hey everybody welcome back to another GCSE history revision video and today we're going to focus on medicine in medieval England the first thing to remember is that this is a time of continuity in medicine not a lot of change in terms of ideas about disease treatments or Prevention's and why was this well the key reason is the church which was so powerful it controlled almost every aspect of life for example the church controlled people's attitudes it encourage people to take a conservative attitude to respect tradition and ancient ideas and that made people resistant to new ideas about medicine the church also controlled communication there was no printing press until 1440 AD so the church controlled the production of books ideas which did not fit into church teachings were simply not reproduced the church also encouraged people to follow the work of two ancient individuals Hippocrates and Galen their work was a thousand years old but the church agreed with that because it fitted him with church teachings and encouraged people to follow up the church also controlled education the church funded universities and therefore controlled the training of doctors and doctors were encouraged to learn through books not through practical experiments so dissection was limited and doctors didn't really have an opportunity to discover new ideas for themselves or to test the old ideas that the church was teaching them so the church was the most powerful institution in society compare that with the government which at the time did not have a great deal of power over ordinary people's lives Kings had no duty to improve health and local government had little power to take action to improve public health in towns so let's look at the main ideas treatments and Prevention's that were around in the medieval period first up God and sin this was the idea that disease was a punishment from God or a test of faith but where did this idea come from but it was taught by the church and it was reinforced by Bible stories where diseases like leprosy was seen as God's punishment it was also encouraged by the fact that there was a lack of scientific knowledge of disease so people found it difficult to challenge the Church's teachings those who believed that God was responsible for disease took a religious approach to treatment they might say prayers or go to Catholic Mass maybe take a pilgrimage to visit a holy site where they might touch a relic they also believed that the king himself could cure disease he was chosen by God so the Kings touch was believed to treat even deadly diseases like scrofula people also took a religious approach to prevention they might say prayers or try to avoid sin by living a sin free life they hope to keep on God's good side and avoid being sent disease they might also keep themselves clean it was believed that hygiene was linked to godliness so bathing regularly made sure that you were in God's favor another idea at the time was that of astrology this was the idea that your health might be affected by the position of the planets and the stars especially at the moment you were born but where did this come from well to begin with it didn't come from the church in fact the church resisted it because it seemed a bit like fortune-telling and that went against the Bible but later the church came to accept the idea and even encouraged it after the Black Death it also fitted in with Hippocrates writings he had written that the planets and the stars affected the body's humors now this belief had an important impact on treatment those who were rich enough to be treated by a physician found that the physicians checked star charts as part of the process of diagnosing their patients they checked the position of the planets and the stars when the patient was born in order to houghton choose the correct treatment another key idea at the time was the four humors theory this was the idea that the body contained for liquids called humors blood phlegm black bile in yellow bile if these humors became out of balance the patient might get sick this was different to the previous two ideas because it was rational it wasn't based on God or superstition it was based on evidence which doctors could see with their own eyes for example if the patient had a runny nose then the doctors could see that the patient had too much phlegm where did this idea come from well it was based on the writings of Hippocrates and Galen which was supported by the church and their work was so detailed it was difficult for anybody to challenge it the training of doctors was based on the study of these ancient books and not on experiments so doctors didn't really have the opportunity to challenge Hippocrates or galen's ideas the theory effected treatments treatments were designed to bring the patient's humors back into balance so the patient might be perched for example they might be given a laxative to make them who pneumatic to make them vomit if they had too much blood then the treatment was bloodletting this could be done in a variety of ways by opening a vein or using a bleeding cup perhaps by getting a leech to suck the blood patients were also encouraged to unblock their humors by bathing they also used the treatment of opposites this was an idea from gheylens work it meant giving a treatment which had the opposite characteristics to whichever humour was out of balance so if the patient had too much phlegm which was a cold and wet humour then the patient might be given a hot and dry treatment like a chilly they also used her Boram ADIZ and fairy acts which were spice mixtures and gave patients warm or moist dishes like the Blanc Mon GA the four humors Theory also effective prevention patients were encouraged to keep their humors in balance they could do this by using a moderate diet without too much fatty food they were also encouraged to purge themselves regularly to clear out the digestive system where the humors were made if you were rich you might be able to afford the doctor to write you a regimen sonnet artists this was a detailed list of instructions on health and hygiene it was based on the humors and told patients individually how to keep their humors in balance finally let's look at the idea of miasma this was the belief that bad air and smell was created by rotting matter could make you sick this was another rational idea it wasn't based on God's or superstition but where did the idea come from well it was based on the work of Hippocrates and Galen who had written about miasma Galen had warned about the dangers of living close to a bad smelling swamp but the idea was also encouraged by the church because it fitted with religious teachings the church made a link between bad smells and sin for example lepers were seen as sinful and they also smelled bad the belief influenced Prevention's at the time people believed it was important to keep himself smelling fresh so bathing was common if you were wealthy enough you might have a private or go to a public bath those who were poorer had to bathe in the rivers people tried to keep their homes clean and smelling fresh for example by hanging sweet herbs when they were out and about they might carry a posy ham for the flowers and sniff them as they walked or they might have a locket hanging from their bow filled with fine smelling perfumes and spices there were also some attempts to improve public health by cleaning away filth although these were often disorganized and not very successful at the time if you did fall sick there were a variety of different healers and places to get care but it depended on what you could afford and the nature of your disease physicians were the most expensive of all they were University educated trained by the church and there weren't very many of them so they charged a high fee the training involved book learning particularly one textbook the Arta chela which was full of roman and greek ideas their main role was diagnosing disease for the rich fee paying patients and they did this from a distance they very rarely met their patients in person they did it using star charts you are in charts to check the digestion and referring to the humors and when they did recommend a remedy they matched remedies to individual symptoms rather than treating the disease as a whole they didn't actually treat the disease themselves and they didn't perform surgery many physicians were clergymen and it was seen as wrong for them to draw blood once the physician had recommended a treatment the patient might go to an apothecary apothecaries mixed remedies and they had a really wide range of herb or cures they got these from manuals like the materia medica apothecaries were much cheaper and more affordable than physicians so many patients skipped going to see a physician and went straight to an apothecary instead there were surgeons to barber surgeons were the cheapest of all they lacked training and only did basic surgery like tooth pulling there were more skilled surgeons but they were very expensive they were often highly trained could even set limbs but this was only available to the very rich there were hospitals too these were run by the church and funded by charity they delivered hospitality rather than medical care they were hygienic places where you might be treated by a nun or a monk treatment involved prayer rest food maybe herb or EMA DS but no medical treatment a most did not admit infectious patients or pregnant women these were not places for medical treatment that meant that for most ordinary people treatment was carried out in the home normally by women in the family women grew herbes often in their own gardens and mixed herbal remedies some of them had a huge range of herbal cures and access to her ball man Ewell's with details of those remedies now let's look at your case study the Black Death you need to know about the 1348 outbreak because it led to some new ideas and Prevention's remember there were two versions of the Black Death the bubonic version spread by fleas on rats it caused buboes or swellings on the patient's body and killed about 40% of people who got it but there was also the pneumonic version - that was spread by coughs and sneezes it was far deadlier it killed a hundred percent of people to quartet what did they blame the disease on well the main idea was miasma or bad smell people also thought it might be caused by unbalanced humors it might be a punishment from God for sin or it might be due to the position of the planets there were some new ideas too they linked it to volcanic eruptions and some people realized that the disease was spread by contact with the sick in terms of treatments people continue to use religious treatments like prayer they also tried to rebalance their humors by bleeding and purging they took her already x' and fairy axe and some patients even tried bursting their buboes the disease also led to some new Prevention's people use religious Prevention's like prayer and pilgrimage but they also began to use flagellation which means within yourself to show God that you're sorry so that he would not punish you with the disease people carry posies and commanders to keep away bad smells and there was a change with bathing people began to avoid bathing because they believed it might open up their paws and allow the disease in another new prevention was quarantine this men stopping strangers from entering your city because they might bring disease but in this period quarantines weren't very effective local government wasn't very powerful remember so they couldn't really enforce quarantine successfully another new prevention was they actually stopped cleaning streets they thought the smell of the filth and the bodies might drive off the miasma this of course was completely ineffective now's your chance to check your knowledge if you hit pause now you can have a go at this multiple-choice knowledge checkup you need to hover as I'm going to show you the answers and here are the answers pause now and check how many you got right okay now some exam technique practice here's a typical explained question worth 12 marks explain why there was hardly any change in ideas about disease during the medieval period 1200 to 1500 notice we're only interested here in ideas about disease not treatments or Prevention's for a question like this you need to explain three reasons each in a paragraph of its own here's the start of a paragraph it's all about how the church controlled education why don't you pause the video now and have a practice at turning this into a sustained explanation that means you're going to string together two or three of those explaining phrases which you can see in red at the bottom of the screen to make a really developed sustained explanation thanks for watching there's loads more videos and revision tips on the CH HD history YouTube channel don't forget to 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