The Medicines Of Medieval Medicine And The Black Death

In the Renaissance time, there were not barbers and surgeons as we know them today. Barber surgeons could be found in most medieval towns and, as well as cutting hair, were also known for small surgical procedures (McPeak, Commissioner). A regular surgeon however, tended to be known by reputation as much as qualification (Bellerby). Barber surgeons also happened to be more common because all you would need is an apprenticeship to be eligible to do the job (Gates 13). Whereas, becoming a surgeon would take six years of schooling (Dawson 24). After the six years of schooling, many times if the surgeon was successful, royal and noble families would call upon them. A barber surgeon handled all of the minor surgeries, and even some of the major ones if the people were too poor to see a surgeon. Some of the things barber surgeons did were that they cut hair, pull teeth, and blood letting to keep you in good health, and remove swords, knives, and arrows from battles. The barber surgeons

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.

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 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

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

Prior to 18th century Europe there were a few effective medical developments but most treatments lacked medical value. An idea developed by the ancient Greeks and Romans insisted that bloodletting was a fantastic remedy to difficult diseases but it did more harm than good (Doc 4). Another flaw in medicine is the level of hygiene in the institutions that provided care. The sick were crammed into dirty hospitals, dead lay beside those clinging to life, and the air was

Finally, the black plague affected medicine and health in a good way. The plague was the beginning of the movement from medieval practices to modern medicine techniques. This pandemic was an eye opener to many. According to Digital Commons website, “The Black Death represents an event that helped shape medieval medicine's course of development, and as such, helped shape the development of future medical practices” (Vanneste). The problem with medieval medicine techniques was that they focused on ways to prevent disease, and there were not many medical techniques for actually treating an illness. Only having the techniques for preventing illness did not go good in the case of the black plague. With millions of people dying people started looking

The Yersinia Pestis bacterium, better know as the black plague, is known for taking millions upon millions of lives throughout human history. Poor living conditions and sanitation are favorable in the quick spread of the disease, which is why it spread like wildfire in the middle ages. In today's society, however, contracting the bacterium is almost unheard of. But even with all the medical advances we have today, a mortality rate of 30-75% still haunts over those infected.

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 Anglo Saxon usage of medicinal treatments was largely rooted in their belief in their pagan gods. They believed their medicine could ailments like a spiritual illness or a physical illness. The Anglo Saxons were very superstitious and believed in magic charms, rhymes, stones, potions, or jewels would protect them from things like evil spirits and the common

In the middle of the 14th century, however, there seemed to be no rational explanation for it. No one knew exactly how the Black Death was transmitted from one patient to another–according to one doctor, for example, “instantaneous death occurs when the aerial spirit escaping from the eyes of the sick man strikes the healthy person standing near and looking at the sick”–and no one knew how to prevent or treat it. Physicians relied on crude and unsophisticated techniques such as bloodletting and boil-lancing (practices that were dangerous as well as unsanitary) and superstitious practices such as burning aromatic herbs and bathing in rosewater or

Historical evidence from Egypt shows the use of some unique materials. Remedies ranged from linen dipped in medicine or ground barley mixed with honey and yellow ochre. Another popular myth of ancient Egypt was the application of dead mouse to cease pain caused by decay.

Many ancient civilizations, such as the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians, pushed medical knowledge forward until the Middle Ages, when medical knowledge was believed to have slowed down. However, that is not the case. The Middle Ages were a time of change and improvement, they shaped the modern world. The Middle Ages revolutionized medical practices, physicians linked filth to the spread of disease, many practical diagnoses and treatments for common illnesses were discovered, and medical training programs in universities became well established.

There was also a balming type of procedure that was done when a person died of a disease. Many civilizations believed that even after death a person needed to be kept the right way in order to keep them healthy (Harrison). Also a remedy called balm was used to help heal cuts and wounds that people had (Harrison). This would be connected with the ointment that people put on before applying a bandaid. Balm is no longer used in modern Pharmacies unless it is the balsams which come from a certain shrub still used to this day. Balsams can be used to treat cancer,

The trade in herbs and spices, which started in the sixteenth century, made the European diet much tastier and suitable to beat the cold climate. It also provided physicians with substances they could use in the treatment of disease. In fact, the Renaissance of European medicines in the seventeenth century was mostly based on the herbs and spices and on the medical insights of traditional healers from India, China and the Indonesian archipelago. Over the periods of exploration and colonisation, physicians became intrigued by the ways in which disease and ailments were