History GCSE Health & The People (c.1000 - present). For AQA students only. This helped me achieve a grade 9 at GCSE History during the 2023 exams. Super helpful as complete chronological summary of all the course as well as facts that can be easily used in your essays. Last page contains the way t...
Medicine c.1000-present
1. The Middle Ages, c.1000-1500: Medicine stands still
2. Renaissance Britain, c.1500-1800: The beginnings of change?
3. The Nineteenth Century, c.1800-1900: A revolution in medicine?
4. The Twentieth Century, c.1900 to today: Modern medicine
The factors that have changed/affected medicine over time:
- Beliefs/superstitions & religion - The role of individuals -Chance -War
- Government - Science & Technology - Communication
1: Influenced by religion. Hospitals were set up & run by the Church. Some people
believed God sent illnesses to punish people for their sins. Christian Church also
discouraged people from challenging old ideas such as Galen and his humours as it
supported Christian belief that God made humanity, and developing new ideas e.g.
RogerBacon imprisoned for life by Church leaders when he told doctors to do their own
research instead of just reading Galen.
2. Influenced by the role of individuals. Andreas Versalius improved knowledge of
anatomy by dissecting dead bodies. William Harvey discovered that blood circulates around
the body. Ambroise Paré improved surgery & designed artificial limbs.
Influenced by science. Edward Jenner invented vaccination against smallpox.
Communication. Knowledge spread quicker because of the invention of printing press.
3: Influenced by the role of individuals & science & technology. 1861, Louis Pasteur
published his germ theory (showed germs caused disease). Led to treatments for killer
diseases & antiseptics. Surgery improved by better scientific knowledge e.g. anaesthetics.
Improvements in engineering helped to provide the sewer systems.
Influenced by government. Passed laws to improve public health.
4: Influenced by science & technology. Developments greatly improved surgery e.g.
identifying blood groups so blood transfusions are safe. Antibiotics discovered in 1940s
provided cures for illnesses & infections.
Wars. Forced governments to improve public health.
Governments. 1948 - NHS created. Free public healthcare, people now live 2x than in
1800s.
The 4 Humours: Blood, Phlegm, Black Bile, Yellow Bile
Claudius Galen wrote 350+ books covering every aspect of medicine in detail & organised
→ Looked so thorough so people believed they were all the answers. Used for next 1500
years.
His ideas fit into Christian Church ideas that God created human life and Christian Church
controlled education in the Middle Ages so made his ideas stay.
Galen built up on Hippocrates theory of 4 humours. Gave diet & exercise advice, purged &
bled patients. Came up with Theory of Opposites - Opposites to cure e.g. cold=candle or
chillies.
Also told physicians to find out as much as possible of human body by dissecting dead
bodies or if not possible apes (or pigs). Was wrong though as apes & pigs are different
bodies.
, Blood = Greeks believed you were feverish, hot & bad tempered. Leeches.
Black Bile = Slow, sluggish & depressed. Purgative (go to toilet a lot).
Yellow Bile = Bad tempered & sick. Give something to make you sick a lot.
Phlegm = Tearful & unhappy. Give you something to make you hot & sticky.
Causes of disease: Punishment from God, bad air, astrology, superstition, unbalanced
humours.
Treatments:
1. Herbal Remedies (minerals, animal parts, herbs), book called ‘herbals’, prayers to
say while collecting herbs to increase effectiveness of remedies.
2. Cleaning the streets. 1349 - Plague hit London. King Edward III ordered Lord Mayor
to remove all filth in the streets. Wrote ‘the filth from the houses is infecting the air,
endangering people through sickness which is increasing daily’.
3. Zodiac man. Doctors believed movement of sun, moon & planets through
constellations affected people’s bodies. Zodiac chart showed doctor when to treat
each part of body.
4. Bleeding. People bled by surgeon or doctor to prevent illness e.g. by leeches, some
monks bled 7-12x a year.
5. Urine chart. Doctor tested patient’s urine by looking at colour, smell, thickness &
taste of urine (called uroscopy) - used to judge if patient’s humours were out of
balance, white urine = too much phlegm in body.
Leprosy = Contagious skin disease
Christianity mostly hindered medicine in progressing during the Medieval period:
- Preserving Knowledge: Positive effect as made sure people could learn from Greek
& Roman ideas. Monks in Christian monasteries made copies of ancient books by
hand e.g. Galen, Christianity & Islam also made sure Roman & Greek medicine
books were saved from destruction.
- Education & Training: Negative effect as physicians not encouraged to
challenge/question Galen as might go on to question the Bible. Roger Bacon
imprisoned by Church leaders for rest of his life when he told doctors to do their own
research instead of just reading Galen. Galen’s teachings fit in with Christianity.
- Ideas about the causes of disease & treatments: Negative as people believed
God sent down disease as punishment for sins. If God sent disease, no need to look
for any other cause → halted research. Also didn’t look for treatments other than
being more religious & commiting fewer sins. Christianity was huge @time &
controlled all aspects of life. Control of Church influenced everyone’s ideas & nobody
could challenge it.
- Hospitals: Positive & Negative effect. P= Christian Church taught that sick people
should be looked after like Jesus did → Many hospitals founded in Middle Ages,
patients given food, rest, herbal remedies. 1400 - 9000 hospitals in England. Leper
Houses → Houses for Leprosy patients to quarantine from healthy people.
N= A person could not get into a hospital if they had an infectious disease, nuns gave
nursing care (not physicians), prayer was the main treatment, hospitals very small
with only 10 people.
Healers included physicians, women & surgeons.
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