Zusammenfassung der Ressource
what did a medieval doctor know?
- MEDIEVAL DOCTOR TRAINING:
- 7 years of study at a university- Oxford or Cambridge. Doctors learnt mainly by listening to lectures
and debating about what they had read about in books. Doctors learned the treatments of
Hippocrates and Galen, together with medical knowledge from the Muslim and Indian worlds. Doctors
dealt with each part of the body starting from the head downwards, and brought together medical
theory, charms and Christian prayers.
- DIAGNOSIS:
- medieval doctors followed the ancient Greek method of 'clinical
observation' to produce a diagnosis of the disease. Doctors
tended to concentrate on 2 indicators; the colour, smell, and
taste of urine; and the pulse. from this the doctor would
prescribe natural medicines made from plants. spices and oils.
- TREATMENT:
- common treatment- bloodletting, which was when blood was removed by
opening a vein or using leeches to suck it out. the cure often didn't work
because blood had to be removed from the right spot on the body.
- other treatments involved in eating something that made
you vomit or go to the toilet.
- remedies often included combining natural with supernatural
approaches, such as prayers, charms and astrology.
- FOUR HUMOURS:
- medieval doctors based their natural cures on the Ancient Greek theory of
illness, which involved the inequal balance of 4 'humours' within the body.
they believed that a person became ill when the humours were out of
balance, and the doctor's job was to restore this balance. if there was not
enough they might be advised to drink more RED WINE.
- SUMMER, HOT: yellow bile. Cure: made to vomit
ro change their diet (e.g. eat cheese).
- AUTUMN, DRY: black bile. Cure: given laxatives
or eating more vegetables.
- WINTER, COLD: phlegm. Cure: breathe in steam, or
eating fleshy vegetables like cucumber.
- SPRING, MOIST: blood. Cure: bloodletting, or eating and drinking
red wine or meat.
- OPTIONS:
- there were few university trained doctors in medieval england, adn they were expensive. less respected but more
common were the barber-surgeons in towns. there would also be wise men and wise woman who would sell natural
herbal remedies and they were available for people who lived in the villages. christianity was very central to medieval
peoples's lives, so sick people might also turn to the local monastry or the parish priest for medical help. people at the
time believed that God could send illnes as a punishment for wickedness and crimes (sins).