Many people believed that
disease was a punishment
from God.
The church made people
believe this
This prevented people from trying to find cures for
disease- if disease was a punishment from God, all
you could do was pray and repent
They thought that the way to cure disease
was through prayer and repentance.
Flagellation- when you hit, whip or hurt
yourself to show forgiveness to God
Astrology was a common theory in medieval times.
Astrology is the idea that the movement of planet and
stars have an effect on the Earth and on people.
Astrology was a new way of diagnosing disease.
Different star signs were thought to affect different parts of the body.
The Roman Catholic church was an extremely powerful
organisation in Europe.
It dominated the way people studied and thought about a range of
topics, including medicine.
People believed that some diseases could be
caused by evil spirits living inside someone
Members of the church performed exorcisms
Exorcisms is using chance to remove the spirit from someone's body
Natural Explanations
Four Humours.
The theory of the four humours
was created by the ancient
greek DR. Hippocrates.
Hippocrates believed that the
body was made of four fluids.
Blood, Phlegm, Yellow bile and Black bile.
These were linked to the four
seasons and the four elements.
To get better again the humours need to be balanced.
To get your humours balanced, you need to go to a
barber surgeon.
There you are either treated through purging or blood letting.
Some treatments in Medieval Britain were based less on religious faith
and more on natural theories and observation of the physical world.
Miasma Theory.
The Miasma Theory blamed bad air for causing disease.
this bad air may come from human waste or dead bodies.
This theory originated in ancient
Greece and Rome and was
incorporated by Galen into the
Theory of the Four Humours.
This idea was extremely popular in medieval Britain.
Treating and preventing diseases.
The Miasma Theory led people to believe
in the power of purifying or cleansing the
air to prevent sickness and improve health.
Physicians carry posies and oranges around with them
when visiting patients to protect themselves from
catching a disease.
During the Black Death, juniper, Myrrh and incense were burned so the smoke
or scent would fill the room and stop bad air from bringing disease inside.
People had burning bins at the end of streets, so it would burn away the bad air.
People carried around
herbs and strong
smelling flowers to
prevent themselves from
disease.
People used herbs and scents like
Lavender, Basil, Rosemary and Sage.
Germ Theory.
Discovered by Louis Pasteur.
Pasteur was a French chemist and he got
employed in 1857 to find the explanation
for the souring of sugar beet used in
fermenting industrial alcohol. His answer
was to blame germs.
Pasteur proved there was germs
in the air, he showed that
sterilised water in a closed flask
stay sterile, whilst sterilised water
in a open flask bred germs.
In 1861, Germ Theory was published.
Pasteur argued that microbes in the air caused decay.
He suggested some germs caused disease.
In 1867, Pasteur released evidence proving
there was a link between germs and disease.
The Germ Theory wasn't popular at first because
people couldn't believe that tiny microbes could
cause disease
The theory inspired the surgeon
Joseph Lister to develop antiseptics
The theory confirmed John Snow's cholera theory
This theory put pressure on the government to pass the 1875 Public
Health Act
The Miasma Theory was so influential that it
lasted until the 1860s when Germ Theory replaced
it.
The German Theory Robert Koch built on
Pasteur's work by linking specific
diseases to the particular microbe that
caused them