Saturday, November 26, 2005

Question from Robert - Tudor medicine

hello

i need help with some questions about tudor medicine. i have answered some but cannot find the following for my project.

what did the tudors think the cause of illnesses was?

how were people treated for their illness?

what about hospitals in tudor times?

what happened when poor people were ill?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ill humours in the blood was thought to be the main reason for illness. A sure-fire remedy for getting rid of the 'bad blood' was blood-letting (cutting the skin and letting the blood drip into a bowl) or the use of leeches. The flayed skin of a sheep applied to the soles of the feet, still bloody, was a common method for reviving a swooned person.

Whether rich or poor, the medicine of the time was about the same for everyone, to a point. Henry VIII was a firm believer in ground pearls as a preventative for the plague. No doubt the average person wouldn't have that luxury to hand, or enough pearls to grind.

Anonymous said...

The people in tudor times thought that if u had got ill you can only cure it with what they thought caused it

Anonymous said...

The tudors thought that the plague was caused by the bad things in the air. So they made many great fires in the towns, villages and cities that they lived in, often burning down their own homes, to try and get rid of the plague. Then they got into boats and sailed as far downstream as they could, to avoid getting injured or killed.

Anonymous said...

For a discussion and Tudor medical texts that explain ideas of health and illness see Michael t. Walton,Popular Medical Texts of Early Tudor London.

Anonymous said...

They thought illnesses were bought on by bad smells, so they wore large 'beaks' filled with fragant spices so that only good smells could get to them

Anonymous said...

hopistal were filthy and where filled
with rats and later got in proved by florace nightingale

Anonymous said...

what did the tudors think the cause of illnesses was?

Miasma, or infected air, was thought to carry disease. They combated this with Pomanders and nosegays (an orange covered in cloves and a small bunch of herbs). They also believed illness was a divine intervention, especially amongst the clergy.

The Four Humours, invented by Hippocrates back in Greek times, was the foundation of medicine. They believe an inbalance of these humours caould cause illness. Until William Harvey, it was also believe that the body made blood continuously, and so frequent bleedings were used. We now know that blood circulates the body.



how were people treated for their illness?

It depended what the illness was; but most of the poor would use folk remedies containing herbs.

what about hospitals in tudor times?

There basically were none; unless you counted the Monasteries before the Reformation. People were mainly treated in their own homes.

what happened when poor people were ill?

They used folk remedies, and prayed. Often, it was all they could do.

Anonymous said...

Well doctors said that there were four humours. blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy.a healthy persons body had and equal amount of each, but if you didnt you would get ill.

Anonymous said...

im not sure what your looking for but these are some cures for illnesses and stuff...
Head lice – pour tobacco juice onto the scalp Smallpox – hang red curtains around a victim’s bed, as the red light produced by the curtains will cure the patient.
Burnt feathers or dung-tonsillitis

Hare brains- teething
Boiled green frog- tooth decay