Shad Ahmad History
Medicine in Britain, c.1250 – present
c1250-c1500: Medicine in Medieval England
1) Disease was thought to have supernatural causes like…
A punishment from God for people’s sins. They tried to cure disease by prayer and
repentance.
Evil supernatural beings, like demons or witches.
Evil spirits living inside someone.
2) Church slowed down progress in medieval medicine.
Church said that disease was a punishment from God. This prevented people from trying to
find cures for disease; all you could do was pray and repent.
They made sure scholars of medicine learned the works of Galen as his ideas fit the Christian
belief that God created human bodies and made them to be perfect. Couldn’t disagree with
Church (religion) at the time.
Church prevented dissection – so medical doctors couldn’t discover ideas about human
anatomy – had to learn Galen’s false ideas.
3) Astrology used to diagnose disease.
Idea that the movements of planets and stars effect the Earth and people, causing disease.
Different star signs thought to affect different parts of the body.
4) Four Humours theory.
Created by Hippocrates.
Body made up of four fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile. They must be in balance
for good health.
Galen developed this – diseases could be treated using opposites.
5) Miasma theory.
Bad air causes disease when someone breathes it in.
Prompted people to do hygienic things, like cleaning the streets.
6) Hippocrates and Galen were influential.
,Shad Ahmad History
Their texts were considered important and truthful by the Roman Catholic Church.
Their ideas were taught for centuries after their deaths.
Hippocratic Oath = promise made by doctors today to obey rules of behaviour in their
professional lives.
7) Prayer and Repentance were treatments.
Sick people prayed to saints.
Went on pilgrimages to holy shrines.
Flagellants = people who whipped themselves in public for repentance.
8) Bloodletting and purging.
Used to balance the four humours.
Purging = getting rid of other fluids from the body by excreting.
9) Purifying the air.
People carried posies or oranges around them to counter miasma.
People purified or cleaned the air to prevent sickness.
10) Herbal remedies.
Bought from an apothecary or made at home.
Contained herbs, spices and minerals.
11) Physicians’ experience.
Male doctors who had trained at university for 7 years.
Read ancient texts and books, but had little practical experience.
Only rich afforded to see a physician.
12) Apothecaries and quacks.
Prepared and sold remedies.
Most common and most accessible form of treatment.
Quacks = people without any medical knowledge who sold medical treatments that didn’t
work.
13) Barber surgeons.
Barber-surgeons weren’t doctors, so had little medical training.
,Shad Ahmad History
14) Hospitals.
Few hospitals in medieval Britain.
The sick were treated at home by family.
Hospitals were to care for the elderly, not to treat disease.
15) Black Death.
1348-1350.
Bubonic plague = spread by bites of fleas from rats carried on ships. Causes headaches, a
high temperature and swellings on the skin.
Pneumonic plague = airborne, spread by coughs and sneezes. Attacked the lungs, making it
hard to breathe and victims coughed up blood.
16) Black Death ideas at the time.
Punishment from God.
Four humour imbalances.
Miasma.
Astrology.
17) Local governments tried to prevent spread of disease.
They built new cemeteries outside of the town, away from houses, as people thought you
could catch the plague being close to the bodies of dead victims.
Town of Gloucester tried to shut itself off from the outside world, as they thought the
plague was spread by human contact.
c1500-c1700: The Medical Renaissance in England
18) Change (and some continuity) in the Renaissance.
, Shad Ahmad History
Emergence of science. People thought about how the human body worked based on direct
observation and experimentation.
New books found said that anatomy and dissections was very important. This encouraged
people to examine the body themselves, and to draw their own conclusions about the
causes of diseases.
People began to question Galen, but still studied his writing and theories.
Church no longer had much control over medical teaching.
19) Medical knowledge of doctors improved.
Dissections became a key part of medical training.
Physicians made important discoveries about disease and the human body.
New weapons used in war, meaning doctors had to treat injuries they never saw before,
forcing them to discover new treatments.
Hospitals now were run by trained physicians to treat illness.
20) Vesalius.
1538, 1543.
Performed dissections on executed criminals.
1538 – Six Anatomical Pictures.
1543 – Fabric of the Human Body.
His findings encourages others to question Galen. Doctors realised there was more to
discover about the body due to Vesalius’ questioning attitude.
Vesalius showed dissecting bodies was important to find out the structure of the human
body. This increased the use of dissections in medical training.
21) Thomas Sydenham.
1676.
Found it important to gain practical experience in treating patients. As a doctor, he made
detailed observation of his patients and kept accurate records of their symptoms.
Said diseases could be classified – the different types of diseases could be discovered using
patients’ symptoms.
Showed scarlet fever was different to measles.
1676 – Medical Observations
His work made diagnosis more important part of doctors’ work.
22) William Harvey.
1628
Discovered the circulation of the blood.
Medicine in Britain, c.1250 – present
c1250-c1500: Medicine in Medieval England
1) Disease was thought to have supernatural causes like…
A punishment from God for people’s sins. They tried to cure disease by prayer and
repentance.
Evil supernatural beings, like demons or witches.
Evil spirits living inside someone.
2) Church slowed down progress in medieval medicine.
Church said that disease was a punishment from God. This prevented people from trying to
find cures for disease; all you could do was pray and repent.
They made sure scholars of medicine learned the works of Galen as his ideas fit the Christian
belief that God created human bodies and made them to be perfect. Couldn’t disagree with
Church (religion) at the time.
Church prevented dissection – so medical doctors couldn’t discover ideas about human
anatomy – had to learn Galen’s false ideas.
3) Astrology used to diagnose disease.
Idea that the movements of planets and stars effect the Earth and people, causing disease.
Different star signs thought to affect different parts of the body.
4) Four Humours theory.
Created by Hippocrates.
Body made up of four fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile. They must be in balance
for good health.
Galen developed this – diseases could be treated using opposites.
5) Miasma theory.
Bad air causes disease when someone breathes it in.
Prompted people to do hygienic things, like cleaning the streets.
6) Hippocrates and Galen were influential.
,Shad Ahmad History
Their texts were considered important and truthful by the Roman Catholic Church.
Their ideas were taught for centuries after their deaths.
Hippocratic Oath = promise made by doctors today to obey rules of behaviour in their
professional lives.
7) Prayer and Repentance were treatments.
Sick people prayed to saints.
Went on pilgrimages to holy shrines.
Flagellants = people who whipped themselves in public for repentance.
8) Bloodletting and purging.
Used to balance the four humours.
Purging = getting rid of other fluids from the body by excreting.
9) Purifying the air.
People carried posies or oranges around them to counter miasma.
People purified or cleaned the air to prevent sickness.
10) Herbal remedies.
Bought from an apothecary or made at home.
Contained herbs, spices and minerals.
11) Physicians’ experience.
Male doctors who had trained at university for 7 years.
Read ancient texts and books, but had little practical experience.
Only rich afforded to see a physician.
12) Apothecaries and quacks.
Prepared and sold remedies.
Most common and most accessible form of treatment.
Quacks = people without any medical knowledge who sold medical treatments that didn’t
work.
13) Barber surgeons.
Barber-surgeons weren’t doctors, so had little medical training.
,Shad Ahmad History
14) Hospitals.
Few hospitals in medieval Britain.
The sick were treated at home by family.
Hospitals were to care for the elderly, not to treat disease.
15) Black Death.
1348-1350.
Bubonic plague = spread by bites of fleas from rats carried on ships. Causes headaches, a
high temperature and swellings on the skin.
Pneumonic plague = airborne, spread by coughs and sneezes. Attacked the lungs, making it
hard to breathe and victims coughed up blood.
16) Black Death ideas at the time.
Punishment from God.
Four humour imbalances.
Miasma.
Astrology.
17) Local governments tried to prevent spread of disease.
They built new cemeteries outside of the town, away from houses, as people thought you
could catch the plague being close to the bodies of dead victims.
Town of Gloucester tried to shut itself off from the outside world, as they thought the
plague was spread by human contact.
c1500-c1700: The Medical Renaissance in England
18) Change (and some continuity) in the Renaissance.
, Shad Ahmad History
Emergence of science. People thought about how the human body worked based on direct
observation and experimentation.
New books found said that anatomy and dissections was very important. This encouraged
people to examine the body themselves, and to draw their own conclusions about the
causes of diseases.
People began to question Galen, but still studied his writing and theories.
Church no longer had much control over medical teaching.
19) Medical knowledge of doctors improved.
Dissections became a key part of medical training.
Physicians made important discoveries about disease and the human body.
New weapons used in war, meaning doctors had to treat injuries they never saw before,
forcing them to discover new treatments.
Hospitals now were run by trained physicians to treat illness.
20) Vesalius.
1538, 1543.
Performed dissections on executed criminals.
1538 – Six Anatomical Pictures.
1543 – Fabric of the Human Body.
His findings encourages others to question Galen. Doctors realised there was more to
discover about the body due to Vesalius’ questioning attitude.
Vesalius showed dissecting bodies was important to find out the structure of the human
body. This increased the use of dissections in medical training.
21) Thomas Sydenham.
1676.
Found it important to gain practical experience in treating patients. As a doctor, he made
detailed observation of his patients and kept accurate records of their symptoms.
Said diseases could be classified – the different types of diseases could be discovered using
patients’ symptoms.
Showed scarlet fever was different to measles.
1676 – Medical Observations
His work made diagnosis more important part of doctors’ work.
22) William Harvey.
1628
Discovered the circulation of the blood.
