topic suggestions

• medieval medicine in the 14th century
• middle ages medicine and religion
• plague doctor

http://www.vlib.us/medieval/lectures/black_death.html read 16th of April

• The 14th century was an era of catastrophes.
• These were caused by human beings
• The Black Death of 1347-1351
  • By the 14th century, however, the revival of commerce and trade and the growth of population had altered that situation.
  • Moreover, the diet, housing, and clothing of the average men and women of Western Europe were relatively poor, and a shortage of wood for fuel had made hot water a luxury and personal hygiene substandard.
  • The Black Death seems to have arisen somewhere in Asia and was brought to Europe from the Genoese trading station of Kaffa in the Crimea (in the Black Sea)
  • The disease was transmitted primarily by fleas and rats. the function of the bacteria is after this
  • The plague lasted in each area only about a year, but a third of a district's population would die during that period.
  • People tried to protect themselves by carrying little bags filled with crushed herbs and flowers over their noses, but to little effect.
  • The disease finally played out in Scandinavia in about 1351 [see Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal], but another wave of the disease came in 1365 and several times after that until -- for some unknown reason -- the Black Death weakened and was replaced by waves of typhoid fever, typhus, or cholera
  • Although bubonic plague is still endemic in many areas, including New Mexico in the American Southwest. it does not spread as did the Black Death of 1347-1351.
  • These were natural disasters, but they were made all the worse by the inability of the directing elements of society, the princes and clergy, to offer any leadership during these crises.

http://www.learner.org/interactives/middleages/morhealt.html read 16th of April

• Medicine was often a risky business.
• Bloodletting was a popular method of restoring a patient's health and "humors."
• Early surgery was often done by barbers without anesthesia.
• Medical treatment was available mainly to the wealthy, and those living in villages rarely had the help of doctors, who practiced mostly in the cities and courts.
• Remedies were often herbal in nature, but also included ground earthworms, urine, and animal excrement.
  • the notion that every substance in nature held some sort of power accounts for the enormous variety of substances
• Many treatments were administered by people outside the medical tradition
• Humors
  • Natural functions, such as sneezing, were thought to be the best way of maintaining health.
  • When there was a build-up of any one humor, or body fluid, it could be disposed of through sweat, tears, feces, or urine.
  • When these natural systems broke down, illness occurred.
• Surgery
  • Performed as a last resort, surgery was known to be successful in cases of breast cancer, fistula, hemorrhoids, gangrene, and cataracts, as well as tuberculosis of the lymph glands in the neck (scrofula).
  • The most common form of surgery was bloodletting; it was meant to restore the balance of fluids in the body.
  • Some of the potions used to relieve pain or induce sleep during the surgery were themselves potentially lethal.

http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/medicine-in-the-middle-ages.htm read 16th of April

• Middle Ages Medicine was extremely basic in an era when terrible illnesses such as the Black Death were killing nearly one third of the population. Medicine was limited.
• Physicians had no idea what caused the terrible illnesses and diseases.
• The Catholic Church believed that illnesses were a punishment from God for sinful behaviour.
• Letting blood was conducted by cupping or leeches. There were no Antibiotics during the Middle Ages and it was almost impossible to cure illness and diseases without them.
• Medicines in the Middle Ages were made from herbs, spices and resins. The medicine was applied in drinks, pills, washes, baths, rubs, poultices, purges and ointments.
• then comes a list of medicines that were meant to cure certain illnesses

http://www.articlesonhistory.com/medieval-medicine.php not read http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/shp/middleages/ not read http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medicine_in_the_middle_ages.htm not read http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/middle-ages-hygiene.htm not read http://www.abpischools.org.uk/res/coresourceimport/resources04/history/history5.cfm not read http://www.maggietron.com/med/religion.php not read not sure if reliable https://www.google.fi/search?hl=en&q=middle+ages+medicine+timeline&revid=220098506&sa=X&ei=Xf9sUaDCGfGK4gSpu4Fg&sqi=2&ved=0CIMBENUCKAQ&biw=1380&bih=907