History of Western Medicine Study Guide

3 periods of medieval history

 early middle ages c. 400-800
 central/high middle ages c.800-1200
 late middle ages c. 1200-1450
 c. 400-1500

Why did Roman rule over Europe end?

 Europe goes in to dark ages
 Back in Italy and Rome – being threatened by invaders, the Huns came from the
east, had to bring back armies so they could defend Rome
 The Huns and other Germanic tribes conquered and took over parts of the Roman
empire
 Fall of the Western Empire in 476

What was the Eastern Roman empire – Byzantine empire?

 Byzantine empire
 Eastern part didn’t fall the western part fell
 Eastern part had more big develop cities like Constantinople
 Had lots of Greek culture and orthodoxy
 Medicine and medical knowledge – much more superior than the west

What peoples migrated into this are and what was their social characteristics?
 Germanic tribes

What were the major social groups – how do they live?

 Nobles, commoners, peasants, clergy
 Nobles had the wealth and power, government
 Clergy – religious nuns and priest- also involved in government
 Peasants/serfs worked the land in return for protection from their lords, poor had hard
life
 The church was involved – 90% peasants who farm land

6-7 Diseases and aliments during the middle ages in Europe?

 injuries form daily life – break bones, war wounds, tuberculosis, GI problems, eye
problems, dental problems, rashes, leprosy, syphilis, lots of disabilities – physical and
mental, measles, cancer, poor nutrition

8-9 What kinds of treatments and why types of healers did they have?
  apothecaries, herbalists, midwives, medical schools are sent up in italy, practictioners
 folk medicine, revival of humoral medicine
 dress wounds, poultice, herbs, amputations, surgeries, slaves, compresses
 herbal medicine – plants, bark, roots, spices
 examined urine, pulse taking
 blood letting, enemas, lancing, purgatives

What types of hospitals did they have?

 western Europe – monestaries run by the monks – infirmary, herbal gardens
 field hosptials – for armies
 byzantine and arab – more hospital like structures – people went to
 hospitals were developing and a place for people to go if they needed quarantine,
homeless, sickness and injury

How did Christianity affect medical believe and medical practice?

 Visiting shrines of saints
 People are ill because they have sinned, being a bad person
 God could heal with miracles
 Image of the body - did not condone autopsy or dissection of bodies, body was the
temple of the human spirit

Galen and how his influence permeate medieval medicine?

 Believed in humoral medicine and balance of the 4 humors
 Blood letting and leeches
 Because they thought Galen was right
 Anatomical knowledge was right in external anatomy but the internal anatomy was not
 Wrong about female reproductive anatomy
 Gladiator - doctor

Islamic and Arabic medicine – chapter 4

 Difference and had did Arabic and Islamic practices influence western medicine
 1100 and 1200 crusades – brought medical texts
 Preserved Greco- Roman medicine
 Practiced surgery
 Advanced compared to Western Europe

Women’s health and childbirth

 High mortality – 1/5 women died during childbirth, tended to have 6 or more children,
noble children could have 20 children
 Lifetime risk 20% dying in childbirth
 Midwives helped but might have physician, maybe sister or mother help
 Cesarean section – physician had to do it
What medical writings existed – chapter 5
 Galen

 Avicenna
 Another name for him was Ibn Sina. He showed a strong connection between
philosophy and medicine. He was considered a great doctor at the time even though he
was self taught. Most of the physicians of this time was male and women only tended to
be midwives and exponents of various forms of magic. He began practicing medicine at
age 16 and he died in 1037. In Persia, he served as a jurist and then held a variety of
government positions. His main interests were in philosophy and medicine. He greatest
work was ‘Canon of Medicine’.

 Trotulla

In general what were the roles of women in the middle ages, according to their society
 Peasant women
 Merchant women
 Noble women
 Women did not have a lot of legal rights, upper class of men – men were knights, noble
women were left behind to run the village and manor and balance accounts – informally
noble women had power

The Black death causes, what type of disease was it?

 Spiritual causes: thought it was a punishment from God because they were sinners
 Diseases could have been spread through trade from asia
 Since population was high in some cities, it made it easy to spead and the hygiene of
that time was bad
 Bacterium form Asia spread through trade
 Hit Italy in 1347
 Rapidly spread


What was the death toll of the black death and how did it affect the economy
 Population decreased, labor shortage, land lords had to pay peasants to work
  changes whole economy – people began to work for wages not surfism
 killed an estimate of around 25 million people, sometimes whole villages were wiped
out
 about ½ of Europe’s population died
 repeated outbreaks until 1700s

How did the black death affect religion and how people thought about religion art and
literature?
 the local priests were helpful and dying – couldn’t understand why this was happening,
were losing faith in leadership in church and in God
 art and literature had very dark themes – corpses and skeletons everywhere, morbid
themes