Key Words - Medicine Through Time: Medieval Medicine Zodiac Chart:

Key Words - Medicine through Time: Medieval Medicine Zodiac Chart: The medieval zodiac chart linked parts of the body with the zodiac. It helped physicians to determine what was wrong with the patient and how to treat them. During medieval times, astrology was used a great deal for many reasons. Urine Chart: The medieval urine chart linked the colour, smell and other property of urine to illnesses, helping physicians determine and diagnose disease. The chart was carried around by the doctors of the time so ‘on-the-spot’ diagnoses could be made. Wound Man: The medieval wound man showed the different types of wound a battle-field physician could expect to treat on a soldier. It enabled the doctor to make quick diagnoses which, in turn, would help the treatment of the wound. Role of Religion: Religion played a major part in medicine during medieval times. People believed that if they got ill, it was a punishment from God and so would sought out religious remedies and beg forgiveness; this lead to monks and nuns being turned to for treatment and people whipping themselves as punishment for their own sins and so God did not have to punish them as they had already done it. It was only with a change in religion and religious believe that change in medicine and treatment came about in the renaissance period. Herbal remedies: Remedies for illnesses were often made from herbs. The remedies were used to cure people of their illnesses. These cures, however, lead on to the believe of witch-craft as people refused to believe that herbs could cure therefore it was deemed that ‘magic’ cured them and their families, consequently they turned on the people who made these remedies. Importance of Galen: Galen was important for many reasons. He was a physician from ancient times whose ideas were used through out medieval times and only started being questioned during the Renaissance period when the human body started to be dissected. He believed in previous theories made by his predecessors such as the believe of the four humours and other theories of Hippocrates.

He was one of the first people to dissect animals to understand how the human body works. This meant that although some of his discoveries were correct such as urine is formed in the kidney and that arteries carry blood (although he did not discover circulation) as this is the same in animals but some of his beliefs were wrong as animals and humans are different. However, Galen’s many books show historians what medicine was like during ancient and medieval times. The four humours: The theory of the four humours states that the body is made out of four liquids, or humours, and that if these fell out of balance the person will get ill. The four liquids were, supposedly, black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm. This lead to mass amounts of bloodletting during the ancient and medieval periods, as it was believed to rebalance the humours. Example of surgery: Although the majority of medicine did not improve, or, as some would argue, even get worse; surgery improved. This was due to surgery being left to untrained barber-surgeons. As there was much was in the medieval era, barber-surgeons had much demand on their time and treatment meaning that they were forced to improve their techniques and share treatments more for particular illness and wounds (hence the wound man (See above)). Additionally, more natural anaesthetics and antiseptics were discovered meaning surgery was easier to perform than it had been. On the other hand, germs had still to be discovered meaning that surgically equipment was used without being washed again and again. Hygiene, overall, deteriorated from ancient times as less people believed in the values of clean water. So, while external surgery improved immensely, internal surgery improved less.