Medicine Through Time Revision Guide
These are my notes about the course. They are not complete – you should only use them as a guide for your revision. You should also use:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/shp/
You only have Paper 1 left. This paper is worth 45% of your total grade.
The paper will test your knowledge of Medicine Through Time.
Prehistoric Medicine.
Main information.
‘Pre-History’ means before people wrote things down. Because they were not writing things down, it is very hard to find out about their lives and what they believed. Prehistoric people were nomadic (they moved around to hunt and gather). Their diet was mainly meat they could kill and fruit, this meant they were fairly healthy as they did not suffer from any of the diseases that come from living and unhealthy lifestyle (such as fast food, drinking alcohol and smoking). Women would treat illnesses as wives and mothers. Tribes also moved around which meant they did not get infected by their own waste. As they did not write, we have to look at other evidence to find out about medicine.
Ø Bones: From looking at the bones from Prehistoric people we can find out a few details of their lives and illnesses. Some bones showed diseases caused by lack of nutritional food (osteoarthritis) and some showed that they could catch diseases from animals (rabies). Bones also still have evidence of bad infections (gangrene), this tells us that they died when infections got into wounds. Some bones show signs of healed fractures – this shows us that they knew it was important to keep broken bones still. They could also have used plaster casts and splints. Skulls with holes in them have also been found. This is evidence of Trephining – a basic operation to cut open the skull. This was probably to release bad spirits – there is some evidence that people survived this operation as the bone has started to heal.
Ø Cave Paintings: These pictures can tell us about their beliefs about illness. Some cave paintings are done by drawing around the hand – they show that some people had fingers missing. This could be evidence that people may have suffered from leprosy or lost fingers in hunting accidents. From these paintings we can guess that they believed that spirits caused illness. There are also drawings of a man dressed up like a wild animal. This could be a ‘witch doctor’ or ‘medicine man’ – this man would drive away the spirits that caused disease.
Ø Anthropology: This is looking at people who live a similar lifestyle. By looking at tribes today that live a lifestyle similar to prehistoric people, we can get a better idea about their life and ideas to medicine. A good example of this is Aborigines in Australia, they believe in spirits and have a medicine man.
Significant individuals.
Medicine Man – This was a man would provide charms and spells to frighten away the bad spirits that caused disease.
Factors affecting medicine:
Communication: This was very weak as they did not write and lived in small tribes.
Your notes:
Egyptian Medicine.
Main information.
The Egyptian Empire was stable. This meant that they could settle in one place and develop farming. As the land was rich and fertile around the Nile, Egypt became wealthy. The farmers could afford jewellery, house builders and DOCTORS!
Ø Trade: The Egyptians traded with India, China & Africa. This meant that doctors could get new herbs to make medicine.
Ø Religion: Egyptian priests needed to be clean as part of their religion, they would shave their heads and wear clean cotton. People would try and be like the priests and keep themselves clean. This was very good for health.
Ø Nile: This flooded every year and left rich nutrients on the fields. The farmers would get water to their crops using channels and ditches – if these became blocked, the crops would die. They knew that this was similar to the human body – it also had channels that took blood, food and air around the body. If these became blocked – the person would become ill. This led Egyptian doctors to attempt to clear the blockages from the channels in the body.
Ø Writing: This meant that ideas and discoveries could be shared. This is very good for medicine as other doctors could understand new discoveries. It is also good for us as we have evidence about their beliefs.
Ø Doctors: They would use the Channel theory, magical charms and also common sense treatments. They would use many herbal remedies and common sense treatments such as straightening a broken nose.
Significant individuals.
Not many yet – but you should understand about priests and doctors.
Factors affecting medicine:
Communication: The Egyptian Empire was big. This meant that the Egyptian doctors could WRITE their discoveries down and share them throughout the Empire.
Government: This was stable and this allowed the Egyptians to grow rich and develop medicine.
Your notes:
Greek Medicine.
Main information.
The Greek Empire was very powerful and very rich. This allowed them to concentrate on making new discoveries. They had many different gods. They were very interested in Science and explanations about how things worked. They made many discoveries that affect us today.
Ø Religion: The Greeks believed that illness was a punishment sent by the gods and would pray for a cure. The God of Healing was called Asclepius and Greeks would travel to his healing temples called the Asclepeia. Asclepeia were very peaceful and clean, they also had a gymnasium and were away from the dirt of the cities. Greeks would make an animal sacrifice and stay in the temple overnight. Here Asclepius would visit and his snakes would heal the patient. Some people would get better – but this was probably due to the clean conditions and placebo effect.
Ø FOUR HUMOURS – Greek philosophers said that the body was made up of four humours (blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile). Illness occurred when these were out of balance. If you had too much blood – Greeks doctors would bleed you to rebalance the humours.
Ø Hippocrates: He began to question the old superstitious ideas about medicine. He believed that patients should be OBSERVED by doctors – this is very important as it the first time that doctors were trained to OBSERVE the symptoms to find a physical cause of illness. He said the patient should be examined and treatment given. He also said it was important to live a healthy lifestyle.
Ø Doctors: Doctors would recommend a healthy lifestyle and rebalancing the humours. Operations were rare as there were no painkillers.
Ø Empire: The Greeks travelled which meant they could exchange ideas and herbs.
Significant individuals.
Asclepius: God of Healing.
HIPPOCRATES! The ‘Father of Medicine’ – Was the first doctor to recommend observation, natural treatments and professional standards.
Factors affecting medicine:
Communication: The Greek Empire was big and they wrote their discoveries down. This was good for the development of ideas.
Individual Brilliance: Hippocrates and other doctors made significant progress – they invented the idea of clinical observation.
Government: This was stable and this allowed the Greeks to grow rich and develop medicine.
Science & Technology: The Greeks were very interested in developing science.
Your notes:
Roman Medicine.
Main information.
The Romans had a large Empire and were very interested in taking over other countries. They took a lot of their ideas from the Greeks (as well as most of their gods).
Ø Gods: The Romans would pray to the gods for healing. They believed in Asclepius and would visit the Asclepeia. Romans would carve shrines to the gods asking for healing – doctors were expensive.
Ø Doctors: Doctors would use common sense treatments for illness and could perform basic treatments such as removing a rotten tooth. Most would train by the great medical libraries in Alexandria (in Egypt but taken over by the Romans) and in Rome itself.
Ø Empire: The Empire covered about 60 of our modern countries and they could find many herbs and exchange information.
Ø Army: The Army was very important to the Romans as a healthy Army was essential to keep the Empire. They knew that they had to keep the Army away from boggy land and dirty water. They had some basic painkillers and army hospitals were hygienic. Amputations were common.
Ø Public Health: The Romans preferred to prevent illness rather than having to cure it. They believed in that keeping the poor in cities clean would mean there was less illness for the rich to catch. The Romans were fantastic engineers (they were very good builders) and build aqueducts to bring fresh, clean water in from the mountains and have public toilets and sewers to wash away the waste. They also knew how important it was to be clean and built public baths. Today we know that most illness is caused by dirty conditions so we know how important these public health developments were!
Ø Galen: Galen was a Greek doctor who travelled to Rome. He used the ideas from Hippocrates about observation and natural causes. He also believed in the Theory of the Four Humours but said doctors should treat according to OPPOSITES – this meant if the patient had too much phlegm, cold and wet, the doctors needed to use something hot and dry to clear it up. He could not dissect people so had to dissect pigs, apes and dogs. He made some discoveries about anatomy, such as the brain controlling the body, but made some mistakes (jaw bone having two bones etc.) He wrote over 350 books and no one really questioned his ideas for 1500 years!
Significant individuals.
Asclepius: God of Healing – taken from Greeks.
Galen: Used the ideas of Hippocrates. Developed the Theory of the Four Humours by treating with OPPOSITIES. Wrote many books and spread his discoveries.
Factors affecting medicine:
Communication: The Roman Empire was big and they wrote their discoveries down. This was good for the development of ideas.
Individual Brilliance: Galen and other doctors made significant progress – they developed the idea of clinical observation.
Government: This was stable and this allowed the Romans to grow rich and develop medicine. They took over other countries which allowed them to learn their medical knowledge. They promoted good public health.
Science & Technology: The Romans were very good engineers and made very good structures to improve public health.
Your notes:
Medieval Medicine.
Main information.
The Romans were in control of running Britain – they built roads, sewers, toilets and towns. They also kept law and order in the towns. When the Roman Empire ended – the people of Britain no longer had order and many tribes fought over the country. This led to government being ‘unstable’ – this meant that there was fighting and people could not make new discoveries. This lasted from about 400AD to 700AD and was called the ‘Dark Ages’. The Medieval period was after this and was mainly controlled by the Church.
Ø Galen: Galen wrote that the body fitted together so well that it must have had a ‘creator’. This supported what the Church thought about God. The Church would not let anybody question the work of Galen.
Ø Religion: This was the main influence on people’s lives.
Ø Hospitals: These were run by the Church and were not like modern hospitals. The word ‘hospital’ means ‘place for guests’ and were mainly for the poor and needy. It was very rare to get treatment at a hospital, the main treatments offered were praying and feeding.
Ø Wise Women: Poor people could not afford a doctor and would visit the local wise woman instead. These women would use herbal remedies.
Ø Barber Surgeons: These were surgeons who would cut hair and remove abscesses and bleed patients. Barber surgeons were trained on the job and were popular among the poor.
Ø Doctors: Some doctors trained at University and were available to the rich. They would perform some operations but their main task was to rebalance the humours. They would do this be bleeding and purging.
Ø Towns: Public health was very bad. Rotten meat, human waste and animal waste were common and people had little access to clean water.
Ø Black Death 1348: A very bad disease that killed about 30-50% of the population of Europe. It was spread by fleas on rats. Medieval people thought it was caused by – God, miasma (bad smell), dogs & cats and astrology. They used the following as cures – praying, killing dogs & cats, good smells and sticking a chicken’s bottom to the armpit.
Significant individuals.
Only Galen!
Factors affecting medicine:
Religion: The Church was the most important thing to most medieval people. This was probably because there was no strong ruler and the Church was powerful and stretched all over Europe. The Church banned dissection and this held medicine back. The Church also would not let anybody say Galen was wrong – this meant that people could not progress. This does not mean that religion held medicine back completely: the monks copied out Galen which would not have been available without religion. The Church also ran hospitals.
Communication: It was too dangerous to travel so not many discoveries were shared.
Government: This was unstable there was poor public health.
Science & Technology: The Medieval people did not make significant progress.
Your notes:
Renaissance Medicine.
Main information.
Renaissance means ‘re-birth’ and was a period of new invention that started in the 1400s. The printing press was invented which meant that more people could buy books. People became more educated and they started to look at the discoveries of the Greeks and the Romans. People across Europe realised that the current ideas were wrong and looked for new ways of carrying out experiments and questioning old ideas.