8-1Medicine

What were Common Medical Practices and Beliefs? Prepared by Daniel .T

There were a few kinds of experts to consult; there were the physicians, surgeons, and herbalists, all of which had different areas of knowledge. Physicians had the ability to prescribe. They were considered to have one of the best professions. They had gone to school, while the other two hadn't, but their services were not very affordable. The collages were given four cadavers per year that had belonged to criminals that had been executed, and it became popular for people to attend public anatomy lectures around the cadavers. Surgeons were trades men they weren't schooled they were apprenticed, and that sometimes wasn't enough to gain experience so they merged with the barbers gild and received four cadavers per year also. They amputated and operated they couldn't however administer inward treatment and would have to consult a physician to give a patient the necessary inward treatment. Herbalists would find herbal remedies for their patients they were more affordable than physicians and they were licensed and they excepted pay in any form. There were many strange treatments and methods of medicine back in that time period. The most common medical theory was the theory of humors. It stated that everyone was made up of earth, air, water, and fire which were represented by the following blood, Flem, choler, and black bile all of which are nasty bodily fluids. The idea was that to stay healthy you needed to have all those things in balance. To diagnose the patient the first needed to know his personality type or humor which there are many some examples include a phlegmatic man, which was a man dull of understanding and filled with colour, a choleric man which was and envious, covetous, subtle, cruel, a watcher, prodigal lean and yellow of color or a melancholic man who was solitary, soft spirited, fearful, envious, covetous, and dark of colour man, etc. The physician would study his symptoms and his character to decide the best treatment. People also believed in the effects of astrological events having impact on their health thinking that elemental bodies were effected by the position of the sun the moon and the stars. (all info above from __//Elizabeth's London//__ by Liza Picard). Surgical practices were crude at best and very risky over all. Here's one surgeons advice out of //__Elizabeth's London__// by Liza Picard. " Prepare the patient two hours before, with 'some comfortable caudel'. Then get a preacher to exhort him to patience in adversity and warn his friends that he may die. Position the patient at the end of a strong bench, with one strong man behind him holding both his arms and another man to bestride the leg that is to be cut off and he must hold the member very fast about the place where the incision is about to be made... he shall have a large strong hand and a good fast grip', because it is up to him to minimize the bleeding. Sometimes 'by the skill fullness of the holder only four ounces of blood are lost', which even with present-day resources would be commendable. The 'good fast grip' acted as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. then another man holds the leg lower down.'be sure to have a sharp saw ... then boldly, with a steady and quick hand... 'I won't go on," To stop the bleeding after an amputation it was common to dip the stump in boiling oil which did more harm than good a good surgeon would have use a wet ox bladder to cover the stump which as it dried would contract and provide uniform pressure to stop the bleeding. The operations were successful depending on the skill of the surgeon. Cowel, a surgeon, was able to mend a fractured skull back to full health. I felt as though I should talk about the black death in its own paragraph because its more of a separate topic from the other paragraphs and I wasn't sure how much of the thing that happened during that time applied to normal instances. The black death is a disease that causes the victim to get chills, a high fever, delirium, vomiting, and rapid heartbeat, which are common among may diseases but the one characteristic that was unmistakable were the buboes. Buboes are swellings commonly found under the arm pits, under the neck and in the groin. The plague was spread through fleas carried by rodents that were in the towns. The plague killed off so many of the rats the fleas needed a new host, and so they went to humans, bringing the diseases of the rats with them. Towns would separate because of the plague to keep from spreading the disease. Even families were torn apart. Few thought the disease was related to the filth of the cities, and rarely measures were taken to clean the towns. Naturally there were many strange methods that were believed to prevent or get rid of the plague. Churches told the people to ask for forgiveness for their sins to get rid for the plague. Some people thought that if the circulated the air that the bad air would go away, so they would fire cannons and guns to disturb the air, and in there homes some had birds flying around the rooms to disturb the air. Others thought wearing masks over they mouth and nose would prevent them from breathing in the air. Physicians told the people to stay indoors, turn off the lights to keep away the bad air, and they said not to sleep to much but not to be fatigued. They said to sleep on your side so it was more difficult for the fumes to reach your nose. They recommended smaller meals no fruit no meat and no dairy. They said to wash your hands and feet frequently but not bath because it would open pores for the poison air to seep through. Treatment included purging your system and bleeding to get rid of bad blood or fluids the disease would be in. Exercise was not supported and sex was suppose to be avoided the most. Obviously many now would find the methods of the past to be barbaric, which I think is a proper word to use because the methods of amputation, purging and blood letting are all very violent in their own respects

Work Cited: Books: Dunn, John. //Life During the Black Death//. 2. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000.