Medical Knowledge of the Medieval Age
The Life expectancy of the medieval people varied according to climate, wealth and diet. As a mean, women of the middle ages lived to 43.6 years and men lives to 48.7 years.
The common symptoms of the Black Death were large round blisters on your limbs, face and abdomen, a fever, trembling, weakness, profuse sweating, sneezing and coughing. Some victims lived for 3-4 days while other died straight away, some swelling under the armpits or groin before falling over when they were talking.
They doctors believed that nice smelling herbs, spices or flowers would keep the plague away and some other remedies used in the medieval times were; rotten treacle, constant religious praying general religious practices, living in a sewer, letting leaches suck you dry, eating a spoon of crushed emeralds,to be happy and avoid bad thoughts, drink good wine, avoid eating fruit, washing yourself with urine, smearing yourself with human excrement, rubbing your wounds with a live chicken and killing the jews (many used them as scapegoats). Medicine and disease was highly misunderstood in the medieval times and some practices performed by doctors were more deadly then the actual disease of their patient/victim. Bathing during the plague was discouraged for two reasons. First, along with changing clothes, it was a sign of vanity, which invited the wrath of God and the punishment of sin (which of course was what they thought the plague was). Secondly, bathing was believed to open the pores, making it easier for bad air to enter and exit the body, spreading disease. Colognes were used during the plague to cover up odors due to not bathing or changing clothing, not bathing made the risk of disease and infection worse and many grimy individuals died from the plague. The Jewish were highly persecuted in the Medieval Times and hundreds were killed by force during the time of the plague. Medieval knowledge of medicine was mainly based on the power of god, thinking he would heal you if you prayed or went to services daily or payed repentance.
It wasn't until the 19th century, centuries after the Black Death struck in its magnitude, that scientists and doctors were able to identify deadly and disease-causing bacteria.The attempts to find cures for the plague started the momentum toward development of the scientific method and the changes in thinking that led to the Renaissance and shaped and developed our medical knowledge today.
What we know about the Black Death now is that there were infact three varieties of the plague: Bubonic plague, caused by bites from infected fleas, in which the bacteria moves to lymph nodes and quickly multiplies, forming growths, or buboes; pneumonic plague, a lung infection that causes its victim to cough blood and spread the bacteria from person to person; and septicemic plague, a blood infection that was almost always fatal.
The more people that died, the more diseased corpses that there were to dispatch of, eventually peasants would cart their dead to a makeshift grave with the others that were infected and tip the cart into the hole. When a hole/grave was filled they would simply dig a new one. These methods for dispatching the dead worked until there was no one to cart out the corpses and piles of men, women and children were left to rot out in the streets severely increasing the risk of infection and disease.
The Life expectancy of the medieval people varied according to climate, wealth and diet. As a mean, women of the middle ages lived to 43.6 years and men lives to 48.7 years.
The common symptoms of the Black Death were large round blisters on your limbs, face and abdomen, a fever, trembling, weakness, profuse sweating, sneezing and coughing. Some victims lived for 3-4 days while other died straight away, some swelling under the armpits or groin before falling over when they were talking.
They doctors believed that nice smelling herbs, spices or flowers would keep the plague away and some other remedies used in the medieval times were; rotten treacle, constant religious praying general religious practices, living in a sewer, letting leaches suck you dry, eating a spoon of crushed emeralds,to be happy and avoid bad thoughts, drink good wine, avoid eating fruit, washing yourself with urine, smearing yourself with human excrement, rubbing your wounds with a live chicken and killing the jews (many used them as scapegoats). Medicine and disease was highly misunderstood in the medieval times and some practices performed by doctors were more deadly then the actual disease of their patient/victim. Bathing during the plague was discouraged for two reasons. First, along with changing clothes, it was a sign of vanity, which invited the wrath of God and the punishment of sin (which of course was what they thought the plague was). Secondly, bathing was believed to open the pores, making it easier for bad air to enter and exit the body, spreading disease. Colognes were used during the plague to cover up odors due to not bathing or changing clothing, not bathing made the risk of disease and infection worse and many grimy individuals died from the plague. The Jewish were highly persecuted in the Medieval Times and hundreds were killed by force during the time of the plague. Medieval knowledge of medicine was mainly based on the power of god, thinking he would heal you if you prayed or went to services daily or payed repentance.
It wasn't until the 19th century, centuries after the Black Death struck in its magnitude, that scientists and doctors were able to identify deadly and disease-causing bacteria.The attempts to find cures for the plague started the momentum toward development of the scientific method and the changes in thinking that led to the Renaissance and shaped and developed our medical knowledge today.
What we know about the Black Death now is that there were infact three varieties of the plague: Bubonic plague, caused by bites from infected fleas, in which the bacteria moves to lymph nodes and quickly multiplies, forming growths, or buboes; pneumonic plague, a lung infection that causes its victim to cough blood and spread the bacteria from person to person; and septicemic plague, a blood infection that was almost always fatal.
The more people that died, the more diseased corpses that there were to dispatch of, eventually peasants would cart their dead to a makeshift grave with the others that were infected and tip the cart into the hole. When a hole/grave was filled they would simply dig a new one. These methods for dispatching the dead worked until there was no one to cart out the corpses and piles of men, women and children were left to rot out in the streets severely increasing the risk of infection and disease.