Harsh Medieval Medicine: Bloodletting, Prayer Healing, and Fighting Epidemics (8 photos)

Despite everything, it became the foundation for modern healthcare.





The origins of medieval medicine go back to antiquity. For example, much was drawn from the teachings of Hippocrates and Galen. And the main “hotbeds” of this knowledge were monasteries and hospitals organized at these institutions.



The Aesculapians of that time creatively reworked the legacy of the ancients and derived the basic principle of healing: the doctrine of the four humors. These are blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile - they were considered the main fluids in the body. And if one of them became more, a person became ill.

To defeat these humors and balance them, healers most often used bloodletting. They treated everything with it: from headaches to hemorrhoids. For this, they used a lancet or leeches. By the way, leeches are still widely used in medicine.



Another method of “cleansing” the body is a laxative. A person was given a strong herbal infusion and it carried him until he recovered. Or went to heaven.



If we talk about the role of monasteries and the Church in the development of medicine - it was contradictory. On the one hand, it was the priests who began to study and develop healing en masse. On the other hand, religion presented the human body as a vessel of God and initially forbade its dissection. And this slowed down the development of science for 100 years, maybe more.



Medieval doctors often did not disdain to use various strange methods in diagnosing diseases. For example, they thoughtfully studied the position of the stars in the sky and tried to determine the most favorable day to begin treatment of some sufferer. They often used such a plant as belladonna, in high concentrations it caused hallucinations and delirium. And sometimes a fatal heart attack.



They also fought epidemics in their own way. They periodically walked around Europe, but became terrifying in the 14th century - when the Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, was rampant. In medieval Germany and France, almost half of the population died from it. And to treat it, doctors advised praying and repenting - they did not know any other methods. And in order not to catch the infection themselves, Aesculapius pulled a mask with a long beak over their face, put herbs in it - it was believed that this helps not to get sick.

But all this was like a poultice for a dead man.



Things started to improve during the Renaissance. The influence of religion began to weaken and doctors were able to perform autopsies. Soon they compiled the first anatomical atlas and finally made progress in studying the human body. Modern medicine was only a couple of centuries away.



So, medical treatment in the Middle Ages was really harsh, and often fatal for patients. But its legacy was enormous: herbal medicine, which is still used today, hospitals at monasteries - they became the prototype of all modern healthcare and social assistance. And most importantly - the training of doctors. How many cemeteries of patients they left behind, science does not know. But without this, they would not have created the medicine that we know today.