Medieval+Medicine

=**Medieval Medicine by Taylor Tran-GMS**=

Medieval medicine in Western Europe are mixtures of spirituality, superstition, shoddy diagnosis, and mostly ineffective treatments.
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 * // __Diagnosis__ //**

==During the Middle Ages, poor hygiene combined with bad health spread most of all diseases. Most people thought that evil spirits caused disease. People thought sins of the soul caused disease. Doctors would often wear something sweet-smelling in the mask, in order to prevent themselves from acquiring the disease. ==



== The balance of the four humours, at the time, remained a popular method of diagnosis, yet no one knew that it did not work. The four humours, yellow bile, phlegm, black bile, and blood must be balanced to be healthy. People believed too much or little of one of these humours would induce illness and changes in personality, with each humour having a certain affect on personality. == = Checking the urine was another method of diagnosis. Urine charts often carried by physicians when diagnosing a patient, showing colors of urine and their corresponding illnesses. Certain colored urine indicated a certain illness. Combined with Astrology, the physician then made his diagnosis and determined appropriate treatment. =

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=**//__Treatments__//**=

[[image:https://gratefultothedead.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/monastic-hospital.gif align="left"]]
= To cure patients thought to be inhabited by demons, they would often be required to undergo an exorcism by a member of the church. In cases where patients thought their ailment existed as punishment for their sins, they would often flagellate themselves to show how sorry they were to God. In treatments where astrology was involved, doctors carried with them a chart of the planets and constellations, with certain movements of the heavenly bodies corresponding to disease. Some individuals and groups practiced black magic in private, often being used in hopes of curing loved ones. =

=== However, a person caught or accused of practicing black magic and witchcraft would have been burned at the stake, hanged, tortured, etc. for their blasphemy against God, which is also the church. Not all treatments relied on the supernatural, however. Many more natural remedies existed, whether effective or not, that was used to cure the sickness. Things like comfrey egg whites was used to cure sores, eel skin for the cramping of a leg, and so on down, an innumerable list of herbs and other things. Humours, as stated before, had been thought to play a large role in the well being of patients. Humours, when thought to be unbalanced, would have to be balanced through a number of options. Some options for the doctor to decide on would have been bleeding the patient, induce vomiting, or to attach leeches to a patient. ===

=== Hot baths, drinking a soup of yellow lentils, or the application of cool water had been used to balance the natural heat. In the most critical of circumstances, surgery was sometimes necessary to be performed on a patient. Surgeries were often performed only as a last result, given the mortality rate of those who had undergone it. The majority of surgeons consisted of barber-surgeons, instead of a trained surgeon. Wine was often used as an antiseptic, and mandrake root, opium, hemlock, etc. were used as a form of anesthetic. ( **//[])//**===

= **//__Doctors__//** =

==Doctors had little knowledge. When the Black Death(1348-1350) spread throughout England killing about 25,000,000 people(1/3!), the doctors were no help at all. Without proper cleaning equipment they would wear masks filled with sweet smelling substances and long robes in order to prevent catching diseases. During it the doctors' treatment was bleeding the person's arm in hope to get out the disease. That did not work as we see them getting killed. (@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_medicine)==

=//**Resources**//=

**//http://www.lordsandladies.org/middle-ages-doctors.htm//**
=**//Pictures//**= > > === ===
 * google[[image:https://gratefultothedead.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/monastic-hospital.gif width="199" height="153" align="left"]] images

> == > ==**//http://www.lordsandladies.org/middle-ages-doctors.htm//**==
 * [[image:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Lavater1792.jpg/350px-Lavater1792.jpg width="123" height="144" align="left"]]

= = =//**Books**//=


 * **// Medicine // . pg 308. 13th ed. Vol. 2001. Print. Encyclopedia. **