely got involved in treating patients - this was done by educated midwives, apothecaries or barber surgeons
      - medicine became more professional
      - What they did:
        
        consulted the astrological charts under which the patient was born & the time they got ill
        
        humoral tendencies of the patient were used to create a course of treatment
        
        looked at samples of the patients urine, faeces & blood
      - new universities were set up across Europe like Oxford & Cambridge
      - were very expensive as not many & long training time
    - - forbidden from carrying out procedure like bleeding
      - from 1215 onwards, any operation likely to involves cutting the patient were forbidden for clergymen
      - lesser trained and lower paid
    - - women were often respected for this role
      - women likely had more skill than mixing herbal remedies
      - women were also responsible for growing healing plants - marigolds & clover
      - sources suggest they performed minor surgeries & bleedings
      - involved making them comfortable // preparing restorative food // mixing herbal remedies
      - women also treated the sick at home
    - - regularly performed small surgeries as well as teeth extractions
      - some surgeons were highly trained
      - good barbers had sharp knives and a steady hand
      - they could set up a broken bone // remove an arrow // successfully remove cataracts from the eyes
      - barber surgeons were one of the least qualified medical professional
  - - - physicians prescribed, apothecaries mixed remedies
      - comparatively cheap
      - not considered as skilled or knowledgeable
      - also prescribed poison
      - good amount of knowledge from own experience or passed from family
      - Hippocratic oath didn't apply to apothecary
      - had good knowledge of the healing power of herbs & plants - manuals eg Materia Medica
      - didn't have to attend university to set up business
      - mainly mixed herbal remedies
    - - in some places lots of bed others may have 20 or less
      - in small houses not big buildings
      - institutions provided bed and a meal
      - mainly gave care to the poor / elderly rather than healing the sick
      - building had an almonry where poor beggars & pilgrims could collect leftover food & clothing
    - - The church taught that charitable donations helped heal disease
      - medieval hospitals were a place to rest, recover & sleep
      - The rest were funded by endowment (will from the wealthy)
      - the space was kept clean and bed linen changed
      - 30% of hospitals were owned by the church - run by monks/nuns
      - patients often shared beds
      - many didn’t actually treat the sick but offered hospitality to travellers & pilgrims
      - incurable people were often rejected
      - St Bartholomew's opened in 1123
      - some had reserved for unmarried mothers
      - by 1500n there were 1,100 hospitals from a few bed to hundreds
    - - often built on the edge of towns to keep patients away from others
      - these people would have a bell with them to warn people of their approach
      - These were set up to look after those suffering form contagious diseases such as leprosy
      - these people were banned from normal hospitals - it was seen as living death, a punishment from God
    - - women would care for their relatives & dependents when needed
      - refer to women section
      - vast majority of the sick were treated and cared for at home