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Do you think it was fair to disclude women the the practice of medicine? Why or why not?

Did you find anything about the Medieval medical world disturbing?

What were some of the treatments that doctors used in the Medieval Times?

  

What Were Some of the Diseases and their Cures?

The Medieval world had many diseases and illnesses.  In fact, the Medieval time period has been described as "nasty, brutish and short" because of the number of illnesses, and the lack of available treatments and cures that actually worked.  The people who lived in the Medieval times always had death hovering just outside their doorways, and they were bound to get sick. 

Many people became ill and ultimately died from those illnesses.  Why?  The main reason is that most of the Medieval doctors' treatments didn't work.  For example, how many times would you say you get a bad headache?  How do we cure that headache in modern times?  A pain reliever?  In Medieval times a doctor would actually drill holes in a patient's skull in an attempt to relieve pressure and cure a headache.  Sounds pretty painful, right?

Medieval doctors regularly used herbs in their treatment of illnesses.  They used them as laxatives, for skin ulcers, sore throats and stomach aches.  Even though a lot of these treatments did not truly work, Medieval doctors did have one treatment that did...bone splints.  They would position a broken bone and leave it in a hard, protective "shell" until a patient's bone had been healed.   Despite this one orthopedic success story, however, overall the Medieval illness treatment system was not very effective. 

How did Doctors Get Their Profession, and Were They Really "Professional?"

        Today, when you go to the doctor's office, you expect that your doctor has a medical degree, as well as that they are passionate about their job. In the Middle Ages, however, this was a lot of the time not the case. Most of the wealthy population had a professional doctor who learned their job by apprenticing more experienced doctors. They had the best equipment and were much more accurate at treating patients than the poor doctors were. The poor could not afford the better doctors. Instead, barbers were hired as a second job to be doctors for the unwealthy, which a lot of people in the Middle Ages were. Barbers were not professional at all, which is why it is an obvious theory that this could have been the cause of the amount of unhealty people.

Money= Good Doctors

     For one, the people could not have gotten the best medical advice, considering the doctors were part-time barbers who had most likely never gone near a medical school. Another reason, is that the barbers could not have had the best medical tools and equipment. Many had to use some of the tools they used for being a barber as medical supplies! Could you imagine going to get a checkup and having the doctor draw blood by using their scissors, which of course were used for hair? Gross, right? Also, the medical procedures could no have been very sanitary. The poor could not afford fresh water supply from many places at all. This of course, made it very hard to clean the supplies, or to have clean water for the patients to drink and relax with. No matter if you were rich or poor, you would have done everything you could in order to not get sick in the Middle Ages.

Daily Life in the Medieval World

      The Medieval times were very different from today in more ways than you would think. One of the main differences is the health. Much of the Middle Age's population was decreased from not war, but illness. It was extremely difficult to find cures for so many, because the amount of cures that actually cured were very little. They did have doctors, physicians, surgeons, and most of all, medicines, but nothing could realy keep the people healthy. There were also many diseases that we do not normally see today in America. One of the worst and most feared was leprosy. Leprosy was uncurable, and was scary to the people. Even though Leprosy was scary to the people of the Middle Ages, there was a sickness that was feared even more. That illness, was the bubonic plague. The Plague, also known as "The Black Death," was spread by fleas via rats, which came on cargo ships across the sea. 80-95% of the population was stricken by the Plague. The first and overall symptom of the Plague was recognized by swollen lymph nodes. The lymph nodes were dark, swollen, and very painful. The swelling was sometimes as big as an egg, maybe even the size of an apple. Normally, as soon as you started spotting swollen lymph nodes, you were likely going to die in the next 48 hours.

         Social conditions could have had a strong effect on the particular household goods that people owned. Some people for instance, were hunter-gatherers, who moved from place to place, and knew exactly where to go for the ripest fruits and the freshest eggs. Some of them even knew where to go to obtain water during a drought, or how to escape a wildfire. There were also those, who lived in little towns and villages, and went a nearby market to get their food. The rich would most likely have decent food supply and household furniture and goods, while the poor probably would have had less elegant household items, and lesser amounts of food and supplies.

This picture shows that the outside of a Medieval building may look luxurious, but inside could be less ecsquisite.

          One now may look at the inside of an old Medieval home and immediately think that the family that was living there must have been poor. In many other time periods, this may be true. In the Middle Ages though, it was actually fairly common to see a very beautifly architectured building on the outside, have a less magnificent affect on people from the inside. Most people living in the Medievsl times thought about and respected their family, instead of superior and elegant goods. The children were taught from the minute they could understand words that your family is very important, and you must respect your own family, as well as other families. In the Medieval times, respect was a big expectation of you from everyone.

Surgeries During the Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, many surgeries were held. Surgeries in the Medieval world were fraught with danger, unlike today’s surgeries. Many patients died out of shock or immense pain before the surgery was even over. Painkillers for all uses were normally mixtures made from plants, herbs, or alcohol. But sometimes, these painkillers/anesthesia mixtures did not work, nor did they keep patients asleep. Hugh of Lucca, an Italian doctor from the 13^th century would tie up patients to the operating table during the surgery in case the patient woke up halfway through. This obviously was not a good thought to the patients.

       Surgeons did not only work in their own little villages and towns, but also on the battlefield. Small operating rooms were kept near battle sites so that victims of war would have doctors nearby. Battlefield surgeons became practiced at dealing with sword and arrow wounds. Surgeons and other people of the Medieval times believed that gunpowder was poisonous like a snakebite. Therefore, they treated them like a snake bite. Surgeons would split open the wound, and pour in a boiling hot liquid oil mixture; this was an excruciating pain. To seal them up, they would sometimes stick red-hot pokers into their flesh, which caused there to not be enough skin to cover the wound. Many soldiers either died from infection, or bled to death because of this.

Were Women Doctors?

        Women played a large part in the provision of healthcare and medicine. Although they were not normally doctors, most nurses were women, as well as midwives. Nurses in the Medieval ages worked mainly in hospitals, where they did their expected duties, such as cleaning, dressing and feeding the ill. They were also expected to clean patients’ clothes, and prepare the dead patients for a proper burial. You may not have liked this job, but most women felt that it was their job to clean and take care of people.

       Many nurses learned their job by assisting more experienced doctors and practitioners. Before midwives could practice, they had to obtain a document from their local parish priest attesting to their good character.  In 1221 the Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick the second, decreed that no one could practice medicine without a university qualification. This effectively barred women from the profession, considering women were forbidden to go to universities.

        Hopefully, if you lived in the Middle Ages, you would not have wanted to be a doctor or nurse if you were a woman!