Health and The People

The theoy of the four humours was created by the Ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates.

Hippocrates, believed that the body was made up of four liquids (or humours) - Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile and Black Bile.

These were linked to the four seasons and the four elements - they needed to be balenced for good health.

For example; in winter we get colds, Hippocrates thought that in winter the body created eccess phlegm. However, Hippocrates failed to see that a blocked nose , fevers etc are symtoms of the diesse - he belived they were the cauase.

The four humours was developed futher by Greek doctor Galen.

Galen believed that diseases could be treated using opposites.

He thought that diffrent foods, drinks, herbs and spices had a humour, which could balence the excessive humour that was causing the disese.

For example, someone with a cold (too much cold, wet phlem) could be given chicken, pepper and wine (which are all considered hot and dry) t5o correct the imbalence.

The miasma theory is the idea that bad air (or miasma) causes disease when someone breaths it in.

Bad air may come from human waste or dead bodies - anything that creatyes a bad smell.

The thoey orginated from Anceint Greece and Rome and was incorpotated by Galen into the theory of the Four Humours.

The idea became extremly popular in medival Britain that it lasted until the 1860's when it was replaced by Germ Theory.

Miasma often promted people to do hyginic things, like cleaning the street, which sometimes helped stop the spread of disease - but for the wrong reasons.

The work of both men were extremly influental in medical diagnoss and treatment.

Hippocrates and Galen both wrote down their beliefs about medicine. These were translated into Latin books.

Many of thier ideas were taught centuries after thier deaths, including the incorrect ones.

Galen only ever disected animals, which have are very diffrent to humans, so some of his ideas about anatomy were wrong.

Some of their ideas were so influential that they continue to be used today.

The Hippocratic Oath is thje promise made by doctors to obey rules of behaviour in thier professinal lives - a verison of it is still in use today.

Hippocrates and Galen also bnelived that doctors should observe their patients as they treat them.

The Four Humours and miasma were both incorrect theories.

But however, they assumed disease had a natural cause, rather than a superntural one.

This was important as it suggested that people wern't powerless agaist disease- they could investigate and take action against it.

• Hippocrates
• Galen
• Miasma
• Inflential
• Commen & Analysis

• What people belived caused disease
• Super Natural Causes
• Astrolgy

Many people belived that disease was a punishement from God for peoples sins; they thought that disease existed to show them error of thier ways and to make them become better people.

They thought the way to cure disease was through prayer and repentance.

Disease was also thought to be caused bby evil supernatural beings, like demons or witches.

Witches were belived to be behind outbreaks of disease, this led to manywomen being tried and convicted of witchcraft.

People also belived that some diseases were caused by evil spirts living insdie someone.

Members of the churchwould perform exorcism, usiing chants to remove the evil spirit from the persons body.

Astrology is the idea that the movements of the plants and stars have an effect on the Earth and on people.

Medival  astrologyers belived that these movements would cause diseas.

Astrology turned to be a new way of diagnosis, which was develoed in Arabic medicine.

Medival doctors owned a type of calander (called almanac) whoich included information upon where particular planets and stars were at anty given time.

The doctors used the almanac to prodict how pateints' health could be effected.

Diffrent star signs were thoguht to affect diffrent parts of the body.

• Bloodletting and Purging
• Purifying Air
• Remedies
• Physicians
• Apothecary
• Barber- Surgeons
• John Aderne

Bloodletting ands purging were popular treatments because theyb fitted in with the Four Humours theory.

If someone had aparently too much blood inside them, the doctor would take blood out of their body through bloodletting.

They may make a small cut to remove the blood or use blood-sucking leeches.

Somepeople were accidentally killed during bloodletting due to too much blood being taken.

Purging is the act of getting rid of other fluids from the body by excreting - doctors gave their pateints laxatives to help the purging process.

The miasma theory led people to belive in the power of puriying air or cleaning the air to prevent sickness and improve health.

Physicians carred posies or oranges around with them when visiting patients to protect themselfs from catching a disease.

During the Black Death, juniper, myrrh and incense were burned so the smoke or scent would fill the room and stop bad air from bringing disease inside.

Remedies bought from an apothecary, local wise woman or made at home were all popular in medial Britain and contained herbs, spices, animal parts and minerals.

These remedies were either passed down through generations or written down in books explaing how to mix them togather. Some of these books were called 'Herbals'.

Other remedies were based on superstition, like lucky charms contaning 'powdered unicorns horn'.

Physicians were male doctors who had trained at univeristy for at least seven years.

They read ancient texts as welll as writings from the Islamic world, but their traning involed little practical expericence.

They used handbooks (vademecums) and clinical observations to check pateints' conditions.

They was fewer than 100 physicians in  Engalnd in 1300.

They were very expensive so only the rich and high staus people could see them.

Most poeple saw an Apothecary, who prepared and sold remedies and gave advice on how to use them.

Apothecaries were the most common form of treatment in Britain as they wqere the most accessible for those who could not afford a physician.

Apothecaries were trained through apprenticeships.

Most apothecaries were men, but there was many so-called 'wise women', who sold herbal remedies.

The main pupose of hospitals was not to treatdisease, but to care for the sick and elderly.

The hospitals provided its patients with food, water and a warm place to stay.

Most hospitals were more hygienic than elsewhere, due to them having a developed water and sewerage systems.

Most sick people were treated at home by memebers of the family.

Medival surgery was very dangerous - there was no way to prevent blood loss, infection or pain.

Surgery was attempted rarely and for minor procedures, i.e. treating hernias or cataracts.

There were few univeristy- trained highly paid surgeons, but surgery as a whole was not a respected cprofession in medival times - most operations were carried out by barber- surgeons, who also cut hair.

Bloodletting caused more deaths than it prevented, but it reained a popular treatment.

This shows the strengh of the medival people's beliefs in the face of observational evidence.

John Arderne created a recipe for an anaeshetic in 1376.

It included; helock, opium and henbane( a relative to deadly nightshade).

In careful controlled doeses this may of worked - but it was very likely to kill you.

• Living conditons in towns
• Living conditons in Monasteries

Most towns were small, esecially after the Black Death.

Houses were usallly made out of wood and were crammed togather- overcrowding and fires were common problems.

A lot of towns didn't have clean water supplies or sewage systems.

Waste was chucked into the street or into rivers to be washed away.

Sewage from latrins leaked into the ground and got into wells.

Business and homes wern't separated- butches, tanners and dyers threw toxic waste into rivers and residential streets.

People had to get thier drinking water from rivers and wells that were containated.

Getting hundrads of townspeople to adopt cleaner habits was trickier then a few.

Towns didn't have one person in charge who could easily enforce public  health measures.

Monasteries had cleaner water than towns and had good systems for getting rid of waste and sewage.

Monasteries were wealthy, so they could afford to build infrastructre, like latrine buildings and waterways to keep thier water clean.

Monastery populations were small and had one leader (the Abbot) - he had the power to enforce rules about cleanliness and waste disposal.

• What was it
• When did it hit
• Causes
• Government Preventions
• Social Changes

The Black Death was a series of plagues that swept throught Europe.

The Black Death first struck in the 14th century . people tried to limit its spread but couldn't stop the disease.

Bubonic Plague ~ was spread by the bites of fleas from Asian rats on the trade ships. It casued headaches and a high temprature, followed by painful pus-filled swellings on the skin. 90% died from it. Some believed that if the bubos burst they would have a better chance at suriving (they did)

Pneumonic Plague ~ was airborn, it was spread by coughs and sneezes. It attacked the lungs, making it difficult and painful to breathe and causing victims to cough up blood.

The disease first arrived in Britain in 1348.

At least 1/3 of the British population died as a result of the Black Death between 1348-1350.

They were futher three outbreaks of the Black Death thought the medival period

No-one at the time knew what had caused the plague, this made room for many ideas.

Some people belied that the Black Death was a judgement from God. They thought the cause of the disease was sin, so they tried to prevent the spread of the disease through prayer and fasting.

Some blamed humour imbalances, so tried to get rid of the Black Death through Bloodletting and Purging.

Those who believed the disease to be cause by miasma carried strong smelling herbs or lit fires to purify the air.

Some people also carried charms or used 'magic' potions containg arsenic.

Some people in Winchester thought that you could catch the plague from being to close to the bodies of dead victims. When the town's cemetery became too full to take any more plague victims, the townspeople refused to let the bishop extend them cemetery in the town centre. Instead, they insisted that new cemeteries be built outside the town, away from the houses.

The town of Gloucester tried to shut itself off from the outside world after hearing the Black Death had hit Bristol. This suggests that they thought the plague was spread by human contact. The attempt failed as many people in the town died of the Black Death.

In 1348, the disease reached London. In January 1349, King Edward 3rd  closed parlimant.

After the Black Death, there were fewer wokrers around, this ment work was more easy to find and they could demand higher wages from thier employers, they were also free to move around to find better work.

The cost of land had also decreased, allowing osme peasants to buy land for the first time.

These changes threatened the power of elites. The government created laws, such as the 1349 Ordinance of Labourers to try and stop peasants moving around the country.

Some people think the Black Death helped cause the Peasants' Revolt in 1381 and eventually the collapse of the feudal system in Britain.

One of the pain reasons why the Black Death killed so many was becaouse people didn't know what caused the disease. Their ideas about the cause of disease was wrong, so their attempts at prevention and treatments were mostly ineffective.

• Helped
• Hidured

The Roman Catholic Church was an  extremly powerful ogrinsatiion in medival Europe. It dominated the way people studied and thought about a range of topics, including medicine.

The church encouraged people to belive that disease was a punishment from God, rather than having a natural cause. This prevented people from trying to find cures for disease and instead taught if disease was a punishment from God, all you could do was pray and repent.

The church made sure that scholars of medicine learned the works of Galen as his ideas fit the Christian belief that God created human bodies and made them to be perfect. It also stopped anyone form disagreeing with Galen's work. The church outlawed dissection. This ment medival doctors couldn't descover ideas about human anatomy for themselves - they instead whereforced to learn Galen's incorrect ideas.

Due to Hippocrates and Galen writing down thier ideas, which were translated into Latin, they were considered important texts by the Roman Catholic Church.Like the bible, Hippocrates' and Galen's ideas were considered the absolute truth.

The church's influence over medieval medicine meant that there was very little change in ideas aboout the cause of disease until the Renaissance - the church and its messages were so influential that people were unable to question them.

Disease was believed to be a punishment from God, so sick people were encouraged to pray. The sick often prayed to saints, in the hope they would intervene and stop the illness. Medieval people also believed that pilgrimages to holy shrines (i.e. sites containg the remains of saints) could cure illnesses.

Others took thier repentance one step futher. Flagellants were people who whipped themselves in public in order to show God that they were sorry for thier past actions. They were particulary active during epidemics, such as the Black Death.

Many doctors had superstious beliefs, i.e. some used astrology to diagnose and treat illness, or believed that saying certain words while giviing a treatment could make that treatment more effective.

Although the church set up over 160 hospitals they vrefused to treat, women or the diseaed.

Most public hospitals were set up and run by the church. There were relativelty few such hospitals, but they were very popular and highly regarded.

Famous hospitals like St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's in London started life as church establishments.

The monastery at Canterbury Cathedral already had a complex water and sanation system by 1250.

Although  prayer and repentance were major treatments, with no results, it allowed the people to find hope during epidemics.