Most of us know that getting sick isn’t fun. Luckily for us we knew the problem and a cure from it. Unfortunately during the Elizabethan era there was a lack in knowledge of diseases and their cures. Even though there were many physicians, only a handful of people had a good understanding of death, diseases, and cures. An example would be William Shakespeare. Compared to today many people lacked understanding of disease during the Elizabethan era. However, Shakespeare showed that he understood these things by hinting accurate descriptions in his plays.
Prior to Shakespeare day, in 1518 the first College of Physicians located in London was established. With a high cost to attend, and limiting it to only men, very few doctors had attended a medical school such as this one. Other doctors had gained their status after years of being an assistant. These doctors, also known as physicians (see Appendix A), treated many disease and injuries one had, but not for a cheap price. Thus these physicians were reserved for the wealthy, resulting in some physicians to give false information just for money.
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Other positions of people that helped with treatment were surgeons, barbers, apothecaries, the church, housewives, and “wise women” are all alternative examples for a doctor. Surgeons and barbers were both similar and could do very little. Surgeons did their work based of the physician instructions, while barbers could only let blood and pull teeth. Apothecaries were just like modern day pharmacist, selling things from sweets, herbs, and medicines. The church had a small role in providing comfort to people. The housewives was an average housewife with basic knowledge on herbs and treatment on minor things. And lastly, “wise women” were known as a witches who the poor contacted
Fry says that physicians protected themselves with suits of leather, glass eyes so that the eyes didn’t get contaminated and a long beak because it was thought that the foul air caused the disease so they filled the beak with sponged filled with essences and fragrances,A poem made in the 17th century about the plague doctors says:As may be seen on picture here, In Rome doctors do appear, when to their patients they are called, In placed by the plague appalled, their hats and cloaks, of fashion new, are made of oilcloth, dark of hue, their caps with glasses are designed, Their bills with antidotes are lined, that foulsome air may do no harm, nor cause the doctor man alarm, the staff in hand may serve to show, their noble trade where they go. This artifact was created with the purpose to protect the surgeon or doctor from the plague, it had a long beak because at that time it was thought that the plague was caused because of the air, the beak was filled with sponged dipped in fragrances so that the doctors get sick. This artifact connects historically to the medieval times because Europe at that time was filled with an epidemic that killed one third of the population. This artifact connects with a source of power because in the article it says that doctors/surgeons were called to each town by those in charge and served everyone because their salary was payed by
Evaluation: This site is great for learning what doctors did during Elizabethan times. It tells about what doctors did to patients, what they thought happened to them, and even what they wore. It also is good for learning about how people became sick during that time. It also has a few links I can use to research more on this topic. There's no mention of the credentials of the author, but it's a solid source overall.
In medicine there were many things that changed and some that stayed the same between 1350 and 1750. Initially I will be looking at medicine and treatment in the Ancient World as a prelude to its importance during the Renaissance period, and also the influence it may have had in the Middle Ages.
During the Middle Ages, medical knowledge was severely limited. People did not understand things like germs and how diseases are spread from person to person. To the Medieval man,
Many would often seek healing by family members, friends, or neighbors and often avoided hospitals due to the high cost. The majority of patients were too poor to pay a physician and even the wealthy did not normally call unless in the case of an emergency, severe sickness or injury. So we can conclude that back then, many could not afford to pay for health care and even if they chose to, it was very expensive.
Obviously, at this era in time social class meant everything, this could even determine what kind of treatment and doctor you would have. At the top were the physicians - only the very wealthy had physicians because the physicians fee was 10 shillings. One step lower than the physicians were the surgeons they were similar to barbers. A step lower than the surgeons was the barbers who were only certified to pull teeth or let blood (Alchin). The
can come to the conclusion that all physicians were well looked after and were a valuable asset to all pharaoh. In wartime and on journeys anywhere within Egypt, the sick are all treated free of charge, because doctors are paid by
The Doctor in the “Cantebury Tales” is very well educated, and obtains a substantial amount of intelligence in astronomy. In his time, no one could match his knowledge of medicine and surgery. It is also easy to infer that the doctor is a wealthy man based on his appearance. He wears nice and expensive “blood-red garments, slashed with bluish grey, and lined with tafetta, he rode his way.” (449-450) While the doctor is one of the most educated of the pilgrims, he pursues his learning mainly for money.
There were doctors in Colonial America. When a doctor visits a patient to check upon the sick person's health, their pay will be in anything but money such as chopped woods, vegetables, et cetera for the poor people. The poor people did not have money as stated in A Visit to a Colonial Times Doctor’s Office. They usually rely on their farming to feed their families and things such as money were scarce. Those who are of the contrary to the low income and the rural settings have better access to health and opportunities as written in Colonial Medicine (5). They can pay their doctor on the spot and can even request their choice of doctors. In modern America, a new change to the health care business is arriving. With the currently new healthcare, everyone shall be able to hopefully
Medical practice in 1870 was given by a physician who was practicing medicine. However, these individuals did not get the proper training during this time period to carry out any medical tasks. In the 18th century, there was a limited amount of medical schools in the United States. Forty-two medical schools had opened in the United States in the 1850s. “These physicians did not have classroom facilities at their disposal, however, nor did they have the authority to confer the doctor of medicine (MD) degree.
As a child William Shakespeare saw many plays, mostly because of his father, John Shakespeare who was in charge of censoring content before a play was shown to the townspeople. Because of this, John Shakespeare took his family to many plays. It was those plays that encouraged William, along with his knowledge of mythology and fairy tales, to become a writer. He enjoyed using new words such as, alligator (Spanish el lagarto), critic (Greek krinein), and anchovy (Spanish anchova) are a few of them. In 1586 William arrived in London and began working on play writing. This would last until the theaters closed in June of 1592 due to the Black Death having spread into London, the theaters would not reopen until 1594. During this time Shakespeare
The logic and principles of medieval medicine shaped those of Modern medicine. Never was there a more efficient method perfected, so much that it remained through history through so many hundreds of years. Today’s concepts of diagnosis, relationships with the church, anatomy, surgery, hospitals and training, and public health were established in the Middle Ages.
In the Elizabethan period, life was massively effected by a social order: the royalty ranking first, the nobility as the second, the third being gentry, merchants as fourth, and laborers last. It was thought that God had personally created these social ranks, and had blessed each social status. For every rank, there would be certain expectations; for example, it would be a defiance for a labourer to wear clothes of the rich. All the more, Elizabethan problems with sickness and diseases were worsened by the town's low sanitary measures. Treatment for medical issues were unorganized and fell short to complete the public’s needs; even people who were able to seek medical attention had to go through horrific procedures and multiple medication problems.
I have mentioned that the relationship between healers and patients in ancient times was different and therefore payment in ancient times was also different. Many times, healers in ancient Rome were not paid at all, or if they were paid, payment was usually not in the form of money. Vivian Nutton says in his article that, "A doctor was a person, male or female,
Medicine is a necessity, no matter when or where in time. Medicine during the medieval times was an especially important necessity. Advanced technology that we use today did not exist back then, and because of that, medicine was different. All the doctors could use were their own hands and/or very strange medical techniques. To understand medicine during this time, one must understand the medical professions, the diseases, and how the sick were treated.