Richards said:
"Steve Martin's medieval doctor on SNL" - that would be Theodorus of York, Medieval Doctor.
Theodorick of York, Medieval Barber, actually (Since 'barbers' pulled teeth, removed warts, lanced boils, etc).
Black Plague: Re: Killing the cats - of course, the cats killed rats. Without cats, the rats had a huge population explosion, which carried fleas into far more homes than before, leading to many more deaths than would probably have occurred. Also see an excellent book:
Rats, Lice and History, on how plagues and epidemics chaged the course of history. (We actually owe a great deal to the Black Death, since it put the nail in the coffin of the Medieval class system).
Other strange beleifs:
Herbalism
Yes, people used herbal remedies, mainly because things that grew out of the ground were
the only things they had to use. When you have a tooth running green pus, you'll try damn near anything. It was totally trial and error, and most modern visions of the 'the old wise woman herbalist' are total crap. Yes, they'd have the occassional success but most people simply got better on their own often in spite of treatments such as blistering, dowsing or bleeding; most of the benificial chemicals found in most herbs (such as salacylic acid in willowbark) are found in such small amounts that they do most people no good and are often prepared incorrectly. Poltices to draw out poisons were probably the most effective thing they ever did, and the heat and moisture did most of that work regardless of what was used. The 'herbalist' also used urine, animal dung or soil in treatments. The modern herbal treatments that do work do so because we understand about dosages, concentrating, distilling, testing for allergic reactions (how many must that have killed!), proper preparation and sterilization.
Some plant-derived substances, such as opium (pain relief, esp. during attempted surgery, was a major roadblock in the development of medicine), did have the effect wanted but since there was little room for error and no way to check for tolerances, often these substances did as much harm as good
Spontaneous Generation: the belief that life forms arise spontaneously from non-living matter (particularly decaying matter). I observe meat as it rots and lo and behold! Many times, usually in the summer or spring, writhing maggots will arise from nowhere! Obviously decaying meat produces maggots by some process yet to be understood!
'a seventeenth century recipe for the spontaneous production of mice required placing sweaty underwear and husks of wheat in an open-mouthed jar, then waiting for about 21 days, during which time it was alleged that the sweat from the underwear would penetrate the husks of wheat, changing them into mice.'
The Slow Death of Spontaneous Generation (1668-1859)
Even after the discovery of microorganisms and the microscope, and the discovery that boiling killed microorganisms, this belief persisted until Pasteur finally disproved it. In 1859.
Signs and Portents
"When [the healer] approaches the house where the sick person lies, if [the healer] finds a stone lying nearby, [he turns] the stone over and looks in the place where the stone was lying [to see] if there anything living under it, and if [the healer] finds there a worm or a fly or an ant or anything that moves, they [the healer] avers that the sick person will recover." (From
The Corrector & Physician).
Dissection: the Church banned the practice of medical dissection in 1300 because they beleived it would keep the person from going to heaven. This kept medical understanding at a standstill for quite a long time, even though the Church in general encouraged learning. The Monestaries were one of the few places to get good medical treatment because the monks could
read and had access to many books on medicines.
Arabic medicice was far more advanced than Western European practices, and they maintained excellent medical schools in Salerno and Cairo; but few doctors would employ it for fear of being accused of heresy. Only in the 1500's, as the influence of the Church began to wane, did these practices re-enter the West.
However in 1163, Pope Alexander III forbade monks and other regular clerics to leave their religious institutions for the study of medicine. In 1215, surgery was prohibited in holy orders (major orders - subdeacons, deacons, and priests) but still permitted in minor orders (porters, exorcists, and lectors).
Hand-Washing and Antiseptics
In the 13th century, Hugh of Lucca and Theoderic discovered that wine had mild antiseptic qualities though of course they didn't know why. Filth and dirt killed most patients that died, by intrducing infection and fever. It wasn't until the late 18th and early 19th centuries that caregivers began washing their hands and using antiseptic substances. Even as late as 1850, when Ignaz Semmelweis tried to link materity-ward puerperal fever with poor antiseptic policy, he was ignored by a medical community still enamoured of the 'humours' approach, and unwilling to think they had been complicent in tens of thousands of deaths. 'It was also argued that even if his findings were correct, washing one's hands each time before treating a pregnant woman, as Semmelweis advised, would be
too much work.' [Emphasis mine].
Antiseptic Principle Of The Practice Of Surgery, 1867 by Joseph Lister is a groundbreaking paper on the spread of disease. Note the date.
Ironically, the Romans first made the connection between cleanliness and the spread of disease. When people bathed regularly, they had fewer instances of disease; access to fresh clean water helped as well. After the collapse and the loss of so much knowledge, the idea of public bathing and 'Ancient Rome' in general aquirred such a taint in the Western Mind that it took almost a thousand years for the practice of regular bathing to re-enter the Western mindset.
General and Willfull Ignorance
Opposition to Jenner and his smallpox vaccination 1796 - because doctors feared that they would lose money. The public at large also feared that by being injected with cowpox
they would develop the features of cows.
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