Mediaeval medicine- medicine stands still

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Who was Hippocrates?
• He was a doctor who was born in Kos, Greece, in around 460BC.
• He was known as 'the father of modern medicine'.
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What is the Hippocratic Oath?
• The Hippocratic Oath is a promise made by doctors that they will do their best to treat their patients, not do them any intentional harm and keep their information confidential.
• It is still used by doctors today.
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What were the Four Humours?
• The idea that the body was made up of four substances: blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile.
• If the humours were out of balance, this was believed to cause illness
• The humours were also thought to be linked to the seasons.
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What were some of Hippocrates's other ideas?
• He encouraged doctors to seek natural causes and cures of illnesses.
• He also developed the idea of clinical observation of the patient, rather than just the illness.
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What was the Hippocratic Corpus?
It was a written collection of Hippocrates's work that allowed doctors in other countries to learn from his knowledge.
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Who was Galen?
• He was a Roman doctor who was born in AD129.
• He developed the idea of opposites, which concerned how people could be treated using the Four Humours.
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Galen's work on anatomy
• Based on information gathered by dissecting animals such as pigs and monkeys.
• Through this work, he discovered that the brain controls speech.
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Galen's mistake- the circulatory system
• He believed that blood passed from one side of the heart to the other through tiny holes in the septum - the dividing wall between the left and right sides of the heart - when blood instead passes around the heart through veins and arteries.
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Galen's mistake- the jaw
• He said that the human jaw bone is two separate bones, when it is actually one.
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Mediaeval treatments (supernatural)
• Prayer
• Astrology
• Trepanning
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Mediaeval treatments (natural)
• Bloodletting
• Purging
• Herbal remedies
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What was the theory of opposites?
• Galen believed that if the humours were out of balance, doctors should intervene. For example, if someone has a cold, they have a runny nose, and Galen believed that this was the body’s way of getting rid of excess phlegm.
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Treatments based on the theory of opposites
• Treatments were designed to support what the body tried to do itself.
• For example, nosebleeds were seen as the body’s natural way of getting rid of excess blood. If it was thought that someone had too much blood, Galen believed in using a natural trea
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How long were these treatments used for?
• They were used until the 19th century, when germ theory was developed in 1861 by Louis Pasteur and expanded on by Robert Koch.
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Providers of treatment in mediaeval times
• Monasteries provided care for people in their local area. Treatments were based on prayer and herbal remedies
• Local wise women also provided herbal remedies. They often used ideas that had been passed down through generations.
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Providers of treatment for wealthy people
Wealthy people could afford a private
physician who had been trained at university. They usually practised the ideas of ancient doctors like Hippocrates and Galen.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What is the Hippocratic Oath?

Back

• The Hippocratic Oath is a promise made by doctors that they will do their best to treat their patients, not do them any intentional harm and keep their information confidential.
• It is still used by doctors today.

Card 3

Front

What were the Four Humours?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What were some of Hippocrates's other ideas?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What was the Hippocratic Corpus?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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