What was medicine in Western Europe like at the start of the period?
Medicine at the start of the medieval ages was very different to what it is now in the 21st century. Unusual techniques were used to cure sicknesses and most of them, did not heal but instead did the opposite. Remedies for diseases were crude and based on herbs, potions or more drastic cures. These remedies included things such as; animal body parts, extracting bones, a combination of plants, having leeches ‘suck the illness out’ and much more brutal things like this. Physicians were also a source of healing at the start of the medieval ages, but most of their remedies were not effective, and there were no training facilities for healers. Although there were a few, trained ‘doctors’ hardly anyone went to them when infected by an illness, as their services were extremely expensive and could only be paid for by the rich. Women were considered only objects to bear children, and were definitely not thought of as skilled healers. And attempted surgery caused almost a quarter of deaths in the medieval ages. Over the course of the medieval era, many changes to medicine were established. Thankfully, medicine was not so peculiar for the entire era.
What was the first major change?
The earliest noticeable changes to do with medicine in the medieval ages were in the training of “doctors”. In the 11th century a medical school was established at Salerno, in Southern Italy. This school taught that the careful treatment of patients was essential and that cleanliness was linked to good health. The high quality of this school intrigued the holy Roman emperor at the time, Frederick, who took 121 doctors who were trained at the school to work in the royal court. This meant that medical training; although beneficial only to the wealthy was given a greater important, resulting in improved training methods and the spread of medical knowledge. By 1300 there were a dozen or so medical schools in Europe and whilst improvements were slow, they did happen.
What was the second major change?
The second major change was the advancement of surgery in the medieval ages. Surgery made some surprising leaps forward in medieval times. This was thanks to ingenious barber-surgeons (a healer who looked after/healed soldiers during or after a battle), and partly to the discovery of some natural anesthetics and antiseptics. During the middle Ages, surgery was left to barber-surgeons, not to trained doctors. It was a time of frequent warfare, and the constant fighting meant that surgeons’ skills were much in demand. Perhaps as a result, surgery actually progressed in medieval times. Theodoric of Lucca, in the 13th century, wrote how: “Every day we see new instruments and new methods being invented by clever and ingenious surgeons”
Medieval surgeons realised how to use wine as an antiseptic in c. 1320 and they used natural substances (mandrake root, opium, gall of boar and hemlock) as anesthetics.
Medieval surgeons could therefore do external surgery on problem areas such as facial ulcers and even eye cataracts. There was also, surprisingly, some internal surgery undertaken (eg to remove bladder stones).
Here are some words from Usama ibn Munaidh, a Muslim doctor on the examples of surgery being conducted in the 13th century:
“They brought to me a knight with a sore on his leg; and a woman who was feeble-minded. To the knight I applied a small poultice; and the woman I put on diet to turn her humour wet.
Then a French doctor came and said, “This man knows nothing about treating them.” He then said, “Bring me a sharp axe.” Then the doctor laid the leg of the knight on a block of wood and told a man to cut off the leg with the axe, upon which the marrow flowed out and the patient died on the spot.
He then examined the woman and said, “There is a devil in her head.” He therefore took a razor, made a deep cross-shaped cut on her head, peeled away the skin until the bone of the skull was exposed, and rubbed it with salt. The woman also died instantly.
I asked them if I was needed any more, and when they said not I came home, having learned of their medicine what I knew not before.”
-Usama ibn Munqidh, ‘Autobiography’, c.1175 (primary source)
What was the third major change?
It’s surprising to say that the medieval ages was one of the first era’s to consider women having a place in society. It is generally assumed by modern historians and by the writers of many manuscript sources that the wife, mother, lady of the house, or female head of the household, was responsible for almost all medical treatment in the home. This was mainly because the men were fighting in wars or working to support the family. At the time people didn’t think that medicine was of any importance and as the men were away from home most of the time, the job was given to the women. Only a small number of women were considered ‘physicians’ in this period. Partly this was because, after the founding of medical schools and universities, physicians were expected to attend university schools of medicine, and women were generally not welcome in universities. Dame Trota, a significant woman figure, is the most famous of the women university physicians. It is said that she practiced at the University of Salerno in 1329, along with a number of other female medical scholars referred to as ‘the Salernitarian Women’. Some women were licensed as doctors or medical professionals in various states, and various writers have claimed that a lot of women attended medical school after Dame Trota. Dame Trota set an example for many medieval women. She inspired them to consider healing as a profession, resulting in more women actually willing to be trained in the culture of medicine. This meant more trained doctors to help the sick and injured and it meant that women could actually make a profession out of healing and receive income to support their families.
What was the fourth major change?
The religious aspects of medieval European people’s were a great consideration in the matters of body and health care. The deep belief in God often affected the decision of regarding personal health. The Christian faith in respect to the well-being of a person slowly evolved from the inability to intervene with God’s will by treating the suffering, towards that of a responsibility to take care of everyone’s body as it is a creation of God. But then, the Italian Girolama Fracastoro (1478-1553) was the first to propose that objects outside the body, which could be transmitted by direct or in-direct contact, might’ve caused diseases. This led Andreas Vesalius, to write the first complete textbook on human anatomy, which included Girloama Fracastoro’s theory. With this new information doctors and healers continued to do more research on these proposals, which lead to more people disbanding the idea that God controls diseases and believing in more scientific and realistic approaches. Although the church disapproved of this, it was considered bearable as the importance of new medications grew. People then, stopped going to their local priest to heal them after they got sick, instead they went to knowledgeable healers who had more appropriate and accurate approaches. Now that people were getting more safe and effective medicine for illnesses, death rates decreased rapidly.
How did medicine change in Western Europe between 590-1500? (Conclusion.)
At the beginning of the middle Ages, medicine consisted of practices so bizarre and unhealthy almost all of them ended in terrible tragedies. During the course of the middle Ages, medicine began to slowly change from uneducated techniques of healing to more scientific methods. The four major changes to do with it were: educating and training doctors at schools, surgery, women and religion. The changes that occurred in medicine in the medieval ages helped to shape the knowledge that we have on medicine today.
Medieval history task bibliography
- Metropolitan museum of art- 2017- medicine in the medieval ages- 27th July 2017- http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/medm/hd_medm.htm
- Wikipedia- 24th July 2017- medieval medicine of Western Europe- 27 July 2017- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_medicine_of_Western_Europe
- Changes in medicine during the medieval era- 27th July 2017-https://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/gcse/medicine/medmedicinechange.htm
- Maggie tron- medicine and religion in the medieval ages- 27th July 2017-http://maggietron.com/medievalmedicine/religion.php
- Tracy Barret- 2012- medieval women as physicians-29th July 2017-http://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2012/08/medieval-women-as-physicians.html
- The history learning site- 17 March 2015- medicine in the medieval ages- 30th July 2017- http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/a-history-of-medicine/medicine-in-the-middle-ages/
- Medicine in the medieval ages- 30th July 2017-http://www.lordsandladies.org/medicine-in-the-middle-ages.htm