History: Medicine

Medieval Public Health

Medieval people knew the connection between clean living and good health. Occasionally, they even took a bath.
Unlike the Romans, Medieval towns didn't have sewers or water pipes. People threw rubbish and human waste into the streets.
Monasteries developed systems of public health, including fresh running water, wash rooms and sewers.
People realised that a room next to a privy (toilet) was unhealthy, and towns paid 'gongfermers' to clear out the cess pits.
During the plague many towns developed quarantine laws, and boarded up the houses of infected people.
The first hospitals since Roman times were built, such as St Bart's, in London, in 1123.

1 of 7

Medieval doctors had some medical knowledge from the Greeks and Romans, but much was lost when the Roman Empire collapsed.
Schools of medicine were set up in Universities but anatomy 'lectures' were just a doctor reading from a book while a 'prosector' pointed to parts of the body.
Medieval doctors would examine the colour, smell and taste of a patient's urine, to guess what they were suffering from.
They also thought that bad smells carried disease.
Doctors believed in the four humours, which were four bodily fluids. Many cures involved 'balancing' these humours by: bleeding
applying leeches
or causing vomiting in patients.
Superstition increased throughout the period. Peasants prayed to saints to cure toothache, the plague, and ergotism.

2 of 7

During the 1400s, Western civilisation changed significantly. Historians call this the Renaissance era, meaning 'rebirth'.
The beginning of the Renaissance is often dated from 1453 AD, when Constantinople fell. This drove scholars, with knowledge of Greek and Roman learning, westwards.
Artists, such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Titian, revolutionised painting. They studied the body in more detail, which improved knowledge of anatomy.
Universities began using the Scientific Method. These experiments tested theories about medicine, which was vital for its development.
The invention of the printing press allowed these new ideas to spread quickly through Europe.
However, although the Renaissance saw an improvement in medical knowledge, many people still rejected these new ideas.

3 of 7

Two key practitioners moved medical knowledge forwards. The first was Vesalius.
He discovered spermatic vessels and realised the famous doctor Galen could be wrong.
Vesalius also said that medical students should perform dissections themselves, saying: "our true book of the human body is man himself."
The second important practitioner was William Harvey, who discovered how blood circulated through the body.
Others made significant medical advances; Thomas Sydenham insisted doctors should visit the sick, rather than the other way round.
In 1683 Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria, but unfortunately no one realised that they caused disease.

4 of 7

Methods of treatment in the Early Modern Age did not change from the Medieval period.
People thought they could cure the plague with; leeches, sherry, posies, dried toad, perfume
the word abracadabra written in a triangle
a lucky hare's foot
or pressing a plucked chicken against the plague-sores until the chicken died.
In 1796, Edward Jenner discovered that vaccination could prevent disease. He found that infecting people with cowpox protected them from getting smallpox.
In 1536 Paré discovered that wounds healed better if treated with a 'soothing digestive' of egg yolk and rose oil.
He also used ligatures to tie arteries during amputations, so patients didn’t bleed to death.
Paracelsus improved surgical practise. He discovered that laudanum was a painkiller, but as it was a derivative of opium, many people became addicted to it.

5 of 7

Rats, lice and fleas were a part of people's everyday lives in Early Modern times. It took the plague of 1665 to get the authorities to do something.
Early Modern towns were similar to medieval towns. Rubbish and human waste was thrown into the streets.
'Surgeons' examined the dead to work out the extent of the plague.
'Searchers' checked if members of a household had the plague. If so, they shut them up in the house for a month.
Bodies were buried at night in huge pits, and mourners were not allowed to attend.

6 of 7

Most doctors in the early Modern times had little or no training.
The most advanced physicians were usually town-based, and well educated. They charged very high fees.
Ordinary people only got the medicine they could afford.
The people they turned to included:
Country Doctors; were cheap but not well-trained.
Barber-Surgeons were paid to perform small operations.
Apothecaries; were chemists with no medical training.
Quacks; were travelling barbers and tooth-pullers, who sold medicines supposed to cure everything.
Wise Women; were used for everything from herbs to spells. They were called on to help deliver babies.

7 of 7