MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES: BACKGROUND AND METHODS - HISTORY - 2025

The medicine in the Middle Ages lived an extended period of stagnation. Its low development was due both to the culture of the time and to the structure of medieval societies. Religion and superstition were the biggest barriers to progress in medicine.

During the Middle Ages, death was a frequent and hard subject to face. Mortality was increasing dramatically, especially in the case of children. Life expectancy had an average that ranged between 30 and 35 years, on the other hand, the death of women when giving birth was common. The population declined due to diseases with symptoms such as fever, sores or ulcers. Leprosy and smallpox are examples of deadly diseases for the time.

Affected by the Black Death.

Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen

The remedies in the Middle Ages were primitive and even superstition was part of the methods used as an attempt to heal. Herbal medicines, purges, and risky practices like bleeding were frequently used.

Background of medieval medicine

A part of medicine in the Middle Ages took hold in the studies of the Greeks. Works like Galen's had relevance in the use of medical practices.

Hippocrates' Theory of Humours continued to be one of the bases for understanding disease, even after the fall of the Roman Empire. This theory stated that the origin of diseases had to do with the imbalance of four substances in the human body, called "humors". To restore a person's health again, a way had to be found to balance these four parts of the human being again.

However, this knowledge of medicine that was preserved was not in the public domain. The monasteries confined the information and it was the ecclesiastics and people of the very upper classes who could have contact with it.

In rural areas and distant towns, people did not have any specialized medical care. Many resorted to certain people who had some vague notion granted by practice, or inherited by some tradition.

Beyond the currents of thought sustained in the Greeks, the predominance of the beliefs and superstitions of the Catholic religion were the main guides of medical practice in medieval times.

Conception of the disease

The Catholic Church determined the course of medicine as a whole. Those postulates that did not agree with its guidelines were classified as heresy and carried severe punishments such as the stake.

Doctors in the Middle Ages did not know the origin of diseases and due to the influences of religion, they affirmed that this was the consequence of a punishment from God to sinners. Suffering on Earth was a precept that came to be seen as an inherent part of human existence.

A person's relationship with their illness was viewed from a spiritual perspective. It was common to think of fate or sins, as justification in the face of any suffering. This is how prayers and acts of faith began to be the possible pathways to healing.

Doctors also believed in spells, luck, and astrological events. At the time of epidemics like the Black Death, specialists could not cope with the large number of deaths in the population. Some of the explanations that were tried to give to this disease had to do with wrong planetary combinations or the effects of the smelly air.

It should be noted that many of the Roman traditions with regard to public health such as sewer systems, baths and aqueducts, were in the background during the Middle Ages, which caused a decline in the health of cities.

However, there are some facts that show the interest in cleaning in the Middle Ages. For example, in 1388 a law was passed to keep streets and rivers clean. Also the monasteries had a good water system and baths and bathing was a common habit.

Methods for healing

Apart from the prayers and practices that had to do with the supernatural and superstitious, during the Middle Ages some methods were applied as treatments, whose effectiveness is not entirely ruled out, but neither has it been confirmed as successful.

Sangria

It was one of the riskiest techniques that were applied by medieval doctors. The method consisted of performing a phlebotomy, an operation that consists of perforating or opening a vein to generate a blood drain. Sometimes leeches were also applied.

This resource comes from the Egyptians and was used on the grounds that excess blood in the body could cause diseases. Its application is linked to the theory of the humors of Hippocrates, blood being one of the four humors described in his work.

Bleeding procedure in a patient.

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The church, later, in the year 1163, forbids by means of an edict, that the monks implemented the bleeding. This motivated the barbers of the time to include this procedure within their services.

Medicinal plants

Herbal treatments were widely used within medicine and even magic. Flowers, spices and perfumes were used to make medicines. The monks were the main people in charge of studying the plants.

The discoveries of the Greek botanist Dioscorides, appeared as the main references. His work entitled De materia medica described a wide variety of uses for more than 600 plants. Herbs such as mint were used to treat stomach aches and some flower aromas such as roses and lavender were used for headaches.

Surgery

When it came to performing surgical procedures, doctors made some progress. For example, the slight antiseptic quality that wine could provide was discovered. Likewise, vinegar, which was used very frequently to heal wounds.

With respect to sores and buboes, they made cuts to open them and drain the pus, they also performed external surgeries for ulcers and cataracts in the eyes. As for internal surgeries, one of the most popular was the removal of stones from the bladder.

References

1. Medicine in the Middle Ages. Medicine through time, BBC. Recovered from bbc.co.uk
2. Bovey, A. (2015). Medicine in the Middle Ages. British Library. Recovered from bl.uk
3. Hajar, R. (2012). The Air of History (Part II) Medicine in the Middle Ages. Recovered from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
4. Choen, J. (2012). A Brief History of Bloodletting. History Stories. Recovered from history.com
5. Goldiner, S. (2012). Medicine in the Middle Ages. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Recovered from metmuseum.org