Medicine Through
1250-present
, Four Humours Religion
● Idea put forward by the Ancient Greeks: the body was made Majority of people could
up of four humours, all created by digesting different foods. the Church. They taugh
● Hippocrates (Ancient Greek doctor, 5th century BCE) ● those who co
believed: If the mix of the four humours became unbalanced, famine, lepro
you became ill ● Disease sent
● First recorded rational explanation for causes of disease, ● The devil cou
continued to be practiced well into the Middle Ages. ● When people
● Each humour linked to certain characteristics that the Church decla
physicians would look for when diagnosing e.g patient with a ● Blaming sickn
fever > high temp. > skin to go hot & red > too much blood >
evidence of G
bleeding. Symptoms were treated separately.
● People shoul
● Ancient Greek physician Galen (2nd century CE), developed
the idea further, to include the idea of balancing the humours many hospita
by using the Theory of Opposites.
● For example, if you had too much phlegm (linked to water
and cold) you should eat hot peppers. No cure for leprosy (skin d
● Popular theory as it was very detailed and could be used to Ideas about the were banished from their
explain any kind of illness (physical or mental). Had to wear a cloak & rin
Causes of breath was considered co
Galen had been a physician in Gladiator school. He became the personal
Disease and
physician of the Roman Emperor. He had lots of time to write and had left more
than 350 books. He also theorised that the circulatory system circulating blood Illness
generated in the liver and the blood was then distributed around the body.
Why didn’t ideas change? Time of Continuity
c1250-c1500
Church
● Ordinary people were taught by the church
● Most large collections of books were in monasteries - Church in charge of what books read. They promoted teachings of
Galen, as he believed in the idea of the soul, which aligned with the ideas of the Church (God created in man’s image).
● Church promoted ideas that aligned with Christianity and suppressed those that didn’t.
● Church was the centre of formal learning: it ran universities where physicians were trained. They would be taught from
the Articella (medical textbook composed of Hippocrates and Galen). Authority of their texts meant that any physical
evidence suggested was wrong.
1250-present
, Four Humours Religion
● Idea put forward by the Ancient Greeks: the body was made Majority of people could
up of four humours, all created by digesting different foods. the Church. They taugh
● Hippocrates (Ancient Greek doctor, 5th century BCE) ● those who co
believed: If the mix of the four humours became unbalanced, famine, lepro
you became ill ● Disease sent
● First recorded rational explanation for causes of disease, ● The devil cou
continued to be practiced well into the Middle Ages. ● When people
● Each humour linked to certain characteristics that the Church decla
physicians would look for when diagnosing e.g patient with a ● Blaming sickn
fever > high temp. > skin to go hot & red > too much blood >
evidence of G
bleeding. Symptoms were treated separately.
● People shoul
● Ancient Greek physician Galen (2nd century CE), developed
the idea further, to include the idea of balancing the humours many hospita
by using the Theory of Opposites.
● For example, if you had too much phlegm (linked to water
and cold) you should eat hot peppers. No cure for leprosy (skin d
● Popular theory as it was very detailed and could be used to Ideas about the were banished from their
explain any kind of illness (physical or mental). Had to wear a cloak & rin
Causes of breath was considered co
Galen had been a physician in Gladiator school. He became the personal
Disease and
physician of the Roman Emperor. He had lots of time to write and had left more
than 350 books. He also theorised that the circulatory system circulating blood Illness
generated in the liver and the blood was then distributed around the body.
Why didn’t ideas change? Time of Continuity
c1250-c1500
Church
● Ordinary people were taught by the church
● Most large collections of books were in monasteries - Church in charge of what books read. They promoted teachings of
Galen, as he believed in the idea of the soul, which aligned with the ideas of the Church (God created in man’s image).
● Church promoted ideas that aligned with Christianity and suppressed those that didn’t.
● Church was the centre of formal learning: it ran universities where physicians were trained. They would be taught from
the Articella (medical textbook composed of Hippocrates and Galen). Authority of their texts meant that any physical
evidence suggested was wrong.
