Exam Questions

Exam Questions 1a) Study sources A and B. How similar are the ideas about disease in these two sources? Use the sources and your knowledge to explain your answer. Source A is by a follower of Hippocrates in about 390BC, he rejected the belief of supernatural causes of disease. He is bias towards Hippocrates. He is informing people of how to be healthy and clean ‘he must clean his teeth with fresh water and peppermint powder.’ He is advising on how to be healthier by using natural remedies. Source B is very different; this is a painting by an unknown artist from the time of the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century. This shows of people whipping themselves to get forgiveness from the gods, as they think the gods are punishing them for there mistakes. 2a) Briefly describe the main features of Egyptian medicine. The Egyptians made much progress in medicine, for example; they were the first people recorded in history to embalm the dead. They believed that you needed your body in the afterlife; therefore they removed all of the major organs and put them in jars for the afterlife. They also linked the blood vessels to the Nile. They thought that the vessels in the body were like the Nile; if they were blocked then the blood couldn’t get to the parts of the body that needed it and you would get ill. 2b) Explain why Greeks used both supernatural and natural approaches to medicine. Hippocrates introduced the idea that gods and spirits didn’t cause disease and that there was a natural explanation for illness. He came up with the theory of the four humours they were; blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. He believed that if any of these were out of balance you got ill. Most of the time when Hippocrates’ methods didn’t work people went to Asclepeion, a healing temple sacred to the god Asclepius. Here the would pray

to him to get cured, this was the supernatural side of Greek medicine.