Medicine in the Middle Ages

The more I studythe more I know.The more I know the more I forget. The more I forget the less I know,

so why study?

Introduction

• Middle Ages 476 – 1492

• Historical events are not interrupted

Historical cross section

Early Middle Ages

476 – 1000

622 Muhammad flees to Medina

731 Arabs defeated by Poitiers

800 Charlemagne

925 Tomislav first Croatian king

956 Otto the great German emperornjemački car

High Middle Ages

1001 – 1300

1088 Bologna University

1089 Death of King Zvonimir

1099 First crusade

1223 Franciscans

1295 Marco Polo

Late Middle Ages 1301 – 1492

1310 Dante’s Divine comedy

1337 Hundred years war

1453 Turks conquered Constantinopolis

1492 Discovery of the Americas

1493 Battle of Krbava

Historical cross section

Early Middle Ages

476 – 1000

High Middle Ages

1001 – 1300

Late Middle Ages 1301 – 1492

Body representation

• Myron - Discobolos

Body representation

• Phidias

– Athena Parthenos

Body representation

• Nike of Samothrace

Body representation

• Laocoön and His Sons

Body representation

Byzantine medicine • It continued the Greek and Roman medicine

• Christian State

• Hospitals

• Oribasius - Collectiones 70 books

• Paul of Aegina – Medical Compendium in Seven Book

• Bridge towards the Arab medicine

Saints Cosmas and Damian• Arabian twins – Christians

• Anargyroi

• Murdered in Diocletianic Persecution • Incubation – emperor Justinian was

cured in their temple in Constantinopolis

• Patrons of medicine and pharmacy

• Leg transplantation

Contemptus mundi

• Contempt of the world

• Material became opposite to spiritual

• The core of body’s malignancy is the sexual instinct

• Even sexuality in marriage was condemned

Hygiene

• Lack of hygiene

• Bath – only on holidays

• Aphides

• Aqueduct and sewer system nonexistant

Housing

• Intimacy- unknown

• Everyone slept in one room

• Urin and feces are collected during the day – and thrown through the window

Nutrition and diseases

• Chronic malnutrition

• Child mortality was very high

• 1347. Black death

• Disease was considered as the God’s punishment

• Flagellants i Saint Vitus Dance

Monasteries

• Order of Saint Benedict, Order of Saint John, Franciscans

• Herbalism• Hildegard of Bingen –

epilepsy – several books about medicine

• Trotula of Salerno - Regimen sanitatis

Salerno school

• Salerno - south Italy

• Organized medical school

• Epic “Regimen sanitatis”

• Napoleon abolished it

Arabic medicine• Bagdad – East• Cordoba - West

• In 11th century Bagdad had 60 hospitals

• Razi - original Perzian medicine

• Avicenna (Abū Alī al-Husayn ibn Abdullāh ibn Sīnā) The Canon of Medicine

Plague• Causative agent - BACTERIUM Yersinia

pestis

• Primarily carried by rodents

• Spread to humans via fleas – Xenopsilla cheopis

Plague – types

• Bubonic plague

• Septicemic plague

• Pneumonic plague

• Pestis minor

Plague - historical dynamics

• 5th century b.C. plague of Pericles

• 6th century – plague of Justinian

• 1347 – Black Death

• 1920 - Rijeka

Plague - the black death 1347 – 1353

• Europe – 25-30 mil. dead (30-40%)

• 1377. quarantine in Dubrovnik

• Traces is arts

• Invocation of patron saints

Saint Roch

• Legend – an angel has taken care of his wounds

• Bubo on groin

Plague risk factors

• Towns

• Lack of hygiene

• Summer

• Black rat

• Turks

Plague - treatment

- perfuming cloths

- burning brimstone (sulphur)

- boiling vinegar

- avoiding beggars