Diseases in The Middle Ages

Leprosy

• Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease

• discovered, in Norway in 1873,

Leprosy's Role In Middle Ages

• had been known to man for over 4000 years prior

• Came to Europe early 11th century

• Brought to Europe from Middle Eastern countries by those who had been on Crusade

• Infected people seen as unclean and sinful

• Forced to wear clapper, bell that would alarm people someone infected with leprosy was around

• Most people are naturally immune to the disease and nowadays it mostly affects people in developing countries where resources are scarce.

Measures Taken to Prevent Leprosy

• Outcasted members of community with leprosy

• "leprosy villages" founded

In France, alone, there were 2,000 such colonies

in the 11th-13th centuries.

How Illnesses of Middle Ages Effected Society

Treatment During Middle Ages

The Black Death

• "Bubonic Plauge"

• 1328 - 1351

• The Black Death was spread by fleas that were carried by rats

• Fear of leprosy surpassed by a new european illness, The Black Plague

• Tried to use warm mixture of onion and garlic

• When original remedy failed, products from the new world such as tobacco were attempted

• ◾Prices and Wages rose
• ◾Greater value was placed on labor
• ◾Farming land was given over to pasturing, which was much less labour-intensive
• ◾This change in farming led to a boost in the cloth and woollen industry
• ◾Peasants moved from the country to the towns
• ◾The Black Death was therefore also responsible for the decline of the Feudal system
• ◾People became disillusioned with the church and its power and influence went into decline
• ◾This resulted in the English reformation

Diseases During Middle Ages

Culture of medicine contrasted from middle ages to present day

Conclusion

As a society, we have come a long way in medicine from the middle ages. Although we are far more advanced, we still owe many discoveries of modern medicine to the great minds of the middle ages.

1536 Ambroise Pare mixes egg whites, rose oil and turpentine to put on wounds.

1543 Andreas Vesalius publishes The Fabric of the Human Body

1628 William Harvey publishes his discovery of how the blood circulates in the body

1658 Jan Swammerdan observes red blood corpuscles

1661 Marcello Malpighi discovers capillaries

1732 Laura Bassi is made professor of anatomy at Bologna University

Similarities in Medicine

• Medieval doctors also examined a patient's urine. The color, smell and even taste of urine were important

Modern Medicine (Treating Disease)

◾Hygiene - Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) brought down the childbed fever death rate among new mothers by insisting that doctors wash their hands before touching women during childbirth. It was not until 1865 when Joseph Lister, a British surgeon proved the principles of antisepsis in wound treatment. Even then, it was an uphill struggle to convince all the "conservative" doctors.

Diseases in The Middle Ages

By Brad Bieski