Importance Of Medicine In The Middle Ages

The black plague, also known as the bubonic plague, swept its way across Europe beginning in 1346 A.D. , killing an estimated thirty to fifty percent of the total population. The plague was spread by fleas infected with Yersinia pestis, and was carried over oceans by hitchhiking rats and pet gerbils. The plague outbreak that decimated the population was transported by infected Christian merchants

The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, was a fatal disease that affected millions of people. Originated from China, the Bubonic Plague spread throughout Europe and made its way to Italy in 1347. (document 1) The Black Death, which covered the body with dark and livid spots, was difficult to treat. No one knew how to treat the disease nor how it began to spread.

The 1300s Bubonic Plague, also known as The Black Death was the greatest epidemic known to mankind. This Plague started in 1347 and proceeded up until 1351, executing an estimated amount of 25 million individuals. It was relatively difficult to keep one from catching this infectious disease. The virus traveled not only through inflicted flea bites, but it was airborne as well. Attacking the rich, the poor, newborns and elders, everybody was an easy target. I firmly believe that the 1300s Bubonic Plague changed the way of world history.

Meanwhile, in London in the Middle Ages, if there was a major epidemic it was more than likely that you would die a horrible death. The Black Death wiped out 1,000,000 people in Britain alone. There was however, hope. An early form of what we call welfare today developed. Poor people couldn’t afford to see a doctor. A single doctor's fee was usually about a month's wages for a laborer. For the utterly impoverished, a common alternative was the local apothecary.

People were sick, tired, and in much pain all their lives(History of Medicine). Doctors thought that the heart got blood from food and water, so they would eat more so their bodies would absorb it(History of Medicine). Although many people were not healed, medicine was based on theories so hardly anyone was healed. Life before the 1500s was hard, but during the 1500s they had a better understanding of the body(Blakstad). Wise Women and doctors would try to invent more complex medicines, but they still had no effects. Instead they used herbs and bark as painkillers(Blakstad). They also had humoralism, which was a theory that said health came from four body liquids. They had four humors: black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. It was believed that if these were not balanced in the patients body, it caused sickness. Four elements, which were water, fire, earth and air, caused the humors(Blakstad). Hippocrates discovered the humors. Since the body was not easily understood, mental and physical illnesses/treatments were combined. According to Nancy Siraisi, an American historian of medicine and author, the most common age for death was childhood. Obviously people didn't live long. One out of five died before the age of one. One out of two died before ten. Housing, diet, wars and plagues all played into early modern Europe's health

The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, was a disease that devastated Medieval Europe, between 1346 and 1352 it killed 45 million people, wiping out a third of Europe's population. Today, we know that there were many causes of the Black Death. Medieval towns had no system of drains, sewers or trash collections. In such slovenly conditions, germs could grow, and diseased rats could call these medieval towns their homes and infect the people who lived there. Many historians believed the plague originated in china and spread to other countries by trade routes. Infected people and/or infected rodents such as mice or black rats. The Black Death was caused by strains of the bubonic plague. The plague lived in fleas, and fleas lived on

In the 14th century the Black Death engulfed Europe killing an estimated 50 million people. The pandemic is considered extraordinary because it did so in a matter of months. This disease was carried by fleas, the Bubonic Plague is caused by a bacteria called Yersinia pestis, found mainly in rodents, in this case in rats, and the fleas that feed on them.

The Bubonic Plague was a spreading disease. It infected and killed most of the population of Europe within a few years. The plague began spreading in 1348 when fleas caused this infection when they bit animals such as rats. The bacteria entered the skin through the flea bite which soon infected the lymph nodes. These rats stowed away on trade ships which quickly passed this deadly disease to humans. The Bubonic plague was very disastrous to the European society until it finally began to slow down in 1351. It killed so many people due to its rapid spreading. It lowered the religious belief and trust in God by many people in the community. Also, the local physicians lacked the knowledge of the plagues symptoms and its cure.

The Bubonic Plague or the Black Death has been in the history books since the medieval times. This deadly disease has claimed nearly 1.5 million lives in Europe (Gottfried). The Black Death hit Europe in October of 1347 and quickly spread through most of Europe by the end of 1349 and continued on to Scandinavia and Russia in the 1350s. Not only did the plague effect the European population by killing one-third to two-thirds (Gottfried), it also hurt the social and economic structures of every European society.

Medicine and health sciences are the results of attempts to cure diseases and slow death, but in the beginning of medical research a lot of it was the result of curiosity and a desire to understand how the human body works; what makes us human. In Colonial America, the practice of medicine was more of a philosophy than a true science. Medicine in the beginning of the American settlements was compounded because of disease, poor sanitation, lack of medical knowledge and conflict between the church and physicians. But the real growth of medical knowledge and wanting to know more about the human body and how to heal it began around the early 1820s.

The bubonic plague is a well known epidemic that occurred during the middle ages. The plague affected people by “blackening the skin due to the dried blood that accumulated under the skin” (scogna et la). The plague also known as the Black Death spread throughout Europe in the beginning of the fourteenth century causing many deaths.

Medicine in the Medieval Period In the 14th Century, trade around Europe was increasing ships regularly and travelled from the Mediterranean to other parts of Europe. In 1348 one ship brought a devastating plague to England. Source 1-Written by a monk from Malmesbury in Wiltshire, in the 1350's: "

Medication as we see it today is much more subdued with precautions put in place. Much of the technology innovation during the medieval era pale in comparison to modern times, however there always had to be instruments that came before. People had little choice in the matter when it came to the pain with their treatments, whiskey could only do so much. During Medieval Times medical practices would have almost been borderline torture methods, as brutish as they were they did the trick. Healing these illness required a bit of ingenuity on the part of the doctor. One of many items used during this time would be a clysters; a rather large cylindrical tube filled with boar bile that is used for Enemas.

The Black Death was an epidemic disease that was also known as the Bubonic Plague. It was one of the most tragic epidemics that has happened in the world. The Black Death hit England between the years of 1348-1350. This plague annihilated one third of its original population. Trading ships that came to England during this time were blamed for the spread of this disease. People believed that when trading ships left other countries that they would bring in infested rats that carried the disease. When the rats would come in contact with a person or bit a person is believed to be the reason on why the deadly virus spread so quickly. Also many thought that the plague was airborne; when they thought this was the cause of the spreading of the

The Middle Ages were tough times when it came to disease and medicine. There were numerous types of sickness and disease that flooded Europe during the Middle Ages. Not helping the situation, the medicinal knowledge of the people of Europe of the time was not up to par. Some of the diseases and illness that were running rampant during these times were pneumonia, leprosy, and the plague. The middle ages were a time of great suffering and death because of the abundant disease and lack of knowledge of the spread and treatments.