Medicine in the Medieval Period Essay

The black death was caused by bacterial strains, lived in the stomach of certain fleas which live in the fur of rodents. There were three types of the plague bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. The most common was bubonic. The person would develop bumps filled with pus this

During the fourteenth century a disease ravaged across the middle east that calculated up to fifty million deaths and impoverished half of Europe. This disastrous disease had attained the nick-name, “Black Death”, referring to its high fatality rate. The plague, as some may call it, scattered amongst the whole world taking many lives because of the lack of medical attention or treatment and is even still around till this day. The Black Death is best understood through its symptoms, treatments, and death toll changing life in the fourteenth century.

During the Middle Ages, medicine was limited. This was critical because in 1348-1350 the Black Death killed millions, nearly one third of the population. Physicians had no idea what was causing diseases or how to stop them ("Medicine in the Middle"). The Catholic Church told its people the illness was punishment from God for their sins (Gates 9). Some of the only procedures doctors could perform was letting blood by using leeches, and mix ‘medicines’ using herbs, spices, and resins (Rooney 106-107). Other medicine was administered by drinks, ointments, poultices, baths, and purges (Rooney 120). One hundred years later, when Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, many scholars moved to Italy, where they freely exchanged ideas. With them

The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in history. The disease ravaged Europe, Western Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa between 1346 and 1353 (Horrox 1994). It is difficult to understand the reality of such a devastating event, especially given the fact that science during the middle ages was severely underdeveloped. No one knew about bacteria, viruses, or other microbial agents of disease (Benedictow 2004). They had no way of protecting themselves during that time and no one was safe from the effects of the plague. Those who wrote chronicles claimed that only a tenth of the population had survived, while others claimed that half to a third of the population was left alive (Horrox 1994). In 1351, agents for Pope Clement VI predicted the number of deaths in Europe to be 23,840,000 (Gottfried 1983). Obviously, not all regions experienced the same mortality rates, but modern estimates of the death rate in England give the first outbreak a mortality rate of about forty-eight percent (Horrox 1994). That is, England lost half of its population in about a year and a half. Clearly the chroniclers ' who claimed that ninety percent of the population had died were overstating the magnitude of the plague, but this overemphasis demonstrates how terrifying the pandemic was to those who experienced it (Horrox 1994). The Black Death had huge consequences on the lives of those who were impacted directly, as well as major religious and cultural effects that came afterward.

Medieval medicine was rooted in Ancient Greek practices. In 65 A.D., a Greek writer, Discorides, wrote a book, Material Medica. The book is about medical use of over five-hundred different plants. The book is translated into Hebrew and Arabic. Doctors in the Early Modern Era knew very little, and they used plants as the most important care and/or treatment. Due to unsanitary places and tools, many different diseases spread around Europe. Life was challenging during the Early Modern Era because of many diseases(Alchin). During the 1500s- 1600s, diseases overtook many people because doctors knew little, medicine was unknown, and there were many causes.

The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague, was a rapid infectious outbreak that swept over Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s resulting in the death of millions of people. Tentatively, this disease started in the Eastern parts of Asia, and it eventually made its way over to Europe by way of trade routes. Fever and “dark despair” characterized this plague. The highly contagious sickness displayed many flu-like symptoms, and the victim’s lymph nodes would quickly become infected. The contamination resulted in a colossal and rapid spread of the disease within one person’s body. Due to the lack of medical knowledge and physicians, there was little that people could do to save those dying all around them. Now that a better understanding of

The Black Death consisted mainly of Bubonic plague, but pneumonic plague was also present in the epidemic. Symptoms of the Bubonic plague included high fever, aching limbs, and blood vomiting. Most characteristic of the disease were swollen lymph nodes, which grew until they

In document 2 it states, “To cure these infirmities neither the advice of the physicians nor the power of medicine appeared to have any value or profit; perhaps either the nature of the disease did not allow for any cure or the ignorance of the physicians . . . did not know how to cure it; as a consequence, very few were ever cured; all died three days after the appearance of the first outward signs, some lasted a little bit longer, some died a little bit more quickly, and some without fever or other symptoms.” This shows that many people died quickly because the physicians did not understand how to deal with the rapid spreading of this disease and how to treat it. Also, document 6 states “Medieval physicians wore outfits made of cloth or leather to protect themselves from the plague. The bird-like beak contained spices and vinegar-soaked cloth to mask the stench of death and decay.” This indicates the common belief back then that the smell of the dead bodies was spreading the disease. This also demonstrates the ignorance physicians had about germs which was a big part of why the plague affected so many people in such a short amount of

The first and foremost action taken was praying, as people originally believed that the Plague was a punishment from God, so they relied heavily on him saving them. But as the death numbers grew, people began to realize that the church could not explain the Plague, or help them survive. People began to try and experiment, with bazaar remedies. Doctors encouraged patients to carry sweet smelling posies, suffice the nursery rhyme, ‘Ring a Ring a rosy’, a rhyme about the Black Plague. Some people would eat rotten treacle, others would live in sewers, believing that the Plague was only in the air. Eating crushed emeralds, was an expensive yet popular remedy. But worst of all remedies, were the urine bath and the poo paste. These particular remedies involved bathing in human urine, and rubbing a poo paste into the infected buboes. It just goes to show how desperate people were during these times, although unfortunately none of these remedies worked, and symptoms continued to show. For the bubonic Plague, this included fever, weakness, shocks and chills. The main symptom, buboes, often grew around the armpits or

The hosts would become infected, spreading the disease to the people throughout the city and conclusively killing a large amount of Europeans by the end of the century. What were the symptoms of Black Death? After being exposed to the plague you will develop flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, chills, weakness, a bloody cough, nausea, and shortness of breath. What caused the Bubonic Plague?

Nobody understood the Black Death, however, they did understand the symptoms, such as the ones listed above,would eventually lead to death. Therefore, people began to take several steps to avoid the sickness and keep it from spreading. A popular reaction to the plague was quarantining. Many would send the infected to what they called pestilence houses, and there they would die. Others considered different options such as boarding up the house if someone were ill, and those who had the means to do so, fled to the countryside. Eventually, sickness prevention took on a larger scale. Venice initiated the isolation of ships in order to determine whether it had been infected or not. They would hold the ships for up to forty days or sometimes longer. In addition, physicians of the 14th century blamed the Black Death on a contaminated fog, so they

During the 14th century the Bubonic plague swept across Asia, Africa, and Europe. It killed millions of people and ended feudalism. Even thought there was no cure at the time there were ways the thought they could prevent it by.

The pandemic known to history as the Black Death was one of the world’s worst natural disasters in history. It was a critical time for many as the plague hit Europe and “devastated the Western world from 1347 to 1351, killing 25%-50% of Europe’s population and causing or accelerating marked political, economic, social, and cultural changes.” The plague made an unforgettable impact on the history of the West. It is believed to have originated somewhere in the steppes of central Asia in the 1330s and then spread westwards along the caravan routes. It spread over Europe like a wildfire and left a devastating mark wherever it passed. In its first few weeks in Europe, it killed between 100 and 200 people per day. Furthermore, as the weather became colder, the plague worsened, escalating the mortality rate to as high as 750 deaths per day. By the spring of 1348, the death toll may have reached 1000 a day. One of the main reasons the plague spread so quickly and had such a devastating effect on Europe was ultimately due to the lack of medical knowledge during the medieval time period.

Sometimes, like most explanations back then, it was the work of God and punishment afflicted upon Europe for whatever reasons of the time. For these people, the only cure was to be somehow forgiven by God. This was usually done by people carving or painting the symbol of the cross on the front doors of their house with the words “Lord have mercy on us” either near it or on it. Another great contributor to the destruction of the Black Death was the Great Fire of London which helped eradicate most of the rats that carried the disease and wiping out most of the people with the disease. The plague actually repeatedly continued to remain in Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the centuries. The major occurences of the plague happened around the year 1346 and 1671. The Second Pandemic Black Death was pretty active in the years 1360 and 1667. All of Europe was ravaged and it impacted Europe so devastatingly that it took 150 years for the population of Europe to be fully recovered. Quarantining people was another way of combating the plague in ancient times. Taking anti-bio tics was advised was advised in case you came into contact with a victim of the disease. In early 2011 it was discovered that the bacteria Yersinia Pestis was actually the culprit for one of the most devastating pandemics ever to surface in the world. While

The Bubonic Plague and a variation called the septicemic plague was spread throughout Europe by oriental rats that carried infected fleas. Little is known to why the infection never seemed to affect the carrier rats. Infected fleas were being starved by the infection, so they began feasting upon the people they came into contact with. These fleas coming into contact with any human being would infect the human with the disease. These people were now carriers of the Bubonic plague or Black Death. These infected people would then spread the disease by coughing or coming into direct contact with another human being. However, this disease, since not being transmitted via rat would now be called the Pneumonic Plague. (www.insecta-inspecta.com).