Medieval and Renaissance Medicine

Classical Ideas

• Hippocrates: Developed the Theory of the Four Humours.
• Four Humours: Yellow bile, black bile, blood, phlegm.
• Cause of Illness: Believed to be caused by an imbalance of the humours.
• Galen: Wrote 350 books, developed the Theory of Opposites to explain humours.

Causes of Disease (Medieval Period: 1250 - 1500)

• Miasma: Believed to be bad air with harmful fumes causing disease.
• Urine Analysis: Physicians checked smell, color, and taste for diagnosis.
• Divine Belief: Illness seen as punishment or test of faith from God.
• Astrology: Disease linked to alignment of planets and stars.
• Church's Role: Controlled medical education, banned human dissection due to religious beliefs.

Treatments for Disease

• Religious Treatments: Praying, fasting, pilgrimage.
• Balancing Humours: Bloodletting was a common practice.
• Phlebotomy Chart: Guided where to bleed for certain illnesses.
• Purging: Enemas, emetics, laxatives used to balance humours.
• Herbal Remedies: Theriaca could contain up to 70 ingredients; Aloe vera for digestion.
• Bathing: Prescribed for dissolving blockages in humours.

Preventions

• Tithe: Monthly financial contributions to the Church.
• Regimen Sanitatis: Instructions for healthy living.
• Hygiene: Emphasized bathing and hand washing.
• Miasma Prevention: Use of lavender and pomanders (lockets of herbs).

Medics and Hospitals

• Community Care: Women often cared for the sick.
• Physicians: University-trained, rare, and costly.
• Apothecaries: Early chemists, mixed herbal remedies.
• Barber Surgeons: Performed minor surgeries.
• Hospitals: Focused on care, not cure; many managed by the Church.
• Patient Exclusion: Infectious or terminally ill often turned away.

The Black Death (1348)

• Impact: Killed one-third of the population, victims died in 3-5 days.
• Believed Cause: Miasma.
• Clergy Advice: Pray, pilgrimage, self-flagellation.
• Quarantine: New arrivals isolated for 40 days.

Renaissance Period (1500 - 1700)

Causes of Disease

• English Reformation (1533): Reduced Church influence.
• Humanism: Return to classical thinking, broadened understanding.
• Debunked Beliefs: Public believed in Four Humours, not physicians.
• Microscopy: Antony Van Leeuwenhoek saw bacteria ("animalcules").
• Thomas Sydenham: Advocated observation and treatment of underlying causes, identified measles and scarlet fever as separate diseases.
• Printing Press (1440): Spread information quickly and accurately.
• Royal Society (1660): Received a royal charter in 1662, boosting credibility.

Treatments

• Transference: Belief that disease could be transferred to another object.
• New Herbs: Introduced from the New World.
• Alchemy and Chemical Cures: Led by Paracelsus.
• Antimony: Taken in small doses to induce sweating.

Preventions

• Syphilis Spread: Discouraged public bathing.
• Public Cleanliness: Homeowners fined for unclean streets.
• Criminal Punishments: Included street cleaning to prevent miasma.

Medics and Hospitals

• Licensing: Required for surgeons and apothecaries.
• Guild System: Training structure for apothecaries.
• Access to Textbooks: Improved for trainee physicians.
• Fugitive Sheets: Anatomy illustrations for education.
• Dissolution of Monasteries (1536): Led to hospital closures.
• Plague Houses: Specialized for plague patients.

Anatomy

• Vesalius: Found around 300 errors in Galen's work, published "On the Fabric of the Human Body" (1543).
• Human Dissections: Used bodies of executed criminals.
• William Harvey: Disproved Galen's circulatory system theories, inspired by mechanical pumps.
• Anatomical Understanding Impact: Limited effect on disease causes or treatments.

The Great Plague (1665)

• Impact on London: Killed 100,000 people.
• Transference Therapy: Suggested chicken attachment to buboes.
• Protective Measures: Physicians wore herb-filled masks.
• Quack Doctors: Sold fake cures.
• Animal Killing: Ordered killing of cats, dogs, pigeons to prevent disease spread.