The Basis of Medicine and State of It in the Elizabethan Era Essay Example

like Giovanni Boccaccio an Italian writer, in which in one his observations of the plague claims that the sores are a able to be “popped” and that would lead to recovery. Misinformation and mistreatment of the plague almost killed as many people as the plague it did. Some historians claim to say that the Black Death helped the lucky who survived the outbreak.

Galen or his proper name Γαληνός which is similar in meaning to calm. Born in September, 129 CE, he grew up in the city of Pergamon now in modern day Turkey. His father had a vision that the god Asclepius, which is the ancient Greek god of medicine told him to have his son study medicine. In 162 CE, he moved to Rome and started his career as a doctor. When he was a doctor, he helps evolve the idea of the four humors. In an oversimplified version the four “humors” are a concept that the body contains four humors or bodily fluids which are black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Doctors at the time thought these needed to “balanced” and they would perform horrible treatments to balance this. Soon after the Elizabethan Era these ideas were less supported and not taken seriously as of discoveries of William Harvey. Just to clarify the four humors referenced in this paper are Roman and Greek and not Islamists as they are different concepts.

The Elizabethan Era was a very interesting time for medicine as it saw the transition from medical conspiracy to some basics that we use today. One very well-known treatment is called bloodletting in which the patient is cut at the wrists to

drain the “bad blood”. Sometimes, depending on the prognosis the doctor attached leeches to drain the blood instead. In order to quarantine the plague doctors would mark a red cross on dwellings to keep infection rates low. This came to an end during the Scientific Revolution in which how we understood and practiced science was changed. This is when we learned about arteries, veins, and cells which made medicine more rational compared to today.

Disease was thought to spread through smell and so smelling herbs and certain remedies would help prevent getting infected. Doctors of the time were dressed based on a design by Charles de L’Orme. The outfit consisted of a waxed trench coat and birdlike mask with glass eye openings. The nose portion of the mask was stuffed with herbs so not to get infected. They would carry a pole or stick to keep order or examine patients who were infected. In some cities they could not recruit real doctors and so had to hire people off the streets. These plagues doctors were extremely valuable to cities as many only had around 10. Treatments and doctors of the time may have seemed brutal, but in my opinion they were doing the best they could with the knowledge they had at the time.

This report simplifies many aspects of early medicine of the Elizabethan Era and would help the average reader. For instance, I used doctor, but they were commonly referred to physicians. Elizabethan England medicine was based on previous records and theory which is why this report contains Galen and the Black Death. In summary the time of Elizabethan England was an interesting time for

medicine, which helped the tinkering by Galen and other Greek and Roman medical theory.