The Middle Ages took a holistic approach to medicine that involved first evaluating and, if necessary, eliminating any contributing extrinsic factors – from lack of sleep to lack of religious righteousness. The rule of the Christian Church in England and an ignorance around classical medicine, up until the Enlightenment, meant that new methods of healing were dominated by observation and schools of thought, rather than dissection and practical logic. Superstition took precedence, where studiers of astrology were also a kind of physician that the sick could go to for a cosmic explanation of their woes. Some sought relief in lapidary medicine – a practice reliant upon the power of gemstones, not unlike the use of crystals by many today.

 

The initial teachings of Greek thinkers, Hippocrates and Galen, monopolised medical practice in the Middle Ages. Their findings, obtained from animal dissection, established a basic understanding of anatomy and blood-circulation, a subject otherwise limited by the Church’s disapproval of human dissection and autopsy. Hippocrates’ theory of the four humours – black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm – and the role of astrology in medicine were significant all throughout the Middle Ages up until Andreas Vesalius’ breakthrough in human dissection in the mid-16th century, initially only permitted on the corpses of executed prisoners.

 

Galen’s theory of the naturals and non-naturals promoted a compartmental, logical approach to maintaining personal health. The non-naturals, including your environment, the air, mood, and behaviour you assume day to day, are to be managed in order to balance the res naturales: your overall body composition. This led to published literature on how a mediaeval person could manage and balance the elements of their life in order to prevent becoming sick, not just advising on diet and exercise, but also on moral behaviour.

 

Arnau of Vilanova was a prominent European physician in the early 14th century who reiterated Hippocrates’ famous aphorism, “life is short, art is truly long; the time is acute, experience treacherous, and judgement difficult”, and applied this progressive attitude to his teachings. In his own words, he analogises that ‘the physician’s role regarding a course of treatment is like a sailors’…for the sailor has to alter the sails and other things as the winds change; the physician has to modify his tools and practices in accordance with the changes and variation in the illness as well as in the dispositions of the air and the other circumstances by which the body is affected’. This quote encapsulates the holistic approach to medicine at the time – how, like a sailor, the physician is adapting their treatment based on unpredictable factors, such as the ‘wind’, and therefore calls upon constant adaptability.

 

Like today, one could consult a number of different sources for treatment, given they had the means. However, without a unifying guild or government support, these parties were lacking in accountability and a set standard, often incorporating supernatural elements and speculation in their approaches. For example, barber-surgeons who, without concrete qualification, were able to perform surgery and amputations as well as cut hair. The use of a hot-iron rod to cauterise the wounds after these extreme surgeries was common practice, while the natural herbal remedies of the Ancient Greek world were left undistributed and neglected. Instead, apothecaries were a good bet for natural remedies, where plant-based cures were less ominous than the blood-letting sessions that were meant to rebalance the four humours.

 

We can understand the appeal of ditching prescription drugs for Chinese medicine centres and holistic doctors. Perhaps out of sheer necessity, citizens of the Middle Ages relied on either natural or spiritual means of overcoming various poorly understood illnesses. However, it is undeniable how incredible the progress of pharmacology, driven by the Enlightenment’s ideas of reasoning and rational scepticism, has been. We live in a society working to extend and improve the quality of life for everyone with the ability to access healthcare, with new medications regularly treating previously incurable diseases.

 

Though the importance of the NHS and its accessibility cannot be underestimated, we can take from a much earlier time a sense of value for the natural remedies that still remain effective against many, at least minor, ailments today. We may find equally limitless potential in these remedies when integrated into our daily healthcare routines, while leaving the more barbaric practices in the past. 

References

Furdell, E.L. (2005) Textual Healing: Essays on Medieval and Early Modern Medicine. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought, Vol 110. Leiden, Massachusetts : Brill Publishing.

Published 28-04-2023

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