Did you know there was a time where infectious diseases like the common cold could kill you and your family? This was the elizabethan era probably the last time where sickness became the “grimm reaper” before modern medical advancements. With infectious diseases spreading and killing so many people doctors became desperate. Because these doctors knew very little about medicine, they were completely willing to try experimental treatments on their patients (Alchin). Sadly just about anybody with an infectious disease died. All the knowledge these doctors knew were based on: Humours, what brain function each internal organ controls, and how to protect themselves from it.
Furthermore, the basic knowledge all these doctors knew were: There are only four elements in the world,each element represented a humour, and all four humours are balanced in the human body. Humours are “natural bodily fluids. They correspond to the elements and have various qualities: cold, dry, hot, and moist.” (Ross) The four elements are: earth, air, water, and fire. The Humour for earth was black bile meaning melancholic or sad - black bile really is the foam off the top of blood. Air’s humour is blood meaning sanguine or lusty. Water’s humour may gross people out… it’s phlegm meaning phlegmatic or sluggish. Lastly fire’s humour is yellow bile meaning temperamental or angry - yellow bile is also choler (Ross). All four humours are supposed to be balance the cause of diseases were if one was out of balance (Alchin).
As previously stated, the doctors of that era believed a person would get sick if one of the humor were out of balance. To restore balance doctors would bleed the patients. Bleeding was not done with leeches but with a bowl and pricking needle ...
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... coffin. The Wealthy provided the black clothing to their invited guest (McKenzie). This helped avoid having a guest offend with their clothing choices.
To conclude, medicine of this time was so sad that death was inevitable. They couldn’t blame the doctors or even themselves for the cause of all these diseases because they didn’t really know what to do. Doctors were experimenting and taking lives but not learning from their ineffective practices like bleeding or leeching. Religion was probably the best possible choice for that time.
Works Cited
Ross, Maggi “Science and Health” Elizabethan.org/. N.p., 26 Mar 2008 Web 17 jan 2014
Alchin, Linda. “Elizabethan Medicine and Illnesses” www.elizabethan-era.org. UK. N.P. 16 May 2012 Web. 17 Jan 2014
McKenzie, Eleanor. “Funeral Rites & Customs in Elizabethan England” Classroom.synonym.com/ Demand Media Web 20 Jan 2014
but this was the best they could do. The search for effective treatments was hindered by the church as they believed that religion was the cure for the sick. The believe that Saints could cure by touch
Those are some of the examples of how they might've been diagnosed, and how they should've been evaluation now. Except it probably doesn't help with the lack of doctors in the 1600s, but this is all basically
Even today, children innocently chant this old nursery rhyme, bringing the old saying into reality, “Ignorance is Bliss”. It’s eerie, to think that this old rhyme in fact gives a perfect description of one of Europe’s worst nightmares, the Great Plague. Many people forget the horrors of the Plague, and when they do remember and think about it, Public heath is rarely a factor that plays a big part when people start to think things through.
Although he lived four centuries before the birth of Christ, a man named Hippocrates recorded the symptoms of diseases we still see to this day. Known as the “Father of Medicine” (Hippocrates), Hippocrates was an ancient physician who studied and recorded his observances of the body’s infections and physiology. He set forth the foundation for future physicians, and in doing so, is accredited for our knowledge of infectious diseases in earlier centuries. During this time however, many believed the earth and its inhabitants were composed of four general elements: air, water, fire, and dirt. They also believed that any one person who fell ill was being punished by the gods. As a foresighted thinker though, Hippocrates encouraged the idea that humans became ill due to natural causes. In that wisdom, he recorded all his observances of his patients and their illnesses, taking careful note of the bodily symptoms and their progression.
"Taboos and Social Stigma - Rituals, Body, Life, History, Time, Person, Human, Traditional Views of Death Give Way to New Perceptions." Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. Web. 31 Jan. 2011. .
In the Renaissance, some aspects of medicine and doctors were still in a Dark Age. Outbreaks of disease were common, doctors were poor, medicine was primitive and many times doctors would kill a patient with a severe treatment for a minor disease! But, there were other sections where medicine and the use of medications improved greatly. This paper is written to illustrate the "light and dark" sides of medicine in the Renaissance.
Disease and death are most often associated with the Middle Ages because of the widespread plagues and ignorance of medical knowledge during that time period. It is difficult, however, to ascertain the true nature of illness in the early Medieval Ages because in some written sources, the author’s standpoint distorts the presentation of the disease or cause of a person’s death so that the biological cause is skewed and unattainable.
As well as being connected with seasons, the four humors were also linked to four elements of nature. Black bile was associated with Earth, blood with air, fire with yellow bile and phlegm with water. This theory of nature and the body being interrelated was also proposed by Empedocles. Also each of these was also connected with the type of personality one presented. Too much earth made a person melancholic, which meant they were very depressed and saddened often.
The medicinal practices and problems of the Elizabethan Era were very important to the people, although they are very different from those of today. There were many different beliefs and diseases, like the Plague. Medicine was not an exact science and was related to Alchemy (Chemistry). Here, some of the many practices and beliefs of the Elizabethan Era will be discussed.
Medieval doctors of the 14th century were far lacking in the medical technology that we rely on today. Chroniclers of the Black Death attacked medical practitioners, accusing them of being cowards, incompetent and greedy.
Beginning around 460 BC, the concept of humoralism emerged throughout the written works of Hippocrates. These early works, some of the only medical works of this detailed nature to survive this period, delineated one of the first ways scholars and physicians viewed the body and more importantly illness. Shaped by the Hippocratics’ version of humoralism and his own interpretations of their written works, Galen resolutely supported the fundamental four-element theory, the notion of the four humors, and the essential practice of healing by applying opposites by physicians. However, Galen’s education in anatomy proved an effective advance in his medical reasoning away from a non-ontological view of illness into a considerably more ontological and
Before the humoral theory was developed, it was believed that angry gods or evil spirits were the causing factors of disease. In order to cure themselves, people had to beg the gods for forgiveness or rid the evil spirits from their body. In turn, the priests who performed the healing became the first known physicians (Francko 372). This theory of magic being the cause of disease was believed for many years throughout the people. It was not until a Greek physician proposed a different theory being the cause of disease that people changed their view of illness forever.
Hippocrates. On Regimen in Acute Diseases. Trans. Adams, Francis. Ca 400 BC. MS. The Internet Classics Archive: 441 Searchable Works of Classical Literature. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
In today’s time, nurses are allowed to do much more than draw blood and pull teeth, but are not allowed to perform as many procedures as a doctor. In addition, we still use natural substances as medication today. Then, “lung afflictions such as pneumonia and bronchitis were treated by liquorice and comfrey,” which is still used in bronchitis medicines that are used today (Patterson, White). Also, “stomach aches were treated with wormwood, mint, and balm,” which still holds true today, as many people chew mint gum when they have an upset stomach. Although the medical treatments and doctorate procedures were different from our present day beliefs, the Elizabethan era greatly influenced the medical
Before the finding of the medicine treatment in the seventeenth century, people dealt with many deaths from many epidemics. Illness worsen as time grew because of smallpox, yellow fever, measles, and etc. A cure for these types of illness could not be found by any treatment, therefore the life span was up to the age of 35 years because of the untreated diseases, unsanitary places, and unwashed hands. Thus, until the era of the seventeenth century came along, medical treatments started to rise forth with the great changes in medicine and science. During this time, physicians were introduced, patients finally came across treatments, and medical practices were used.