Many ancient cultures used molds, soil, and plants to treat bacterial infections. Tetracycline has been found in human skeletal remains in Egypt and the Sudan that are some 1,500 years old; it is speculated that it was present in materials consumed in the diet (Aminov). In ancient Serbia, Greece, and China, moldy bread was pressed against wounds to prevent infection. In Egypt, crusts of moldy wheat bread were applied on pustular scalp infections and “medicinal earth” was dispensed for its curative properties (Keyes). These remedies were believed to influence the spirits or the gods responsible for illness and suffering. Today we know that the occasional efficacy of these early treatments was due to the active metabolites and chemicals present in these concoctions, such as antimicrobial substances produced by the molds on bread.
Patent Medicines and Chemical Weapons
People living before the antibiotic era depended mainly on their immune system to survive infectious disease. However, they often sought a variety of largely untested remedies to treat their illnesses. These concoctions were of highly variable efficacy and safety and sometimes had no connection with the cure or relief from disease conditions. They were nonetheless patented, sold, and utilized by desperate people with no suitable alternatives.
The medieval Soutra hospital was built just off the Royal Road; the main route between England and Scotland, and dates back to 12th century. It was run by Augustinian monks looking after the poor, travellers, pilgrims and the elderly, as well as those who were unwell.
Dr Brian Moffat, led an excavation at Soutra Aisle during the 1980’s , and has led the Soutra Research Project since then. Dig findings from Soutra shed light on how those with psychiatric illnesses were treated, how epidemics were managed, and how dentistry and surgery in the Middle Ages was carried out. Surgeons’ Hall Museums are delighted to welcome Dr Moffat, lead archaeologist on the excavation, as he discusses the findings and sheds light of the mysteries of medical care in the middle ages.
Blame the victim & peddle fakery: Religion & contra-rational regression
The ascendancy of the Christian Church dates from around the time of the death of Galen. Having progressed so far, rational medicine was now abandoned. Medicine in the Bible is entirely supernatural. The Church developed the view that real practical medicine savoured of black magic. In any case it was wrong to try to subvert God's holy will by interfering with the natural course of events. It was God who caused illness. He was responsible for cures just as he was responsible for death. Even church law mentioned, in passing, that diseases were attributable to God, for example
If, by divine judgment, leprosy happens to a husband or wife, and the sick one demands the carnal debt from the one who is healthy, what is demanded must be rendered in accord with the Apostle's general commandment [1 Cor. 7:3-4], which gives no exception for this case.
(Decretals of Pope Gregory IX , Book Four, Title VIII C2)
Illness was indisputably caused by sin. The Bible said so, and so did Church Councils. The only alternative explanations given credence were diabolical possession, witchcraft and other satanic machinations. In Christendom, from AD 300 to around 1700 all serious mental conditions were understood as symptoms of demonic possession. Since illness was thought to be caused by supernatural agents, cures had to be essentially supernatural as well. Every cure was literally miraculous, and these miracles could be effected only by prayer, penance and the assistance of saints. To claim otherwise was heretical and blasphemous.
The Christian ideal was that women should die rather than allow themselves to be helped by a physician. Some women won their sainthood for doing no more than declining medical assistance. In the fourth century Saint Gorgonia, the daughter of two saints, was trampled by a team of mules, causing multiple broken bones and crushed internal organs. She would not see a doctor, as she thought it indecent. According to Christian sources this modesty miraculously cured her, and a second such self-healing miracle assured her sainthood. Today, Gorgonia is a patron saint for people afflicted by bodily ills. We do not know how many thousands of other women with identically modest Christian scruples died following her example and are now forgotten.
The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts: the "cucurbit" (Arabic ḳarʿa, Greek βίκος, bikos), the still pot containing the liquid to be distilled, which is heated by a flame; the "head" or "cap" (Arabic anbiḳ, Greek ἄμβιξ, ambix) which fits over the mouth of the cucurbit to receive the vapors, with an attached downward-sloping "tube" (Greek σωλήν, sōlēn), leading to the "receiver" (Arabic ḳābila, Greek ἄγγος, angos, or φιάλη, phialē) container. In the case of another distilling vessel, the retort, the "cap" and the "cucurbit" have been combined to form a single vessel. The anbik is also called the raʾs (head) of the cucurbit. The liquid in the cucurbit is heated or boiled; the vapour rises into the anbik, where it cools by contact with the walls and condenses, running down the spout into the receiver. A modern descendant of the alembic is the pot still, used to produce distilled beverages. https://howlingpixel.com/wiki/Alembic
This manuscript includes a collection of recipes, charms, and surgical operations by the surgeon John of Arderne (1307-1376). The page displayed here shows a series of drawings of medicinal plants. John of Arderne was the first English surgeon to become famous throughout the world for his work. He attended English troops at various battles in the Hundred Years War, which gave him the exceptional opportunities to treat injuries and to study the anatomy of corpses. Compared with the pictures in most earlier books of this kind, these drawings are extremely precise and true to nature. Among the well-known plants on this page is the daffodil, labelled 'Affadille' (top row, third from left). http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126570.html
An abortifacient is a substance that induces abortion. Numerous non-pharmaceutical abortifacients existed during the pre-pharmaceutical era. These included herbal, mineral, and ritualistic or spiritual preparations. Their effectiveness is difficult to determine. Of those that remain in use in the modern day, some are considered effective to a lesser or greater degree; while others are very effective, but carry negative side effects (primarily toxicity) which keep them from wider prevalence.
Today, many herbs and plants sold "over the counter" are claimed to act as abortifacients, either by themselves or if taken in certain doses or mixtures. Examples include brewer's yeast, vitamin C, bitter melon, wild carrot, blue cohosh, pennyroyal, nutmeg, mugwort, papaya, vervain, common rue, ergot, saffron and tansy. Animal studies have shown that pomegranate may be an effective abortifacient.
n English law, abortion did not become illegal until 1803. English folk practice before and after that time held that fetal life was not present until quickening. "Women who took drugs before that time would describe their actions as 'restoring the menses' or 'bringing on a period'." Abortifacients used by women in England in the 19th century (not necessarily safe or effective) included diachylon, savin, ergot of rye, pennyroyal, nutmeg, rue, squills, and hiera picra, the latter being a mixture of powdered aloe and canella.
Heal-all is a perennial herb found throughout Europe, Asia and North America, as well as most temperate climates. In Ireland it is generally abundant.
Prunella vulgaris (known as common self-heal , heal-all, woundwort, heart-of-the-earth, carpenter's herb, brownwort and blue curls) is an herbaceous plant in the genus Prunella.
Self-heal is edible: the young leaves and stems can be eaten raw in salads; the plant in whole can be boiled and eaten as a potherb; and the aerial parts of the plant can be powdered and brewed in a cold infusion to make a beverage.
Time of Leprosy: 11th Century to 14th Century
Leprosy had entered England by the 4th century and was a regular feature of life by 1050. Known today as Hansen's disease, in its extreme form it could cause loss of fingers and toes, gangrene, blindness, collapse of the nose, ulcerations, lesions and weakening of the skeletal frame. https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/disability-history/1050-1485/time-of-leprosy/
Medicina Antiqua - Leafing through the facsimile edition
The Viennese manuscript of Medicina Antiqua, is one of the most significant manuscripts of its kind, not least for its precious illustration, a comprehensive medical and pharmaceutical manuscript in Latin, produced in the 1st half of the 13th century in Southern Italy, possibly in the environment of the Staufer court. This manuscript thus presents a testimony to the extremely popular reception of classical medical conceptions in the Middle Ages and in Modern Times.
The authors, or more correctly, compilers, refer more or less plainly, directly or indirectly, to classical standard works, such as the Materia Medica by Dioscorides, a well-known Greek botanist and physician of the 1st century.
Medieval medicine is neither a precursor to our modern medicine, nor a simplistic, primitive system. There are few similarities between medieval and modern medicine, especially in regard to the framework through which each approaches illness. During the medieval period, the body reflected one's state of health, and medieval doctors relied on the body as text.
However, medieval doctors had little concept of germs as the medium of disease and the cause of illness. While the body was known to degenerate with age, medieval doctors believed that a healthy body required a state of harmony or balance. An unhealthy body represented an imbalance, usually identified through a change or sign on the outside of the body, either on the skin or from an excreted fluid, such as urine. Thus the body becomes the symbolic text which a doctor needed to interpret in order first to diagnosis and then to cure.
Lacking any concept of viruses or bacteria as causes of illness, medieval doctors were left to reason that certain behaviors led to illness. There were three types of possible illnesses: those caused by the body's natural degeneration, those to which the body was predisposed, and those caused by immoderate living.
The connection between morality and illness is not a medieval creation, but part of the heritage of Greco-Roman medicine. Galen unified two competing theories, the Empiricists and the Dogmatists into one philosophy which became the foundation of medieval medicine. The Empiricists believed in experience as the greatest teacher of medical learning. The Dogmatists relied on a learned tradition and propounded a notion of a microcosm and macrocosm. The microcosm consisted of the four bodily humours: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Each of the four humours reflected the elements of the macrocosm: air, water, earth, and fire, respectively. The humours also had temperature and moisture properties. Blood was hot and wet, phlegm was cold and wet, black bile was cold and dry, and yellow bile was hot and dry. According to this theory, when a person became sick, one of the four humours was out of balance. To balance the humours, one needed to take a prescription, usually made from some combination of plants or animals. Doctors categorized all plants and animals by their temperature and moisture.
Galen believed that authoritative learning was important but must not be accepted blindly; "rather, [medical authorities] are authorities in as far as they are proved right" through clinical experience. Essentially, Galen saw medicine as a cumulative process in which one studied medical authorities and appended or altered the authoritative corpus through clinical experience. Galen's emphasis on immoderation as a cause of illness appealed especially to early Christians.
A third misconception about medieval medicine concerns ascribing the belief to medieval people that all illness was connected to moral failings. In fact, some illnesses were believed to occur naturally or as a result of old age.
The clearest literary example of both the influence of medicine on literature and the connection between morality and illness appears in our own adjectives: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and melancholy. At one time, these adjectives referred both to the emotional and moral state of the individual as well as to his or her physical constitution. Each ... ailment corresponds to an emotional state--an emotional state that could lend itself to sin. The assumptions which underlie this poem are that the phlegmatic is prone to the sin of idleness, the sanguine is prone to the sins of lust and overindulgence, the choleric is prone to the sins of covetousness, and the melancholic is prone to the sins of deceit and envy. https://web.archive.org/web/20050306190053/http://www.the-orb.net:80/non_spec/missteps/ch4.html
The internet is a revelation. Where else could one encounter abundant evidence that, despite the Enlightenment and expensive educational systems, ignorance is not merely pervasive, but lauded?
A case in point—New Age embrace of the long-discredited Doctrine of Signatures.
The Doctrine of Signatures dates from the time of
Dioscurides (c. 40 – 90 AD) and Galen (AD 129 – c.200/c.216).
According to proponents of the doctrine, herbalists could use the vague resemblance between the
appearance of herbs and body parts to treat ailments attributed, most often wrongly, to those organs. The later Christian theological justification was that God
would have wanted to direct men to useful plants.
Examples:
Eyebright, used for eye infections
Hedge woundwort, thought to have antiseptic qualities
Liverwort, either Marchantiophyta or Hepatica - used to
treat the liver
Lungwort – Lobelia pulmonaria (and others) - used for pulmonary
infections
Spleenwort, Asplenium - used to treat the spleen
Toothwort, Dentaria - used for tooth ailments
In its innocuous form, this belief is embodied in the
naming—both popular and Linnaean—of plants.
Unfortunately, because the doctrine has no basis in fact,
the practice has proved invariably ineffective, often harmful, and too often
fatal.
Examples (discussed in the playlist below):
Hyoscyamus niger, black
henbane, for toothache
Aristolochia clematitis, birthwort, in midwifery
Mandragora officinarum, mandrake, as aphrodisiac
1380
16 January – Parliament declares Richard II of age to rule.
July to September – Hundred Years' War: The King's uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, raids France.
November – the second of a series of three poll taxes designed to help pay for the war against France. 1381
January – Hundred Years' War: Brittany surrenders to France, although England retains control of Brest.
Spring – the third and final of a series of poll taxes designed to help pay for the war against France. This tax is highly unpopular, with many people blaming Simon Sudbury, at this time both Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of Canterbury.
30 May – Peasants' Revolt breaks out when the attempts of an official (John Brampton) to collect unpaid poll taxes in Brentwood, Essex, ends in violent confrontation.
12 June – Peasants' Revolt: Rebels from Kent and Essex, led by Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, meet at Blackheath, London, where they are encouraged by a sermon from renegade Lollard priest John Ball.
14 June – Peasants' Revolt: Rebels destroy John of Gaunt's Savoy Palace and storm the Tower of London, finding and beheading Simon Sudbury, and also Robert Hales, Lord High Treasurer. King Richard (age 14) meets the leaders of the revolt and agrees to reforms such as fair rents and the abolition of serfdom.
15 June – Peasants' Revolt: During further negotiations, Wat Tyler is murdered by the King's entourage. Noble forces subsequently overpower the rebel army, the rebel leaders are captured and executed and Richard revokes his concessions.
Late June to July – Peasant revolts spread to St Albans and East Anglia, but are quickly suppressed. Norfolk rebels are defeated at the Battle of North Walsham (25 or 26 June).
15 July – John Ball is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of the King at St Albans for his part in the Peasants' Revolt.
30 July – William Courtenay enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.
In response to the Peasants' Revolt, Parliament passes the Treason Act making the starting of a riot high treason.
