History- Medicine In Britain

Disease and the Supernatural.
1. Many people believed that disease was a punishment from God.
  1. The church made people believe this
    1. 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
2. They thought that the way to cure disease was through prayer and repentance.
  1. Flagellation- when you hit, whip or hurt yourself to show forgiveness to God
3. Astrology was a common theory in medieval times.
  1. Astrology is the idea that the movement of planet and stars have an effect on the Earth and on people.
  2. Astrology was a new way of diagnosing disease.
  3. Different star signs were thought to affect different parts of the body.
4. The Roman Catholic church was an extremely powerful organisation in Europe.
  1. It dominated the way people studied and thought about a range of topics, including medicine.
5. People believed that some diseases could be caused by evil spirits living inside someone
  1. Members of the church performed exorcisms
    1. Exorcisms is using chance to remove the spirit from someone's body
Natural Explanations
1. Four Humours.
  1. The theory of the four humours was created by the ancient greek DR. Hippocrates.
    1. Hippocrates believed that the body was made of four fluids.
      1. Blood, Phlegm, Yellow bile and Black bile.
      2. These were linked to the four seasons and the four elements.
  2. To get better again the humours need to be balanced.
    1. To get your humours balanced, you need to go to a barber surgeon.
      1. There you are either treated through purging or blood letting.
2. Some treatments in Medieval Britain were based less on religious faith and more on natural theories and observation of the physical world.
3. Miasma Theory.
  1. The Miasma Theory blamed bad air for causing disease.
    1. this bad air may come from human waste or dead bodies.
  2. This theory originated in ancient Greece and Rome and was incorporated by Galen into the Theory of the Four Humours.
  3. This idea was extremely popular in medieval Britain.
  4. Treating and preventing diseases.
    1. The Miasma Theory led people to believe in the power of purifying or cleansing the air to prevent sickness and improve health.
    2. Physicians carry posies and oranges around with them when visiting patients to protect themselves from catching a disease.
    3. 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.
    4. People had burning bins at the end of streets, so it would burn away the bad air.
    5. People carried around herbs and strong smelling flowers to prevent themselves from disease.
    6. People used herbs and scents like Lavender, Basil, Rosemary and Sage.
Germ Theory.
1. Discovered by Louis Pasteur.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. In 1861, Germ Theory was published.
  4. Pasteur argued that microbes in the air caused decay.
  5. He suggested some germs caused disease.
  6. In 1867, Pasteur released evidence proving there was a link between germs and disease.
  7. The Germ Theory wasn't popular at first because people couldn't believe that tiny microbes could cause disease
  8. The theory inspired the surgeon Joseph Lister to develop antiseptics
  9. The theory confirmed John Snow's cholera theory
  10. This theory put pressure on the government to pass the 1875 Public Health Act
2. The Miasma Theory was so influential that it lasted until the 1860s when Germ Theory replaced it.
3. The German Theory Robert Koch built on Pasteur's work by linking specific diseases to the particular microbe that caused them
  1. Robert Koch

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History- Medicine In Britain

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