1.2.1

Medieval 'Doctors'

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The Medieval “Doctor"

There were no professional doctors in Medieval times. Different types of people were offered different kinds of treatments to make them better.

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No medical training

  • Medieval doctors usually learned through word-of-mouth or through personal experience.
    • They experimented with herbs, charms and learned from apothecaries (person who sold medicines), travelling healers and wise men/women.
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Barber surgeons

  • Barber surgeons were people who had access to razors and did a lot of medical procedures.
    • Barber surgeons did not get training.
  • They could cut people’s hair, do bloodletting and even amputate peoples’ arms and legs.
  • However, a lot of people died because their wounds were infected or they lost too much blood.
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Medieval “doctors”

  • The closest thing to our view of a modern-day doctor was a man/woman who had been trained in Hippocratic and Galenic methods.

Medieval “Doctors”

The closest thing to our view of a modern-day doctor was a man/woman who had been trained in Hippocratic and Galenic methods.

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The Influence of the Church

  • The Christian Church was influential and popular in Europe in medieval times.
  • Lots of doctors were trained at universities that were set up by the Church.
    • Most of these were based in Italy (e.g Bologna and Padua).
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Galen’s Ideas

  • The Church (monasteries) generally controlled education and Galen’s ideas were usually taught in the Church’s medical school.
  • The Christian Church liked Galen’s ideas.
    • They thought it fitted with their view of God and doctors believed that his ideas were correct.
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Doctors’ tools

  • Doctors had some tools to treat patients.
  • This included:
    • a book which recorded possible illnesses.
    • leeches to remove blood.
    • aromatic objects which could stop miasma (bad smells which were believed to cause disease).
    • a zodiac chart to predict future illnesses.
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The doctors

  • Most doctors were in large towns and they were still rare.
    • Doctors were expensive and most people couldn’t afford to see them.
    • Some doctors began to observe (and treat) their patients on the battlefield (in wars).
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The hospitals

  • The poor could only receive medical treatment in hospitals set up by monasteries.
    • However, lots of people who were very ill were not treated, because people were scared that the disease could spread to other people.
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Apothecaries

  • Apothecaries were people who sold herbal remedies in medieval times.
  • Female apothecaries were called "wise women".
  • Most people couldn't afford to pay doctors (physicians), so they used apothecaries.

Jump to other topics

1Medicine in Medieval England

2The Medical Renaissance in England

3Medicine in 18th & 19th Century Britain

4Medicine in Modern Britain

5Treatment in WW1

6Themes in Medicine

7Some Extra Context (Not Compulsory for Exam)

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