What is the Theory of the 4 Humors?
Hippocrates thought the body was made up of 4 humors; blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. If a patient was ill it was because the humors were imbalanced.
4 things that made people ill
4 things that made people laugh
How did Galen adapt Hippocrates idea?
Added causes of illness
He suggested new ways of balancing the humors using opposites.
Added more diseases
What did Galen discover through his experiments and dissections?
He correctly identified all human anatomy.
The heart pumps the blood.
Galen discovered that the brain controls speech, not the heart, through his dissections of pigs.
What were some of Galen's mistakes?
He thought that the jaw had two bones, blood was made in the liver and it was burned up after use, and that muscles were attached to bones. Also the theory of the 4 humors was incorrect.
Thought that the heart controlled speech and the brain did not exist.
Thought that the 4 humors were wrong, believed in miasma.
What were some features of Roman Public health?
No toilets but running water from aqueducts and public baths
The Romans had no public health system.
- Public toilets, baths, and water fountains - Water pipes and sewers - Aqueducts to transport water
What happened to medicine and public health after the collapse of the Roman Empire?
All their public health ideas carried on, the invading tribes loved their system, were very intellectual
Their public health system collapsed, libraries full of books were destroyed, the warring tribes were not interested in education or medicine.
Everything was destroyed, not even Galen's work survived.
Why did Galen make mistakes?
He had to dissect animals rather than humans in Ancient Rome, so many of his ideas were based on animal anatomy rather than human anatomy
He did no research whatsoever.
Everybody persecuted him and plagiarized his work so much that it was full of mistakes.
What else did the Romans believe caused diseases and how did they try to treat illnesses based on this?
They also believed in supernatural causes, so they built temples to the God of Healing, Aslepius. These temples were called Asclepions.
Believed in the Miasma Theory, kept everything very clean.
Believed in spontaneous generation so kept things clean.
Why was the time of the Romans so beneficial for medical training?
They had the best public health system ever.
There was a lot of war and the Romans had a huge army so surgeons became skilled at treating wounds and illnesses, so that the army was kept healthy.
There were a lot of dead people for them to dissect.
What carried on after the collapse of the Roman Empire?
Their public health system.
Their weapons and fighting techniques.
Galen's theories were carried forward by the Church, which also survived, and they were taught for hundreds of years afterwards.
Why was public health so important to the Romans?
They recognized that there was link between dirt and disease, so they tried to keep everything and everyone clean to prevent epidemics and keep their army healthy.
Wanted to keep people healthy to show off to other countries.
Wanted to poison everyone but appear innocent.
What were some features of the public baths?
Cold bath, hot bath, but was very expensive.
An exercise yard, sauna/ steam room, warm and cold water pools, only cost a small amount and even the smallest town had public baths to make it easier to people to keep clean
One large pool for everyone.
What was Laissez-faire?
This was the attitude of the Government during the Middle Ages. They did not think that it was their job to improve public health, they thought that people should look after themselves.
The attitude of the people towards the government, wanted the government to leave them alone.
The attitude of the rich towards the poor, wanted to help them.
Who were the Dirty Party?
The very poor who were always ill and filthy.
The rich who didn't want to help the poor.
These were the local ratepayers who didn't want the laissez-faire attitude to change because they didn't want to have to pay for the health of the poor.
What happened to Galen's ideas after the end of the Roman Empire?
They were lost as all of his books were burnt.
Galen's ideas were carried forwards and were used to train doctors for thousands of years after the collapse of the Roman Empire.
They were preserved but only as a record of history, people did not believe them anymore.
When was the Black Death?
1542
1348
1435
1202
How did doctors diagnose their patients in the 1300s?
Used clinical observation by looking at their urine, or used astrology.
Prayed to ask God to tell them what was wrong with the patient.
Didn't know, just had a generic treatment.
What was the most common treatment and why?
To pray and ask God for forgiveness and ask him to take away the illness.
To whip themselves, to stop God punishing them with an illness.
Most common was bleeding or purging, as they were taught the theory of the 4 humors and believed they needed to balance them.
What was the Black Death?
Most likely Bubonic Plague, which often went alongside Pneumonic Plague.
A disease where the person's body turned completely black.
Was a disease that caused sudden death out of the blue.
What did people think caused the Black death?
Miasma, supernatural punishment, an imbalance of the humors, astrological reason or Jews poisoning the wells.
Everyone believed it was caused by bacteria spread by fleas from rats.
Was spread by cats and dogs.
What did people use as treatments or to prevent the Black Death?
Burn barrels of tar to keep away the bad air, or miasma, or would try to balance the humors with bleeding or purging.
They would go onto antibiotics.
Stay indoors away from everyone, houses were locked up and food passed through the window.
What were hospitals like in 1350?
Run by monks and nuns, no infectious or incurable patients admitted, more like a care home, kept clean and well fed.
They were filthy, not enough doctors and mostly for the poor, nobody really wanted to help so did not have the supplies or knowledge of the causes of disease.
Doctors and nurses were trained, and rooms were kept clean and well ventilated
How did hospitals develop between 1350 and 1750?
Henry VIII dissolved monasteries, now no hospitals run by monks or nuns, run by locals, charities or town councils.
Became cleaner and treatments were better, doctors were better trained
After dissolution of monasteries, there were not really any hospitals, the rich were treated by private doctors in their homes, the poor stayed at home to die.
What were hospitals like by 1750?
Run by trained physicians, and some admitted infectious patients, however nurses were not trained.
Now knew what caused disease, everything was kept very clean and treatments had improved to target specific diseases.
Were mostly the same as in 1350, by now run by town councils and locals rather than monasteries.
What were some popular treatments by 1750?
Herbal remedies that people could by from an apothecary were popular, and bleeding was still popular. Prayer still important.
Penicillin and Magic Bullets such as Salversan 606 were used, especially in hospitals.
Treatments were all based on balancing the humors.
Why did Galen's ideas carry on being taught for so long?
The Church remained a huge influence on everybody and controlled medical training, and the Church liked Galen's ideas as they fitted in with what the Bible taught. The Church did not allow human dissection so nobody could find out for themselves whether Galen's ideas were correct.
People like his ideas as they seemed to make sense and nobody wanted to dissect human bodies to find out so they were happy to accept Galen's ideas.
They were the only medical ideas that survived the Roman empire and were the only guide anybody had to any kind of treatment or cause of disease.
How did the Renaissance change people's view?
It showed them how important medicine was, there were a lot of plagues and diseases so people looked for cures.
People began to love knowledge again and wanted to find things out for themselves, this led to many new developments and inventions that helped the progress of medicine.
The Church gained in popularity again so everyone believed that supernatural causes were responsible for disease.
How did Art help medicine to progress?
Artists started to draw from real life, some, such as Da Vinci, dissected bodies and drew detailed drawings of human anatomy. These were shared with physicians who made their own discoveries from the images, such as Vesalius.
It was the first form of therapy to be used in hospitals for patients recovering from trauma.
Artists helped to promote the physicians and inventors and to spread their ideas.
