GCSE History: Hippocrates, Galen & the Christian Church | Why did Medicine stand still? (2018)

hello and welcome sir lessons in history the yellow today is why do medicines stand still for so long today we will be looking at how Hippocrates and Galen zai Diaz influenced Western medical thinking for well over a thousand years Arab doctors will be shown to have kept knowledge alive well after the collapse of the Roman Empire we will show how the Christian Church both helped and hindered medical progress however when the Black Death arrives not even the power of prayer could help time stamps are in the video so feel free to jump to the topic that you find most tricky Hippocrates and the father of modern medicine our course starts with a man named Hippocrates he was born and lived on the Greek island of Kos around 400 BC at the time the typical treatment for those that were ill would be that prescribed by a shaman or a witch doctor typically this included the practice of trepanning or drilling holes into people's heads for things such as migraines and seizures as a way of removing the evil spirit that was obviously causing these issues belief was based highly on superstition Hippocrates wasn't happy about this and began to look for a more rational and scientific explanation for both treatment and cause of disease he developed what became known as the theory of the four humors this theory will be the dominant explanation for cause of disease for well over 1,500 years with humor ISM Hippocrates stated that the body was made up of four liquids replaced the word humor for liquid these were phlegm bird yellow bile and black bile a quick way to remember this peanut butter yellow babies if these liquids were imbalanced or you had too much of one then you would be sick and equally if these liquids were balanced or in the right amount then you would be healthy each humor had its own special quality such as been linked to the classical elements but also to a particular part of the body and even season of the year blood was associate with their the liver spring warmth and moisture so for example if blood as a Schumer became excessive the illness was likely to be warm and moist in character with symptoms such as redness swelling rapid pulse and breathing the typical profile of a fever due to infection let's be very clear for humor theory is what people believed in addition to God to be the cause of illness for such a long period of time therefore any treatments would be focused on rebalancing the humor or liquid this is probably why you are so familiar with hearing about leeches being used to drain blood bloodletting was one of the most common treatments in Europe Hippocrates wrote around 60 books and stressed the importance of observation and that dr. should record symptoms he also stressed the importance of diet and rest in the recovery of a patient Hippocrates is regarded as the father of modern medicine with doctors around the world taking the Hippocratic oath Gailen if there was an award for the deepest and most enduring influence over Western medicine then Galen perhaps with Hippocrates would head the shortlist Galen's key contribution came having worked as a gladiator surgeon in Rome around 150 AD Galen studied medicine at the famous Alexandria library in Egypt before moving to Rome he developed the ideas put down by Hippocrates and came up with the treatment or theory of opposites the idea was that if you had too much phlegm water element then you needed something hot and dry to bring this humor back into balance Galen encouraged dissection wherever possible as a way of learning he famously performed dissections on apes and dogs but his most famous experiments would be that on a live pig wanting to show others about the role of nerves this experiments of vivisection proved that it was the brain and not the heart as was believed that controls speech whilst Galen wrote many books because he was limited to dissecting animals some of his ideas were incorrect he wrote that the left kidney was lower than that of the right correct for an ape but not a human finally and what's vital he believed that the human body was perfectly designed with things working so well in unison that there must be a creator as we will shortly see Galen's ideas were adopted by the Christian Church and held up as the pinnacle of human medical knowledge for hundreds of years Arab medicine from the fifth century the Western Roman Empire was in decay societies become to become more disorganized and written works including historical records and teachings of Hippocrates and Galen became scarce ax and more sporadic Europe was drifting into the so-called Dark Ages in contrast in the Middle East from the eighth century Islam or she'd in a Golden Age dominating in the fields of health and medicine were the works of reyes and ever sinner also known as Avicenna these Muslim writers played a very important role in saving much of the lost knowledge they translated the works of ancient Greeks and Romans into Arabic which was eventually passed back to Western Europe avicennia was one of the most celebrated philosophers and physicians in the early Islamic empire he wrote many texts on a wide range of subjects 40 of his medical texts have survived the most famous being the book of healing and the Canon of Medicine the latter is one of the most significant books in the history of medicine it was printed in Europe at least 60 times between 15 16 and 15 74 the Canon remained a major Authority for medical students in both the Islamic and Christian world well until the 1700s another hour of dr. Reyes who lived from around 860 ad group the first authentic description of the symptoms of smallpox from their establishment in 900 AD Islamic hospitals were sites of medical education as well as healing the most famous hospitals included those in Baghdad Damascus and Cairo they contained lecture rooms pharmacies and libraries as important as reading and mastering text in the Islamic tradition was instruction many students receive practical training in hospitals some even observe patients of bedside cleanliness was encouraged and hospitals were often centered around fountains and cooling breezes circulated around walls Christian Church control with the collapse of the Roman Empire the Christian Church took control filling the power void the church was the way in which the illiterate masses of Europe would interact with God after all the printing press had not yet been invented and the Word of God was typically spread via priests in small communities religion played a huge part in most people's lives so it was not surprising that people thought that God had a part to play in the spread of disease if someone was sinful then a difficult disease was God's Way of punishing them for their sins the church therefore encouraged people to pray for deliverance from illness over 700 hospitals were set up by the church in England between the Year 1000 and the Year 1500 as after all it was central to being a good Christian and many of these were attached to monasteries and whilst the very sick were turned away these were certainly places anybody could go a nice phrase to use would be to say that these hospitals run by monks and nuns with the power of prayer and comfort tended to care for rather than cure the sick the church also sets up medical schools spreading the works of Galen in these medical schools for humor theory would be taught students would be instructed and told about the body using gheylens works rather than exploring for themselves limiting medical progress the church made it extremely difficult to dissect human bodies so students could not see for themselves the mistakes Galen made these mistakes as a result would be passed on from generation to generation thus perpetuating and spreading Galen's ideas the church's insistence on using Galen and his works widely limited the progress in understanding the workings of the human body scientists who try to insist on the scientific method and individual exploration of the subject often run into conflict with the church in 1277 Roger Bacon was arrested for encouraging doctors to perform their own investigations it is fair to say that the Christian Church both helped in terms of monasteries hospitals caring for the sick and hindered medical progress it is easy to look back to say that limiting human dissections are not allowing galen's works to be challenged was an issue but the church did provide refuge for the poor and places of learning via medical schools it is therefore up to you do you think the church helped or hindered medical progress Public Health is the health and well-being of the population as a whole in the Middle Ages public health was poor by modern standards but hygiene levels were rising in some places water was obviously a key component for any society medieval towns took water from local springs wells or rivers some of the Roman sewers survived and still work well however as towns grew systems could not always cope with the increased demand for water and rivers were often used to remove sewage this making it even more difficult to find fresh water towns were much dirtier than the countryside there were only a few paved streets and cesspits a holding tank for poo and waste would spill onto the streets there were some examples of privies or outside toilets being built but as the mand increased so did the stench butchers brought live animals into town to slaughter leaving them with the problem of how to get rid of the waste there were no dos pins or rubbish collectors to remove waste so it just accumulated in the streets until it rained and washed away with all of this waste in plain sight rats were attracted and in 1348 tragedy struck the Black Death until recently most historians thought that the Black Death outbreak to hit Europe in 1348 wiped out only a third of the population more recent studies and information suggests that this was closer to half of the population half of Europe died as a result of the outbreak in 1348 let's get this out of the way sharpish at no point in your exam should you be mentioning rats and fleas while so we now know how the disease was spread questions in your exam will only talk in terms of impact or what people thought caused the disease at the time if you are ranting rats and fleas please bring it back to what they thought was the cause and in short they had no clue it was in fact one of the rare times that the Christian Church allowed human dissection because it was that confused we can break the black death of 1348 into causes and treatments and further subdivide each into natural and supernatural explanations as you might have guessed the imbalance in humors was one of the first things that was tried but bloodletting didn't seem to be going anywhere so people started to look to blame individuals Jews were targeted for their supposed involvement in the death of Christ and had always been seen as shifty or untrustworthy members of society a rumor was spread that they had poisoned Wells and a famous image in Frankfurt Germany shows Jews being burned alive believing that they were the cause even more extreme were a group called the flagellants some devout Christians roamed the land believing that God had sent this pestilence as a punishment as such the flagellants would flog or hid themselves to try and seek God's forgiveness the final supernatural explanation was the alignments of Venus Mars and Saturn the alignment of the planets or a belief in astrology was common where people derive meaning from the position of stars or celestial bodies just think of those people but still to this day believe in horoscopes obviously this wasn't scientific and was based entirely in superstition in terms of treatments older than flogging by flagellants bloodletting in accordance with for humor theory and the power of prayer there simply was no response now some wise women did pass on herbal remedies what any success would simply have been good fortune soon believing in the theory of miasma or bad smells causing disease led to people like the Pope sitting for three months surrounded by fire which was meant to purify the air in some the vast numbers that died and the limited ability by the Christian Church to respond led to a growing skepticism of the church by those that survived thanks for making it to the end I put some practice questions up should you wish to give these ago leave any questions you have in the comments if you're unsure of the content and what you would like to see next remember these videos are here for your benefit so if you liked the video you know what to do and if you didn't then tell me how to make them better do you think the Christian Church helped or hindered medical progress what was the significance of Galen Hippocrates on medicine I'd be curious to hear what you think thanks for watching lessons in history and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Lessons in History

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Keywords: Lessons in History, GCSE, History, Galen, hippocrates, 4 humours, middle ages, black death, aqa, edexcel, ocr

Id: bjCkPzJUsKw

Length: 15min 8sec (908 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 05 2018