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The Downfall of Medieval Medicine
By Madeline | February 20, 2008
Medieval medicine was based on the research the ancient Greeks had performed and so followed the works of men, such as Galen, closely. While Galen made amazing discoveries in the human body like heart valves, spinal cord and muscle control, he also had some things very wrong like the placement of all the organs since all his dissections were on apes. Not bad though considering the guy was born in 130!
Even with all of this knowledge at their fingertips, medical care during the medieval times regressed significantly. The primary reason for this appears to be Christianity. Where before autopsies were done on human bodies, they were no longer allowed to do this as the body was considered a sacred temple for God. Many times the pagan cures would incorporate many herbs and teas along with incantations - ultimately it was the use of said herbs rather than the incantations that were beneficial and healing. Once Christianity was introduced though, the pagan healing ceremonies were replaced by praying. As I stated before on another piece I did on medicine, it was common knowledge that the reason one became ill had to do with a sin they had committed. Praying to God for forgiveness and embarking on pilgrimages were the best way to get back on Gods good side and restore your health. And interesting tidbit I found on wikipedia even stated that the herbs that were used for healing with Christianity possibly did nothing for the person as the means of selection was based on a statement in the Bible claiming that God placed a cure for every ailment and on that cure placed a special mark. The example the author on wikipedia gave was the seeds of the skullcap that looked like little heads were used for headache cures, etc.
Another hindrance in the practice of medieval medicine was the “discovery” of the four humours. The belief was that the body was made of these four humours: phlegm, blood, black bile and yellow bile. It was common knowledge that if a person became ill, it was ultimately due to their humours being out of whack. This was usually the reason people were bled as the doctors assumed that in alleviating the body of blood, the other humours could fall back into balance. I think it goes without saying that this was ultimately the death of most patients.
Additionally, doctors could be and were pretty much anyone during the medieval times. They could be male or female as there was no sex discrimination for the healing profession then. A lot of the healers of the medieval times were not even full time healers, most occupied professions in other trades and did healing on the side. Your blacksmith or butcher could also be the man who bled you when you were ill - oh yeah, and without washing his hands.
This leads me to the final point of medical regression during the medieval times. The lack of hygiene. Not so much that people were dirty for not bathing because that is really more of a myth (see one of my first articles for more details on this), however, the present day practice of rigorous and numerous hand washings throughout the day was not considered necessary then. Many of the poor women who died in childbirth would actually have had a chance of survival if the midwives had only washed their hands; not doing so caused many women to get infections and die from fevers.
When you consider how much knowledge the Greeks obtained on the human body and how many centuries of wasted medical practice and hindered knowledge that was exercised during the medieval times, it leaves me to wonder how far our own advancement of medicine and the human body would have been had we not had those wasted centuries of medical regression.
Topics: Medieval Era |
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