Feudal Medicine

1. Feudal Medicine

2. Introduction Today, you will be learning a bit about feudal medicine. Some of the stuff that you will learn today, are the beliefs that doctors used, and a lot about a disease called plagues that was very common in the feudal times.

3. Any time that they got a disease, they ate snake skins which they believed cured anything. Medicine When they had to clean their wounds, they would clean them with vinegar instead of water because their water was too dirty. They also believed that vinegar would kill the disease in the wound. (vinegar was like a replacement for water) The ingredients that they used most in medicines were herbs and spices. If there were no herbs or spices in the medicine, there would be a 90% chance that the medicine wouldn’t work. They also used small animal parts and animal fluids for medicine.

4. Medicine Continued Tobacco was often used for medicine for several diseases. They also gathered cocoa leaves that were dried, and mixed them with lime, and then chewed like tobacco. Cocaine was extracted from the leaves of a cocoa plant and used to ease pain. This was used in surgical operations performed on people injured in battle. They created a drink called yaje made from the stem and bark of a vine. They used this to ease pain.

5. Medicine Continued Black Death was treated by applying a chunk of butter, onion, and garlic onto the swelling area. Other remedies that they tried was using tobacco, arsenic, lily root, and dried toad. Headaches were treated with sweet – smelling herbs, such as rose, lavender, sage, and bay. Lung problems were treated with medicine made from liquorice and comfrey. Stomach pains were treated with wormwood, mints and balm.

6. Plagues Plagues is a disease that was very common in the feudal times. It caused a very high fever and pain full black welts. Nobody found a cure for plagues. Four years after the disease was discovered, it destroyed a third of the population. Half of the people who got Plagues died, which is why they called it the Black Death. They also called it the Great Montality, The Pestilence, and The Pest. If an infected flea jumped onto a rodent, and the rodent bit a human, it would inject thousands of plague bacteria into the human’s body. The bacteria travels through the bodies lymph system to nodes in armpits, taking away the human cells.

7. Plagues Continued Physicians wore special outfits when they had patients with Plagues. They wore a beak to take awaythe stench ofdying patients by putting avinegarsoaked cloth inside. Their way of trying to cure patients with Plagues was to bleed them to death.

8. Whooping cough- the father of the family should place the head of a sick child into a hole of a meadow for a few minutes at dusk. No other family member should be present at this time. Beliefs In the medieval times many people had believed different ways to cure different illnesses. Most of these beliefs were thought of by priests. Some beliefs were; Croup-make a mixture of garlic and oil from a pig's feet, rub it onto the patients feet. Sometimes they would use skunk oil if it was available. Apply leaches to the top of the body. Cold- mix together goose grease and turpentine. Rub a large amount of it onto the patients chest. Scarlet fever- put a piece of a saffron in an onion and bake the onion until it is juicy. Feed the onion to the sick patient.

9. A smooth shafted, metal tipped drill was used to cut the patients head open to let the evil spirits out which they believed caused headaches and migraines they also believed that spirits caused bad behaviour. Beliefs Continued Many people made up songs and rhymes to help them feel better, or they had something that they called there lucky charm that would help them get better. When you got a tooth ache back then they had to, put a candle in your mouth by the tooth that was hurting, they believed that the worms that caused the tooth ache would fall out of the tooth, and the patient would swallow the worm. They also believed that the planets going out of line was one of the reasons that people were getting sick and ill.