Medieval Medicine- Public Health

Public Health

• Public Health= the health and well-being of the population as a whole

Towns and Cities

• People lived close together, making it easy for diseases to spread
• Clean water was in short supply as people put their waste in the same streams and rivers they drank from
• Butchers killed animals in the towns and cities and did not know how to clean the waste
• There were no bins or rubbish collectors to remove the waste from the streets
• Cesspits were built next to wells, allowing one to contaminate the other
• Cesspits were emptied infrequently
• Animals created waste on the streets
• There were no sewers
• Household waste was chucked into the streets and left to rot
• Shopkeepers tried to sell rotten food
• People were always unclean due to the lack of clean water

Monasteries

• often situated in isolated places, near rivers
• monasteries had pipes to deliver clean water to wash basins
• filtering systems cleaned water
• monasteries were rich due to donations in exchange for prayers
• they had toilets
• monks had religious routines of cleanliness
• monks were educated and disciplined
• they had access to medical books
• they had infirmaries

Practice Question

• Compare public health in a medieval town to a medieval monastery.
• In what ways were they different?
• Refer to both.
• [8 marks]