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Essay on medical practices used in the medieval periods
Essay on medical practices used in the medieval periods
Changes in medicine from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries
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Shwetha Srinivasan
Core 1
Medieval Medicine
Medicine in medieval times was not effective and very pointless, but is the main reason we have so much knowledge today. The middle ages was a time of desperation and darkness which eventually turned to light and rebirth. The knowledge in this time was snowballing. Medicine was the main part of that growth. Medieval medicine can be defined simply by its physicians, their discoveries, surgery techniques, and common diseases and treatments. Medical knowledge was scarce, but what little they had was contributed by these physicians and their curious minds. The ancient greek physician, Galen, concluded that all illnesses are caused by inner unbalance. Galen deduced that there are 4 bodily fluids
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When a person gets sick, it meant their humors were out of balance. This theory was widely believed and used. Avicenna, an Arab physician, wrote one of the very first medical encyclopedias called the Canon of Medicine. As time went on, and as advanced medical knowledge from Islam was shared, people started questioning Galen’s theory. That is when a Swiss physician named Paracelsus discovered that disease comes from external factors. He also started using chemical remedies made from mercury, iron, copper, sulfate and sulfur. Then comes the Renaissance, and the ban on dissecting bodies is lifted causing discoveries to bloom. Ambroise Paré, also known as the Father of Modern Medicine, revolutionized the treatment of the gunshot wounds. Instead of cauterizing, burning the skin, he placed ointment (so the wound can heal on its own) or tied off the …show more content…
So were burns and wounds. Also, rhinoplasties were used to cure syphilis.
Some might say surgeries were unsuccessful because of the lack of expertise. This is true, many of the surgeons were untrained barber-surgeons. Then in the Renaissance, a movement started to train more surgeons. Guilds of experienced barber surgeons started supervising their peers. This may have helped improve surgery but no matter, most patients died anyways from postoperative infection from lack of sterile instruments. Alright, we covered surgery but what if the patient wasn’t in a life or death circumstance? Physicians were only for royalty and the wealthy. Most common folk, if sick, would visit locals with medical knowledge they gained from ancestors or experience. If they did end up visiting a doctor, it would be one painful experience. Bloodletting was a very common procedure done in sickness and health. It was a procedure done to let out the ‘bad blood.’ It was done in 2 ways, leeching and venesection. Leeching was only used for royalty. The leech was placed on the most infected part of the body. Venesection is the act of directly opening the vein using a fleam, a long half inch blade, and catching the blood in a bowl to measure the amount of blood drained. Other common ones include burning a candle near your tooth for a toothache. If you have evil spirits in your head, then you would have a procedure called trepanning done, which involves cutting a hole in your skull to release
Beginning around 460 BC, the concept of humoralism emerged throughout the written works of Hippocrates. These early works, some of the only medical works of this detailed nature to survive this period, delineated one of the first ways scholars and physicians viewed the body and more importantly illness. Shaped by the Hippocratics’ version of humoralism and his own interpretations of their written works, Galen resolutely supported the fundamental four-element theory, the notion of the four humors, and the essential practice of healing by applying opposites by physicians. However, Galen’s education in anatomy proved an effective advance in his medical reasoning away from a non-ontological view of illness into a considerably more ontological and
In modern medicine when an ailment arises it can be quickly diagnosed, attributed to a precise bacteria, virus, or body system, and treated with medication, surgery or therapy. During the time before rational medical thought, this streamlined system of treatment was unheard of, and all complaints were attributed to the will of the multitude of commonly worshiped Greek gods (Greek Medicine 1). It was during the period of Greek rationalism that a perceptible change in thought was manifested in the attitudes towards treating disease. Ancient Greece is often associated with its many brilliant philosophers, and these great thinkers were some of the first innovators to make major developments in astrology, physics, math and even medicine. Among these academics was Hippocrates, one of the first e...
Removal could be done by eating corresponding foods. For example, if a person was phlegmatic in nature, that meant that he was cold and wet, he could be cured if he ate hot and dry foods. Medicines like pepper, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, watercress, and mustard would be useful to such a person. A fever, which was believed to have been caused by excess blood, could have been cured in two ways. One way was to eat cold and dry food, and the other was to have excess blood sucked out by leeches.
Doctors believed the human body was part of the universe, so they used elements for each humour, “Yellow bile was the equivalent of fire. Phlegm was the equivalent of water. Black bile was the equivalent of earth and blood was the equivalent of air”(“Shakespearean and Elizabethan Medicine”). Also, because of their beliefs and lack of knowledge on serious medical conditions, most severe cases were not treated accurately. Some doctors believed if a person broke a bone, then it was never supposed to be used again because the accident was based from many sins of the soul (“Shakespearean and Elizabethan Medicine”).
A Medieval doctor and present day doctor have the same principles, but they acquire the skills different ways. Nowadays, if anybody had a specific condition, there is a doctor for that specific acquired condition that he or she may have. During the middle Ages, surgeons were considered to be craftsmen, skilled with tools. They became capable of carrying out a wide variety of tasks. The man who cut your hair was often the one who operated on you if you were ill. Present day doctors do not cut hair and they acclaim a specific job assigned to them. Doctors now have to go the college and get a degree, where in the middle ages they were not taught into a medical practice. Many believe the practice became useless, but these Nim Gimmers were much needed throughout the Medieval Times. (Nosow Pg.7)
All the knowledge these doctors knew was based on: Humour, what brain function each internal organ controls, and how to protect themselves from it. Furthermore, the basic knowledge all these doctors knew was: There are only four elements in the world, each element represented a humour, and all four humours are balanced in the human body. Humours are “natural bodily fluids”. They correspond to the elements and have various qualities: cold, dry, hot, and moist.” (Ross)
Although he lived four centuries before the birth of Christ, a man named Hippocrates recorded the symptoms of diseases we still see to this day. Known as the “Father of Medicine” (Hippocrates), Hippocrates was an ancient physician who studied and recorded his observances of the body’s infections and physiology. He set forth the foundation for future physicians, and in doing so, is accredited for our knowledge of infectious diseases in earlier centuries. During this time however, many believed the earth and its inhabitants were composed of four general elements: air, water, fire, and dirt. They also believed that any one person who fell ill was being punished by the gods. As a foresighted thinker though, Hippocrates encouraged the idea that humans became ill due to natural causes. In that wisdom, he recorded all his observances of his patients and their illnesses, taking careful note of the bodily symptoms and their progression.
The quality of doctors during the Renaissance was a small step up from the Medieval era. There were a few medical schools that had started and doctors were beginning to have the option of a formal education. The only problem was that people didn't need a license to be a doctor. Many "quacks" practiced medicine. And doctors had no specialization; there were no dentists, no surgeons, and no physicians. So a doctor may have not known anything about one of those areas but still attempted to treat it.
Scarborough, John, Van Der Eijk, Philip J., Hanson, Ann, and Siraisi, Nancy. Studies in Ancient Medicine: Hippocrates on Ancient Medicine. Translated by Mark J. Schiefsky. Boston: Brill, 2005.
Long ago, when humans believed in Zeus and were polytheistic, diseases and ailments were said to be a punishment from the gods. This time period, time of the ancient Greeks, had one man step out and go beyond belief and reached above a pinnacle in the works of a physician. This man created the start of a new belief, one where illnesses and diseases were not caused by some supernatural phenomenon, yet it be caused by the works of bad choices of humans instead.
Alchin, Linda. "Medicine in the Middle Ages." Medicine in the Middle Ages. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
Unlike today, the Ancient Roman doctors received no respect, because they were considered to be fraudilant. This reputation was caused by the doctors magical tricks, and the lack of useful treatments. The job required minimal training, as they only had to apprentice with their senior. Thus, many free slaves and people who had failed at everything else filled this profession. Some did try to find new remedies; however, others used medicine to con people. Public surgeries were done to attract audiences as an advertisement. Doctors would even become beauticians providing perfumes, cosmetics, and even hairdressing. When wives wanted their husbands gone, they would say, ¡§put the patient out of his misery¡¨ and the doctors would be the murderers. However, as wars began to break out, there were improvements bec...
Although it is not apparent whether or not Ancient Egyptian physicians had formal training or not, their methods for diagnosing and handling illnesses were very efficient at times. As a matter of fact, we still use some of their remedies today when we make medicines. Examples of the diagnosis and remedies for diseases in Ancient Egypt can be found in the Ebers Papyrus. This is one of the oldest known documentations of ancient medical practices, dating as far back as fifteen hundred BC. Steven Gilbert, the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals, defines the text as “approximately one hundred and ten pages on anatomy and physiology, toxicology, spells, and treatment recorded on papyrus. The papyrus also has many prescriptions showing the treatment of many disorders by animal, plant, and mineral toxins that still occur today.” Modern-day examples of medical ailments mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus include Asthma, Cancer, and Belly Aches. Oddly enough, the heart, rather than the brain, was regarded as the headquarters of human knowledge in the body because this was where the abundance of emotion was said to be drawn forth from. The heart was also thought to be a means of communication between the people and the gods because people were given insight and instruction pertaining to the gods will through this organ of the body. The Egyptians did not understand how important the heart was in terms of blood circulation, as we understand it today. Their belief was that the heart was connected to all the other parts of the body, via canals, which were used to transport bodily fluids and waste to their appropriate locations. The brain’s only purpose was to transport mucus to the nose, and therefore it wa...
Food during the medieval times was very different from the modern-day food that most people are accustomed to today. For example, drinking alcoholic beverages was as routine as drinking water today. Also, food was not only used to nourish yourself, food served as a measure of wealth and social status. Food with lots of herbs and spices was an indicator of affluence serving as a symbol, because the rich could afford herbs and spices. However, herbs and spices were not only used to determine social status, they had another very important use. Medicine during the medieval ages relied heavily on various types of foods such as but not limited to herbs and spices. These three aspects of food during the medieval ages exemplify the major aspects which
Hippocrates, often called the “father of medicine” was one of the earliest contributors to modern science. He was called the father of medicine because through his medical school, he separated medical knowledge and practice from myth and superstition basing them instead of fact, observation, and clinical ...