Ideas about the cause of disease before 1350

Ideas about the cause of disease before 1350

1. God or the Devil

   • Christians: God sent illness such as Black Death
     • Punishment for sins
   • Anglo saxons: Elves and Spirits (Devil's helpers)
     • Shot invisible arrows (elf-shot) to cause everyday illnesses like headaches

2. The Four Humours

   • Physicians follows theories of Hippocrates and Galen
     • Illness caused by an imbalance of the four humours- Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile, Black Bile
       • Medical training was based around Greek books like ones by Galen
         • People respected Physicians as they were trained, so their beliefs about the four humours was respected

3. Common Sense

   • Miasma- the belief that bad air and dirt caused disease
     • Earthquakes effected the air
     • Worms called illness
   • People linked dirt in the streets with the bad air but couldnt work out why

4. Desperate Explanations

   • Black Death killed millions- people had weird explanations
     • Blames the outrageous fashions
     • 1361- many children killed by plague
       • Churchmen said God was punishing children for not respecting their parents
     • Minority groups blamed
       • Jews poisoned water supply
       • In some places Jews were burned