Medieval Treatment Sources

Source Documents on Medieval Treatments
Source A When you get up each morning, stretch your limbs, so that the natural heat is stimulated and the limbs strengthened. Then comb your hair, as the combing removes uncleanliness and comforts the brain. Wash your hands and face also with cold water to give your skin a good colour and to stimulate the natural heat. Wash and clean your nose and your chest by coughing also clean your teeth, because this helps the stomach and the chest and your speech becomes clearer. Clean your teeth and your gums with the bark of some scented tree ... After that, exercise your body though in moderation, because fatigue has many virtues; it stimulates the natural heat. Taddeo Alderotti, On the preservation of health. Alderotti was a professor at the University of Bologna around the year 1260. He was one of the most famous physicians in Italy at this time.	Consider: What evidence can you see in the passage to suggest the writer believed in the Theory of the Four Humours?
Source B 1. I bethought myself of collecting a good number of those beetles which in summer are found in the dung of oxen, also of the crickets which sing in the fields. I cut off the heads and the wings of the crickets and put them with the beetles and common oil into a pot; I covered it and left it afterwards for a day and night in a bread oven. I drew out the pot and heated it at a moderate fire, I pounded the whole and rubbed the sick parts; in three days the pain had disappeared. 2. Also here is a bath which has proved to be of value [to cure tuberculosis]. Take blind puppies, remove the viscera, and cut off the extremities; then boil in water, and in this water let the patient be bathed: let him enter the bath for four hours after his food, and whilst therein keep the head entirely covered, and the chest completely wrapped around with the skin of a small kid, as a preservation against exposure to sudden chill. 3. Milk is of the greatest possible value, especially if it be that of women; asses milk is next to be preferred, and then that of goats. The milk ought to be imbibed direct from the udder; but should this be impossible, then take a salver, which has been washed in hot water, and allow it to stand over another full of hot water; then let the animal be milked into the salver and the milk immediately preferred, for it very quickly turns bad. If it be feared that this has occurred, boil the milk over the fire, add a pinch of salt or honey to it, and let this be absorbed; or drop into the milk either heated stones taken from the river, or a red hot iron. Moreover, wine should not be drunk during the whole period in which the milk remains in the stomach, for the wine causes the milk to coagulate, and this changes it into the nature of a poison. John of Mirfield: Breviarium Bartholomei (c.1380). Note that cure B1 (for kidney stones) is copied from John of Gaddesden, who himself had copied it from the French physician, Arnold de Villanova (13th century).	Consider: 1. What evidence can you see in the passages to suggest the writer believed in the Theory of the Four Humours? 2. What other ideas did he use in his prescriptions?
Source C Let their food be such as reduces heat; soup of yellow lentils, broth seasoned with the juice of unripe grapes and minced meat, kids foot jelly ... Their drink, should be water cooled with snow, or pure spring water cold ... In the middle of the day let the patient wash himself in cold water ... As soon as the symptoms of the smallpox appear, drop rose water in the eyes from time to time ... The patient should gargle his mouth with acid pomegranate juice.... from the Treatise on Smallpox and Measles, written by Rhazes the famous Persian Muslim physician (9th century). Rhazes also suggested a medicine "which stops the boiling of the blood and is useful against heat and inflammation" made out of ingredients such as red roses, lentils and other herbs thought by medieval physicians to be 'cold' and 'dry'.	Consider: Explain Rhazes' treatment of smallpox. Compare it to John of Gaddesden's treatment of smallpox.
Source D [To avoid the plague] avoid too much eating and drinking and avoid baths which open the pores, for the pores are doorways through which poisonous air can enter the body. In cold or rainy weather, light fires in your room. In foggy or windy weather, inhale perfumes every morning before leaving home. If the plague arrives during hot weather, eat cold things rather than hot and drink more than you eat. Be sparing with hot substances such as pepper, garlic, onions and everything else that generates excessive heat and instead use cucumbers, fennel and spinach. John of Burgundy, the author of De pestilentia, one of the first books about the Black Death (1365).	Consider: Explain the different aspects of John of Burgundy's advice on how to avoid the plague in terms of the Theory of the Four Humours.
Source E Baths are one of the marvels of this world, for they are arranged after the four seasons of the year; for cold corresponds to winter, lukewarm to spring, hot to summer, dry to autumn. It is very wise to devote four rooms in baths accordingly. The first is cold, the second lukewarm. The third hot, the fourth dry. And when a man first enters the bath, he should spend a little time in the first, and after [enter] the second. And there, dwell a little. And then [enter] the third one, and there, dwell a little. And then enter the fourth and do in the same manner. And when he wants to leave, he should keep [doing this] in the same manner, dwelling a little in each room, so that he does not go from a great heat to a great cold, or from overly great cold to overly great heat…. And therein he should use appropriate fragrances according to the time [of the year], a paste must be mixed with in three or four parts in spring and summer, and in two parts in autumn and winter. Subsequently, let him sit, let him soak in water of roses and wipe him with a clean towel of linen once and a second time. And when all this has been done and he is deliciously washed, let him go to the other rooms, and use the following teachings and ointments. If he is not overcome by heat, comb his head, using the cleansing ointment appropriate to the time [of the year]; for in spring and in summer he should use an ointment made of myrrh…. And after this, he should wash his body and rub it with water, until he is well-washed and clean. After, anoint his body with ointments appropriate to the time…. If he is thirsty, he should drink rose syrup and an electuary with musk, and after, reach out his arms a little. And a little after take his meal, which must be prepare for him, in peace, and drink goo wine mixed with water, such as he is accustomed to drink. This is the order to heal and nourish the body. And he that is old, or cold and moist should not dwell in the bath for a long time. Nonetheless, he shall sit therein, until his body is moist from the bath; the phlegmatic man should enter the bath fasting and be anointed with ointments. And he that is of the hot kind should keep in mind these teachings. From the Secreta Secretorum (Secret of Secrets). A 10th century Arab text, translated into Latin and English in the 12th Century, it became a ‘best-seller’.	Consider: 1. Find the the passage as many ideas as you can that the writer owed to the Theory of the Four Humours. Explain your suggestions. 2. What evidence is there that he believed in the use of natural substances?
Source F A Cure for Toothache When the gospel for Sunday is read in the mass, let the man hearing mass sign his tooth and his head with the sign of the Holy Cross and say a Peter Noster and an Ave… It will keep them from pain in the future and will cure that which may be present, so say trustworthy physicians. A remedy of John of Gaddesden for toothaache, in Rosa Anglica (1304-7). The Pater Noster ('Our Father') and Ave Maria ('Hail Mary') are prayers still said by Catholics today. You can read some other of Gaddesden's cures for toothache here.	Consider: Explain the different aspects of John of Burgundy's advice on how to avoid the plague in terms of the Theory of the Four Humours.
Source G An illustration of Medieval dentistry from an illustrated manuscript (c.1360). Tooth decay was attributed to "tooth worms" burrowing into the teeth.
Source H A medieval manuscript illumination from Omne Bonum (an encyclopaedia), by James le Palmer, a Clerk to the Royal Exchequer, showing a Bishop blessing priests with leprosy (c. 1375).
Source I A 14th century ilustration of a doctor administering medicine froma gilded container, flanked by his apothecaries. Suggest the significance of the gilded (ie covered with gold leaf) container.	Consider: Study Sources A-I and discuss what they reveal about medieval treatments. Match each of the images with a written text from Sources A-F; explain your choices. How does the image support the text?