Medical Ideas from the Ancient World in the Middle Ages

The Ancient Greeks came up with an idea of what caused disease. Now remember this.


Hippocrates came up with the idea of The Four Humours

The Four Humours was a theory that the body was made up of four liquids.
Blood
Phlegm
Black Bile
Yellow Bile

The idea was that if any of these four humours were out of balance, somebody would become ill.
Examples:
1. if you had a temperature, your skin went red and hot because you had too much blood
2. Having a dark lump was a result of having too much bile.

There was the belief that these humours were linked to the four seasons (which you most likely know) AND the idea of the four elements (earth, air, fire and water). Winter was linked to water, and therefore your body produced a lot of phlegm. However, we know that this is known as the common cold.




So in Greek times, treatment was based on this theory.

Later, in the 2nd century, Galen thought of the Theory of Opposites

Life Expectancy in the 1350's

The 1350's was a pretty bad time in history in terms of health. 

This period, was right in the middle of the ancient period (ancient Greece, Egypt, Rome) and The Medical Renaissance. We classify this period between the years 400-1500 CE. It is also known as...yes, you guessed it. The Middle Ages a.k.a the Medieval Times!

Life expectancy in this time was very small. Unlike today's life expectancy of around 80 years, back then, the life expectancy was on average around 30 years. 

Some people lived longer, but this was unusual, and the rich mainly had a longer life expectancy.

Life expectancy was low  because of the following reasons:

- Illness
- Poor living conditions
- Malnutrition
- Childbirth (women)
- Injuries

Infant mortality was also very high.

Ask yourself this. Why would the rich have a longer life expectancy?

Use the reasons above to maybe guess why. Remember, no one had a clue to why disease spread at that time. Could it be because of the adequate living conditions, the better diet and the more hygienic living conditions also?

I think so.

Basically, in the medieval period, dealing with daily aches/pains and infection was the main aim of Medicine at that time. There was rarely concern for heart problems, cancers, hip problems and this is because these are less of a problem for young people. And remember, people died young. If there was rarely old people about, these diseases wouldn't come up, and wouldn't be a problem.

History of Medicine and Surgery

This blog is going to cover the following topics:

-Medicine and treatment c1350-c1750 (c means circa, and circa means around this time)
-Medicine and treatment c1750-c1900
-Medicine and treatment c1900 to present day
-Extension - Public health from c1350 to present day

It will also cover:
 The transformation of surgery! c1845-c1918

This will cover how pain was dealt with, how infection was dealt with, how blood loss was dealt with and the factors influencing these developments.

This is all to help with the Edexcel GCSE paper, Option B on Medicine and Surgery. I have obtained this information from the "Edexcel GCSE History B Schools History Project Medicine and Surgery" Textbook, written by Cathy Warren and Nigel Bushnell.

However, the information will be concise and will include all the important info!