Medieval medicine

Your Ad Here

Scholarship at medieval time was under huge religious influence, and clerics were more interested in healing the human soul than the body. Many medieval theologians considered sickness and injury to be the result of supernatural intervention and insisted that cures were only possible through prayer and this was the main medieval medicine remedy. No new medical research was conducted, and no new practices were created. Medical doctors simply perpetuated the church-approved classical techniques developed by Galen and other ancient physicians that were preserved in ornately decorated, hand-copied texts produced by monks. Christian concern for the sick and injured, as well as contact with the Arab world during the crusades, did, however, lead to the creation of many large hospitals built and run by monastic orders. Although little was done to cure the patients, they were usually well fed and comforted by a religious nursing staff. Even though medicine and surgery were related, at the medieval medicine, practitioners drew a distinct line between them. Generally, physicians treated problems inside the body, and surgeons dealt with wounds, fractures, dislocations, amputations and similar problems. Surgery can trace the origins of their specialties to the teeth-pullers, bone-setters, oculists, and midwives of the middle ages. During this period, medicine began to be accepted as a profession based upon formal education, standardized curriculum, and legal regulation. In some regions, physicians were obligated to pass examinations before beginning practice. Untrained physicians were subject to prosecution and fines, and state licensing became common. Still, not all healers were priests or scholars. Women practitioners commonly treated female patients, and although scorned by the educated physicians, uneducated surgeons and self-taught lay doctors, or "leeches", were permitted to work on both men and livestock. At the time of the Renaissance physicians and scholars began to scientifically study medicine. Many began to research human anatomy. Their findings corrected many of the errors that had gone undetected for centuries and were rapidly disseminated through the new invention of printing. Andreas Vesalius was the premier anatomist of medieval medicine and published many illustrations of his discoveries.
 Arabic pharmaceutical practices were studied and improved, and medicines--like laudanum--were developed to stop or reduce pain. Some doctors began to study the spread of infectious diseases.