Elizabethan Medicine

The four bodily humors were part of Shakespearean cosmology, inherited from the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen.

Organized around the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire; the four qualities of cold, hot, moist, and dry; and the four humors, these physical qualities determined the behavior of all created things including the human body.

In the human body, the interaction of the four humors explained differences of age, gender, emotions, and disposition. The influence of the humors changed with the seasons and times of day and with the human life span. Heat stimulated action, cold depressed it. The young warrior’s choler gave him courage but phlegm produced cowards. Youth was hot and moist, age cold and dry.

Physicians were the only ones who had to be licensed according to the College of Physicians' rules, regulations, and guidelines. To acquire a physician's education and skill, one had to come from a family with at least a little wealth. Physicians could charge high fees, as they enjoyed a high professional status. The poor would have to rely on home remedies or medicine administered by charitable churches. The College of Physicians kept its standards high, but those physicians who practiced in the country had lower guidelines than those of city doctors.

The last rung on the ladder that was the medical profession of Elizabethan times was the apothecary, or dispenser of drugs. The apothecaries came to be known as the physician's cook and were associated with grocers because they were essentially just that. Apothecaries also endured bad reputations at times. Some were not so ethical in their distribution of medicine. Often they would sell fraudulent prescriptions or miracle cures that a country bumpkin would pay hard-earned money for. In 1616, apothecaries received a Royal charter to practice independently without physicians checking up on them.

Elizabethan Era Medicine

Humorism

Phlegmatic

Choleric

• Humor: Phlegm
• Element: Water
• Season: Autumn
• Age: Maturity
• Qualities: Cold & Moist
• Organ: Brain
• Planet: Moon

• Humor: Yellow Bile
• Element: Fire
• Season: Summer
• Age: Childhood
• Qualities: Hot & Dry
• Organ: Gall Bladder
• Planet: Mars

Belief

Melancholic

• Humor: Black Bile
• Element: Earth
• Season: Winter
• Age: Old Age
• Qualities: Cold & Dry
• Organ: Spleen
• Planet: Saturn

Sanguine

• Humor: Blood
• Element: Air
• Season: Spring
• Age: Adolescence
• Qualities: Hot & Moist
• Organ: Heart
• Planet: Jupiter

Physicians

Surgeons & Barbers

Surgeons

Surgeons were considered to be inferior to physicians. They usually operated on a physician's instruction. The surgeons tended to have a bad reputation, mainly because they shared company with barbers.

Though surgeons were usually more knowledgeable than barbers, they all belong to a group called the Company of Barber Surgeons.

Barbers

Even though barbers belonged to the same Company as the surgeons, they were not allowed to practice much besides blood-letting and tooth-pulling.

Apothecaries

Disease

Exploration

The explorers brought more than just tales, spices, riches, and knowledge. They brought back with them diseases like smallpox and syphilis, diseases which could be passed from person to person by physical contact or drinking or eating after someone.

Diet

The rich frequently got gout; their diet primarily consisted of meat and not many fruits and vegetables. Many of the residents of rural Elizabethan England were malnourished and suffered diet-related ailments. Scurvy, a disease that results from the lack of vitamin C in the body, was common. Toothaches were also a common, more minor problem. These afflictions were cared for by the barbers.

Lack of Sanitation

The main cause for disease in Elizabethan England was the lack of sanitation. There were open sewers in the streets, which were also used as community garbage cans. This kind of atmosphere was the perfect breeding ground for rats, lice, fleas, viruses, diseases, and germs, all of which were common problems. One of the biggest killers of Elizabethan times was the Plague, or "Black Death," a disease carried by rats who bred in the dregs of the sordid streets.