Medieval

a common saying among Society today. We do not stop to think of how it reflects

our outlook of Medicine in our lives. We have come to understand the value of

simple practices in order to keep ourselves healthy. This is not, however, the

case of Medieval England. Most 'medical practices' of the time were based upon

superstition, ancient texts, myth, or the direction of the church. Medical

practices of Medieval England often based upon nothing more than superstition

proved unbeneficial if not harmful to the people of England.

Part of the obvious problem was the fact that the common person had

little care or sense for improving their own health. The life and livelihood of

an average person was less than desirable even from the time of birth.

In the villages chronic inbreeding must have produced many children who

started life with a built in weakness, either mental or physical. Many would

die in childhood, but others who grew into manhood, might drag out a useless

existance, dependent on charity for their sustenance. In general, infant

mortality was extremely heavy....Once the child was free to crawl about

. . .
Most of these had no scientific basis and were instead rooted in

superstition and/or the church. The earlier one shows the

physician cauterizing a shorn head, while an attendant in a room below is

heating a relay of instruments in a furnace.

In summary of medical practice to the end of 1400, it may be said

medicine was practiced mostly by the clerics in monasteries and the laity whose

locus of operation was the apothecary shop.

The problem is furthered by the fact that these 'practices' proved of

little benefit.

Lepers, cripples, and the blind were not uncommon in Medieval England. It was here

that the medieval superstition reigned supreme.

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**Bibliography**

. It is hard to

imagine that anyone could see any benefit to the practices of the time.

More is written of this, "Two of the manuscripts show the doctor in his drug

store, instructing his apprentice in the compounding of medicines. "

It should be clear that the health conditions for people in England of this time

would be so unbearable that it would not be desirable by anybody. "Provision for lepers,

who were the outcasts of society, was the motive for the foundation of many of

the earliest hospitals, which were intended not for the cure of the sick but as

refuge for the incurable and the dying.

Common topics in this essay:
Monks Monasteries, Medieval England, Hospitals Provision, England Cripples, medieval england, tokeieff 120, people england, carried title, based superstition,

Approximate Word count = 819
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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