Education

Thanks to historical science, the myth that Europe experienced "dark times" of cultural decline in the Middle Ages has been completely debunked. This stereotypical understanding extended to all spheres of public life. Concepture explores how medicine was established in the Middle Ages.

A good knowledge of historical facts convinces us that the development of Western European civilization did not stop at all with the advent of the era, which is traditionally called the Middle Ages (V-XV centuries). The cultural figures of the medieval West, contrary to the established opinion, did not break the "connection of times", but adopted the experience of antiquity and the East and, as a result, contributed to the development of European society.

In the Middle Ages, the complex of astrological, alchemical and medical knowledge was one of the most important areas of scientific knowledge (along with physical-cosmological, optical, biological). That is why the medieval patient had at his disposal highly qualified doctors educated in medical schools and universities, and hospitals where they could receive care and treatment (including surgical operations).

The origin and development of the hospital business in the Early Middle Ages was largely influenced by the Christian idea of ​​charity, which was realized in caring for the old and sick members of society. Here, the goal was not yet pursued to treat ailments - the goal was to create more comfortable living conditions for the disadvantaged population.

This is how the first hospitals appeared (literally - a room for visitors), which were not hospitals in the modern sense, but were more like shelters for providing first aid to homeless patients. Often these were specially designated premises in cathedrals and monasteries.

The hospitals did not provide treatment, but simply looked after people. The growth of the population of cities led to the emergence of city hospitals, where care for spiritual health was already mated with care for physical health. City hospitals were similar to modern hospitals: they were common wards with beds on which the sick were accommodated.

The need for medical care led to the opening of special knightly orders with the function of medical care; for example, the Order of St. Lazarus was involved in the care of lepers, the number of which was quite large. Over time, medicine became a secular practice, and hospitals began to need more specialists. The training of personnel was carried out by medical schools.

To become a doctor, a medieval student had to first receive a spiritual or secular education, which consisted of the "seven liberal arts", which at one time were part of the system of ancient education. By the time of entering a medical school, it was necessary to master grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, mathematics, geometry, astronomy and music. Europe owes the emergence of higher schools to Italy, where in the 9th century the Salerno School of Medicine was already functioning and a group of not only practicing doctors, but also teaching the art of healing, worked.

Thanks to the activities of representatives of the school of the city of Salerno, European medicine combined the ancient and Arabic traditions of healing. It was the Salerno School that began to issue the first licenses to practice medicine. Education at this school lasted 9 years and consisted of a preparatory course, the study of medicine and medical practice. Students studied anatomy and surgery, honing their skills on animals and human cadavers.

Within the walls of the Salerno School, such famous treatises as “Surgery” by Roger of Salerno, “On the nature of the human seed” by Abella, “On female diseases” and “On the formulation of medicines” by Trotula, “Salerno Code of Health” by Arnold, the collective work “On the Treatment of Diseases” appeared. ". Of course, medieval physicians were well aware of the structure of the body, the symptoms of many diseases, the presence of four temperaments. From the 12th century, medical schools began to turn into universities.

A medieval university necessarily had a medical faculty in its structure. The Faculty of Medicine (along with the Faculty of Law and Theology) was one of the higher faculties, to which the student had the right to enter only after graduating from the preparatory faculty. Obtaining a master's degree in medicine was very difficult, and half of the applicants did not cope with this task (considering that there were not very many applicants anyway). The theory of medicine was taught to students for 7 years.

As a rule, the university did not depend on the Church, representing an autonomous organization with its own laws and special rights. First of all, this was reflected in the permission to perform an autopsy, which from a Christian point of view was a grave sin. However, the universities secured permission for dissection, which resulted in the opening of an anatomical theater in Padua in 1490, where the structure of the human body was demonstrated to visitors.

In medieval Europe, the term "medicine" was used in relation to internal diseases, the specifics of which were studied by medical students from the books of ancient and Arabic authors. These texts were considered canonical and were literally memorized by students.

The biggest disadvantage was, of course, the theoretical nature of medicine, which did not allow the application of knowledge in practice. However, in some universities in Europe, medical practice was an obligatory component of education. The educational process of such universities provoked the growth of hospitals, where students treated people as part of their practice.

Alchemical knowledge of Western European doctors served as an impetus for the development of pharmaceuticals, operating with a huge number of ingredients. Through alchemy, often referred to as pseudoscience, medicine has come to expand knowledge of the chemical processes needed to create effective medicines. Treatises appeared on the properties of plants, on poisons, etc.

Surgical practice during the Classical Middle Ages was largely limited to callus removal, bloodletting, wound healing, and other minor interventions, although there were examples of amputations and transplants. Surgery was not a major discipline in universities, it was taught directly in hospitals.

Then the surgeons, of whom there were few, united in a kind of workshop for conducting medical activities. The relevance of surgery later increased due to the translation of Arabic texts and numerous wars, leaving many people crippled. In this regard, amputations, the treatment of fractures, and the treatment of wounds began to be practiced.

One of the saddest pages in the history of medieval medicine, without a doubt, can be called terrible outbreaks of infectious diseases. At that time, medicine was not sufficiently developed to resist the plague and leprosy, although certain attempts were made: quarantine was introduced into practice, infirmaries and leper colonies were opened.

On the one hand, medieval medicine developed under difficult conditions (epidemics of plague, smallpox, leprosy, etc.), on the other hand, it was precisely these circumstances that contributed to revolutionary changes and the transition from medicine of the Middle Ages to Renaissance medicine.

In the Middle Ages, medicine developed slowly. There was practically no accumulation of new knowledge, therefore, those that were obtained in the days of Antiquity were actively used. However, it was in the Middle Ages that the first hospitals appeared, as well as increased interest in a number of diseases that served as the causes of epidemics.

Medicine and religion

The Christian religion was actively developing, so all processes were explained by divine intervention. Treatment was replaced by magical and religious rites. There was a cult of saints. Many pilgrims carrying gifts flocked to the burial places. There were saints who were considered protectors from certain diseases.

Amulets and amulets were very popular. It was believed that they are able to protect against diseases and troubles. Amulets with Christian symbols were widespread: crosses, lines from prayers, names of guardian angels, etc. There was faith in the healing effect of baptism and communion. There was no such disease against which there would be no special prayer, spell or blessing.

medieval doctors

A developed industry was practical medicine, which was mainly dealt with by barbers. Their duties included: bloodletting, repositioning of joints, amputation of limbs and a number of other procedures. Bath attendants-barbers at that time did not enjoy respect in society. This was due to the fact that among the common people their image was certainly associated with illness and sewage.

Only in the late Middle Ages did the authority of doctors begin to grow. In this regard, the requirements for their skills have also increased. The bathhouse barber, before practicing, had to undergo an eight-year training, and then pass an exam in the presence of the oldest representatives of the profession, doctors of medicine and one of the members of the city council. In a number of European cities, surgeons' workshops were later separated from among the barbers-attendants.

medicinal plants

A large number of plants and herbs were known. But even their collection was certainly combined with religious and magical rites. For example, many plants were collected at a certain time and in a certain place, and the process was accompanied by rituals and prayers. Often it was timed to coincide with certain Christian holidays. A number of food products were also considered healing - water, salt, bread, honey, milk, Easter eggs.

medieval hospitals

In the Early Middle Ages, the first hospitals appeared. At first they were organized at churches and monasteries. These hospitals were originally intended for the poor, the wanderers and the destitute. The monks did the healing.

In the late Middle Ages, wealthy townspeople began to open hospitals. Later, local authorities also became involved in this process. Burghers and those who made a special contribution had the right to apply to such hospitals.

Medieval epidemics

Since the Middle Ages were an era of wars and crusades, epidemics often raged in the devastated territories. The most common diseases were bubonic plague, leprosy (leprosy), syphilis, tuberculosis, smallpox, typhoid, and dysentery. Far more people died from these infections in the Middle Ages than from wars.

In addition to the listed diseases, diseases of the nervous system and various deformities were quite common pathology. According to the Christian religion, all of the listed diseases were nothing more than a punishment to humanity for the sins committed.

It is no secret that in the Middle Ages, doctors had a very poor understanding of the anatomy of the human body, and patients had to endure terrible pain. After all, little was known about painkillers and antiseptics. In a word, not the best time to become a patient, but... if you value your life, the choice was not great...

1. Surgery: unhygienic, gross and terribly painful.

To relieve the pain, you would have to do something even more painful to yourself and, if you are lucky, you will get better. Surgeons in the early Middle Ages were monks, because they had access to the best medical literature at that time - most often written by Arab scientists. But in 1215 the pope forbade monastics to practice medicine. The monks had to teach the peasants to perform not particularly complex operations on their own. Farmers whose knowledge of practical medicine had previously been limited to the castration of domestic animals had to learn how to perform a bunch of different operations - from pulling out diseased teeth to cataract surgery of the eyes.

But there was also success. Archaeologists at excavations in England discovered the skull of a peasant, dated to around 1100. And apparently its owner was hit by something heavy and sharp. A closer examination revealed that the peasant had undergone an operation that saved his life. He underwent trepanation - an operation when a hole is drilled in the skull and fragments of the skull are taken out through it. As a result, the pressure on the brain weakened and the man survived. One can only imagine how much it hurt!

2. Belladonna: strong painkillers with a possible fatal outcome.

In the Middle Ages, surgery was resorted to only in the most neglected situations - under the knife or death. One of the reasons for this is that there was simply no truly reliable pain reliever that could relieve the excruciating pain from the harsh cutting and chopping procedures. Of course, you could get some incomprehensible potions that relieve pain or put you to sleep during the operation, but who knows what an unfamiliar drug dealer will slip you ... Such potions were most often a concoction of the juice of various herbs, bile of a castrated boar, opium, whitewash, juice hemlock and vinegar. This "cocktail" was mixed into wine before being given to the patient.

Medieval English had a word for painkillers called "dwale" (pronounced dwaluh). The word means belladonna.

The hemlock juice itself could easily be fatal. The "painkiller" could put the patient into a deep sleep, allowing the surgeon to do his job. If they go too far, the patient could even stop breathing.

Paracelsus, a Swiss physician, was the first to think of using ether as an anesthetic. However, ether was not widely accepted and used infrequently. It began to be used again 300 years later in America. Paracelsus also used laudanum, a tincture of opium, to relieve pain. (Photo by pubmedcentral: Belladonna is an old English pain reliever)

3. Witchcraft: Pagan rituals and religious penance as a form of healing.

Early Medieval medicine was most often a mixture of paganism, religion, and the fruits of science. Since the church has gained more power, performing pagan "rituals" has become a punishable crime. Such punishable crimes may have included the following:

“If the healer, approaching the house where the patient is lying, sees a nearby stone, turns it over, and if he [the healer] sees some living creature under it - be it a worm, an ant, or another creature, then the healer can confidently claim that the patient will recover. (From the book "The Corrector & Physician", English. "The Teacher and the Physician").

Patients who have ever been in contact with patients with bubonic plague were advised to conduct penance - which consisted in the fact that you confess all your sins and then say0 the prayer prescribed by the priest. By the way, this was the most popular way of "treatment". The sick were told that perhaps death would pass by if they correctly confessed all their sins.

4. Eye surgery: painful and threatens with blindness.

Cataract surgery in the Middle Ages usually involved some kind of particularly sharp instrument, such as a knife or a large needle, which was used to pierce the cornea and try to push the lens of the eye out of the resulting capsule and push it down to the bottom of the eye.

As soon as Muslim medicine became widespread in medieval Europe, the technique of performing cataract operations was improved. A syringe was now used to extract the cataract. The unwanted vision-clouding substance was simply sucked out by them. A hollow metal hypodermic syringe was inserted into the white part of the eye and the cataract was successfully removed by simply sucking it out.

5. Do you have difficulty urinating? Insert a metal catheter there!

Stagnation of urine in the bladder due to syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases can no doubt be called one of the most common diseases of the time when antibiotics simply did not exist. A urine catheter is a metal tube that is inserted through the urethra into the bladder. It was first used in the mid 1300s. When the tube failed to reach the target in order to remove the barrier to the emission of water, other procedures had to be devised, some of them very ingenious, but, most likely, all were quite painful, however, as well as the situation itself.

Here is a description of the treatment of kidney stones: “If you are going to remove kidney stones, then, first of all, make sure that you have everything: a person with not a hefty strength should be put on a bench, and his legs should be put on a chair; the patient should sit on his knees, his legs should be tied to the neck with a bandage or lie on the assistant's shoulders. The doctor should stand next to the patient and insert two fingers of the right hand into the anus, while pressing with the left hand on the patient's pubic area. As soon as the fingers reach the bubble from above, it will need to be felt all over. If your fingers feel for a hard, firmly seated ball, then this is a kidney stone ... If you want to remove a stone, then this should be preceded by a light diet and fasting for two days. On the third day, ... feel for the stone, push it to the neck of the bladder; there, at the entrance, put two fingers over the anus and make a longitudinal incision with an instrument, then remove the stone.

6. Surgeon on the battlefield: pulling out arrows is not for you to pick your nose ...

The longbow, a large and powerful weapon capable of sending arrows over great distances, gained a lot of fans in the Middle Ages. But this created a real problem for field surgeons: how to get an arrow out of the bodies of soldiers.

Combat arrowheads were not always glued to the shaft, more often they were attached with warm beeswax. When the wax hardened, the arrows could be used without problems, but after the shot, when it was necessary to pull the arrow, the shaft of the arrow was pulled out, and the tip often remained inside the body.

One solution to this problem is the arrow spoon, inspired by an Arab physician named Albucasis. The spoon was inserted into the wound and attached to the arrowhead so that it could be safely pulled out of the wound without causing damage, since the teeth of the tip were closed.

Wounds like this were also treated by cauterization, where a red-hot piece of iron was applied to the wound to cauterize tissue and blood vessels and prevent blood loss and infection. Cauterization was often used in amputations.

In the illustration above, you can see the engraving "Wounded Man", which was often used in various medical treatises to illustrate the kind of wounds that a field surgeon can see on the battlefield.

7. Bloodletting: a panacea for all diseases.

Medieval doctors believed that most human diseases are the result of excess fluid in the body (!). The treatment was to get rid of excess fluid by pumping a large amount of blood from the body. Two methods were commonly used for this procedure: hirudotherapy and opening a vein.

During hirudotherapy, a physician applied a leech, a blood-sucking worm, to the patient. It was believed that leeches should be placed in the place that worries the patient the most. The leeches were allowed to bleed until the patient began to faint.

Opening a vein is the direct cutting of a vein, usually on the inside of the arm, to release a decent amount of blood. For this procedure, a lancet was used - a thin knife about 1.27 cm long, piercing a vein and leaving a small wound. The blood dripped into a bowl, which was used to quantify the amount of blood received.

Monks in many monasteries often resorted to the procedure of bloodletting - moreover, regardless of whether they were sick or not. So to speak, for prevention. At the same time, they were released for several days from their usual duties for rehabilitation.

8. Childbearing: Women were told to prepare for your death.

Childbirth in the Middle Ages was considered such a lethal act that the Church advised pregnant women to prepare a shroud in advance and confess their sins in case of death.

Midwives were important to the Church because of their role in emergency baptisms and were regulated by Roman Catholic law. A popular medieval proverb says "The better the witch; the better the midwife". To protect against witchcraft, the Church required midwives to obtain a license from bishops and take an oath not to use magic at work during childbirth.

In situations where the baby is born in the wrong position and exit is difficult, midwives have had to turn the baby right in the womb or shake the bed to try to put the fetus in a more correct position. A dead baby that could not be removed was usually cut into pieces right in the uterus with sharp instruments and pulled out with a special tool. The remaining placenta was removed using a counterweight, which pulled it out by force.

9. Clyster: a medieval method of injecting drugs into the anus.

The klyster is a medieval version of the enema, an instrument for injecting fluid into the body through the anus. The clyster looks like a long metal tube with a cup-shaped top, through which the healer poured medicinal fluids. At the other end, narrow, several holes were made. With this end, this instrument was inserted into the causal place. The liquid was poured in, and to heighten the effect, an instrument resembling a piston was used to drive the drugs into the intestine.

The most popular liquid used in klyster was warm water. However, various mythical miracle potions were sometimes used, such as those made from the bile of a hungry boar or vinegar.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the medieval klyster was replaced by the more familiar enema pear. In France, such treatment has even become quite fashionable. King Louis XIV was given 2,000 enemas throughout his reign.

10. Hemorrhoids: We treat the agony of the anus with hardened iron.

Treatment of many illnesses in the Middle Ages often included prayers to patron saints in the hope of divine intervention. An Irish monk of the 7th century, Saint Fiacre was the patron saint of hemorrhoid sufferers. Due to gardening, he developed hemorrhoids, but one day, sitting on a stone, he was miraculously healed. The stone has survived to this day and is still visited by everyone seeking such healing. In the Middle Ages, this disease was often called the "Curse of St. Fiacre."
In especially severe cases of hemorrhoids, medieval healers used cauterization with hot metal for treatment. Others believed that the problem could be solved by pushing the hemorrhoids out with their nails. This method of treatment was proposed by the Greek physician Hippocrates.
The 12th century Jewish physician Moses of Egypt (also known as Maimomid and Rambam) wrote an entire treatise of 7 chapters on how to treat hemorrhoids. He does not agree that surgery should be used for treatment. Instead, he offers the most common method of treatment today - sitz baths.

"Dark Ages" - this is the definition given by many historians to the era of the Middle Ages in Europe. How well do we know the events connected with the political reality of this period? But many documents of that era are associated with propaganda or political intrigues, and therefore suffer from bias towards other realities of that time. Are we also well acquainted with other aspects of the life of this time?

How and under what conditions were people born? What diseases could a person of that period suffer from, how was treatment carried out, by what means was medical care provided? How advanced was medicine in that period? What did medieval medical instruments look like? When did hospitals and pharmacies appear? Where can you get medical education? These questions can be answered by studying the history of medicine in the Middle Ages, toxicology, epidemiology, and pharmacology. Consider the basic concepts that give an idea of ​​the subject of this article.

Term « the medicine » originated from the Latin word "medicari" - to prescribe a remedy.

Medicine is a practical activity and a system of scientific knowledge about the preservation and strengthening of people's health, the treatment of the sick and the prevention of diseases, the achievement of longevity by human society in terms of health and performance. Medicine has developed in close connection with the whole life of society, with the economy, culture, worldview of people. Like any other field of knowledge, medicine is not a combination of ready-made, once-for-all truths, but the result of a long and complex process of growth and enrichment.

The development of medicine is inseparable from the development of natural science and technical branches of knowledge, from the general history of all mankind at the dawn of its existence and in each subsequent period of its change and transformation.

It is necessary to understand the links between the development of individual medical branches. This is the task of the general history of medicine, which studies the main patterns and main, key problems in the development of medicine as a whole.

Medical practice and science develop historically in close interaction. Practice, accumulating material, enriches medical theory and at the same time sets new tasks for it, while medical science, developing, improves practice, raising it to an ever higher level.

The history of medicine is a scientific discipline that studies the development of medicine at all stages, from its origin in the form of primitive traditional medicine to the present state.

The following sources are used to study the history of medicine: manuscripts; published works of doctors, historians, government and military officials, philosophers; archival materials; linguistic materials, data of art, ethnography, folk epic and folklore; images that can be presented both in the form of ancient rock paintings, and in the form of photographic and film documents of our time; scientific information: numismatics, epigraphy, paleography. Of particular importance are the data obtained as a result of archaeological excavations, paleontological and paleopathological studies.

By studying the history of medicine, we can trace the entire path of the origin, development, improvement of medical instruments, methods of treatment, formulations of medicines and compare with the level of development of modern instruments and methods of treatment. To follow the whole thorny path of trial and error that doctors have gone through from century to century.

The medieval period is very interesting because we still do not know many of its aspects. And it would be exciting to know more about him. Let us consider in more detail the medicine of the Middle Ages.

How did hospitals, hospitals and pharmacies appear?

The development of the hospital business is associated with Christian charity, because every person who wants to quickly go to heaven after death donated part of his income and property to the maintenance of hospitals and hospitals.

At the dawn of the Middle Ages, the hospital was more of a shelter than a hospital: those who arrived here were given clean clothes, they were fed and monitored for compliance with Christian norms, the rooms in which the sick were, washed and ventilated. The medical fame of hospitals was determined by the popularity of individual monks who excelled in the art of healing.

In the 4th century, monastic life was born, its founder was Anthony the Great. The organization and discipline in the monasteries allowed them to remain a citadel of order in the difficult years of wars and epidemics and to take under their roof the elderly and children, the wounded and the sick. Thus, the first monastic shelters for crippled and sick travelers arose - xenodocia - prototypes of future monastic hospitals.

One of the most famous medical institutions of the early 9th century was the monastery in Saint-Gallen.

In the 10th - 11th centuries, many wanderers and pilgrims, and later crusader knights, could find medical assistance and shelter in the cloisters of the "mobile brotherhood", the so-called hospitallers.

In the 70s of the XI century. Hospitallers built many shelters and hospitals in European countries and in the Holy Land (in Jerusalem, Antioch). One of the first to be built was the Hospital of St. John the Merciful in Jerusalem, in which a specialized department of eye diseases had already been allocated. At the beginning of the XII century, this hospital could take up to 2000 patients.

The Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem was founded by the crusaders in Palestine in 1098 on the basis of a hospital for lepers, which existed under the jurisdiction of the Greek Patriarchate. From the name of this order comes the concept of "Infirmary". The order accepted into its ranks knights who fell ill with leprosy, and was originally intended to care for lepers. His symbol was a green cross on a white cloak. The order followed the "Rite of St. Augustine", but until 1255 was not officially recognized by the Holy See, although it had certain privileges and received donations.

At the same time, women's spiritual communities were also created, whose members cared for the sick. For example, in the 13th century in Thuringia, St. Elizabeth created the Order of the Elizabethans.

In Medieval Western Europe, initially hospitals were founded at the monasteries only for the monks living in them. But due to the increase in the number of wanderers, the premises of the hospitals gradually expanded. On the territories of the monastery lands, the monks grew medicinal plants for the needs of their hospital.

It should be noted that during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, monasteries not only cultivated medicinal plants, but also knew how to use them correctly, knowing numerous ancient recipes. The monks followed these recipes, preparing various herbal medicines that were used in the treatment. Many monk-healers compiled and invented new medicinal herbal infusions and elixirs. An example is the French herbal liqueur Benedictine, which became so named after the monks from the monastery of St. Benedict. This monastery was founded on the banks of the English Channel, in the city of Fecamp in 1001. .

This is how the first pharmacies appeared. Over time, they became of two types: monastic, which had places for the manufacture of medicines, and urban ("secular"), which were located in the city center and were maintained by professional pharmacists who were part of the guild organizations.

Each of these types of pharmacies had their own placement rules:

• monastic: in order not to disturb the routine of monastic life, they were located, as a rule, outside the walls of the monastery. Often the pharmacy had two entrances - external, for visitors, and internal, which was located on the monastery territory;
• city ​​ones were usually located in the center of the city, they were decorated with bright signs and emblems of pharmacists. The interiors of pharmacies were original, but their indispensable attribute was special cabinets - rows of glazed or open shelves with pharmacy raw materials and finished medicines.

Of particular interest is the ancient apothecary utensils, the production of which, with the development of a network of pharmacies, has become an independent industry, which is often closely linked with art.

The production and sale of medicines at the initial stages of the development of the pharmacy business were too unprofitable, and in order to make the enterprise more profitable, pharmacists sold alcoholic beverages, sweets and much more.

Tallinn Town Hall Pharmacy, one of the oldest operating in Europe, opened in the 15th century, was famous, for example, not only for good medicines, but also for claret, light dry red wine. Many diseases were treated with this pleasant remedy.

In the Middle Ages, the work of monastic pharmacies and hospitals was strongly influenced by the epidemics that struck Europe. They contributed to the emergence of both explanations for the spread of the disease and methods of dealing with it. First of all, quarantines began to be created: the sick were isolated from society, ships were not allowed into the ports.

In almost all European cities in the 12th century, medical institutions founded by secular citizens began to appear, but until the middle of the 13th century, these hospitals still continued to be under the leadership of monasticism. These asylums were usually located near the city wall, on the outskirts of the city or in front of the city gates, and in them one could always find clean beds and good food, as well as excellent care for the sick. Later doctors began to be assigned to hospitals who did not belong to a particular order.

At the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries, hospitals began to be considered secular institutions, but the church continued to provide them with its patronage, which benefited from the inviolability of the property of the hospital. This was very important for the organization of medical activities, since wealthy citizens willingly invested their money in hospitals, thereby ensuring their safety. Hospitals could purchase land, take stocks of grain if there was a crop failure, and make loans to people.

How did medicine develop? Where can you get medical education? Outstanding doctors

The worldview of the Middle Ages was predominantly theological, "and church dogma was the starting point and basis of all thinking."

In the Middle Ages, the church severely persecuted and tried to eradicate any attempts by scientists of that time to explain to people the nature of various phenomena from a scientific point of view. All scientific, philosophical and cultural research, research and experiments were strictly prohibited, and scientists were subjected to persecution, torture and execution. She [the church] fought against "heresy", i.e. attempts at a critical attitude to the "Holy Scripture" and church authorities. To this end, the Inquisition was created in the 13th century.

By the 8th century, interest in education had declined across much of Europe. This was largely facilitated by the church, which became the dominant force. In the era of the development of feudalism, the need for the development of medical education was acutely revealed, but the church prevented this. The exception was the Salerno Medical School, founded in the 9th century in an area with healing natural springs and a healthy climate. It differed significantly from the later scholastic medical faculties that arose later. In the 11th century, the school was transformed into a university with a term of study of 9 years, and for persons who specialized in surgery, 10 years.

In the 12th century, universities opened in Bologna (1156), Montpellier (1180), Paris (1180), Oxford (1226), Messina (1224), Prague (1347), Krakow ( 1364). All these educational institutions were completely controlled by the church.

In the XIII century, the Parisian High School received the status of a university. The future doctor successively went through the stages of a clerk, bachelor, licentiate, after which he received a master's degree in medicine.

Scholastic (“school wisdom”) medicine developed at the universities. Teachers read texts and commentaries on books by church-recognized authors; students were required to learn this by heart. Both those and others discussed a lot, argued about the methods of treating a particular disease. But there was no practice of treatment. The ideological basis of medical training was Aristotle's doctrine of entelechy: the expediency and purposeful activity of the "highest creator" in predetermining the forms and functions of the body, and his natural science views were distorted. Galen was recognized as another indisputable authority. His works "Small Science" ("Ars parva") and "On the affected places" ("De locis affectis") were widely used. The teachings of Hippocrates were presented to students in the form of Galen's comments on his writings.

Teachers and students were not familiar with the anatomy of the human body. Although autopsies have been performed since the 6th century, in the Middle Ages this practice was condemned and banned by the church. All information about the structure and functions of the human body, with all significant errors and inaccuracies, was drawn from the works of Galen and Ibn Sina. They also used an anatomy textbook compiled in 1316 by Mondino de Lucci. This author had only been able to dissect two corpses, and his textbook was a compilation of the writings of Galen. Only occasionally were autopsies allowed at universities. This was usually done by a barber. During the autopsy, the theoretical professor read aloud in Latin the anatomical work of Galen. Typically, dissection was limited to the abdominal and thoracic cavities.

Only in Italy at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century did the dissection of human corpses for the teaching of anatomy become more frequent.

Pharmacy was associated with alchemy. The Middle Ages are characterized by complex medicinal registrations. The number of parts in one recipe often reached several tens. A special place among medicines was occupied by antidotes: the so-called theriac, which included 70 or more components (the main component is snake meat), as well as mithridates (opal). Theriac was also considered a remedy for all internal diseases, including "pestilence" fevers. These funds were highly valued. In some cities, especially famous for their theriaci and mitridates and selling them to other countries (Venice, Nuremberg), these funds were made publicly, with great solemnity, in the presence of authorities and invited persons.

After graduating from the university, doctors united in a corporation in which there were ranks. Court physicians had the highest status. One step below were the city doctors, who lived off the payment for the services rendered. Such a doctor periodically visited his patients at home. In the XII-XIII centuries, the status of city doctors increased significantly. They began to manage hospitals, testify in court (about the causes of death, injuries, etc.), in port cities they visited ships and checked if there was any danger of infection.

During outbreaks of epidemics of the sick, "plague doctors" were especially popular. Such a doctor had a special suit, which consisted of a cloak (it was tucked at the neck under a mask and stretched to the floor to hide as much of the body surface as possible); masks in the form of a bird's beak (the view repels the plague, red glasses - the doctor's invulnerability to the disease, odorous herbs in the beak - also protection from infection); leather gloves; caskets with garlic; canes (for examination of the patient).

At the lowest level were surgeons. The need for experienced surgeons was very great, but their legal status remained unenviable. Among them were wandering surgeons who performed operations in different cities right on the market square. Such doctors cured, in particular, skin diseases, external injuries and tumors.

Bath attendants-barbers also joined the corporation of doctors. In addition to their direct duties, they performed bloodletting, set joints, amputated limbs, treated teeth, and monitored brothels. Also, such duties were performed by blacksmiths and executioners (the latter could study human anatomy during torture and executions).

Outstanding doctors of the Middle Ages were:

Abu Ali Hussein ibn Sina (Avicenna) (c. 980-1037) was an encyclopedic scholar. As a result of long and painstaking work, he later created the world famous « Canon of Medicine » , which became one of the largest encyclopedic works in the history of medicine;

Pietro d'Abano (1250-1316) - an Italian doctor accused by the Inquisition of secret knowledge and practicing magic. He had a medical practice in Paris, where he became famous after publishing a work on the complex use of various medical systems;

Arnold de Villanova (c. 1245 - c. 1310) - theologian, physician and alchemist. Studied medicine in Paris for 20 years;

Nostradamus (1503 - 1566) - French physician and soothsayer, whose far-reaching prophecies for many centuries caused a contradictory attitude towards himself;

Paracelsus (1493 - 1541) – one of the greatest alchemists, philosophers and doctors. His methods of treatment have gained wide popularity. Paracelsus served as city doctor and professor of medicine. He argued that any substance can become a poison depending on the dose;

Razi (865 - 925) – Persian encyclopedic scientist, philosopher, alchemist, also made a great contribution to the development of medicine;

Michael Scott (about 1175 - 1235) – alchemist, mathematician, physician, astrologer and theologian;

Guy de Chauliac (XIV century) is a comprehensively educated doctor who inherited the ideas of Hippocrates, Galen, Paul of Eginsky, Ar-Razi, Abul-Kasim, surgeons of the Salerno school, and others.

What diseases and epidemics "devoured" the population of Europe during the Middle Ages?

In the Middle Ages, a wave of terrible epidemics swept through the countries of Western Europe, killing thousands of people. These diseases were previously unfamiliar to the population of Europe. Many epidemics were brought to this territory thanks to the return of the knights from the Crusades. The reason for the rapid spread was that after the fall of the Roman Empire, where much attention was paid to the protection of public health, the era of Christianity that came to Europe marked a general decline in knowledge gained by experience. Christianity took a sharp opposition to the pagan cult of a healthy and beautiful human body, which was now recognized as only a mortal, unworthy shell of care. Physical culture was often opposed to the mortification of the flesh. Diseases began to be regarded as God's punishment for sins, so their occurrence was no longer associated with a violation of elementary norms of sanitation and hygiene.

Epidemics were used by the clergy to strengthen the influence of religion on the masses and increase church income through donations for the construction of God's temples. Also, church customs and rituals themselves contributed to the spread of infection. When kissing icons, crosses, the Gospel, the shroud, applying to the relics of "holy saints", the causative agent of the disease could be transmitted to many people.

Plague

People have long noticed the connection of plague epidemics with the preceding unusually strong reproduction of rats, which is reflected in numerous legends and tales. One of the famous stained glass windows of the cathedral in the German city of Gammeln depicts a tall man in black clothes playing the flute. This is the legendary rat-catcher, who saved the inhabitants of the city from the invasion of vile creatures. Bewitched by his playing, they left their holes, followed the flutist into the water and drowned in the river. The greedy burgomaster deceived the savior and instead of the promised hundred ducats gave him only ten. The angry rat-catcher again played the flute, and all the boys living in the city followed him, and disappeared forever. This mystical character is found on the pages of many works of art.

Plague has two main forms: bubonic (lymph nodes are affected) and pulmonary (the plague bacterium enters the lungs, causing acute pneumonia with tissue necrosis). In both forms, untreated, fever, sepsis, and death occur. Since the most typical of the plague is the femoral bubo, on all engravings and relief sculptures of St. Roch, the patron saint of plague patients, the latter defiantly flaunts the bubo located in this very place.

According to the chronological table compiled by A.L. Chizhevsky, starting from 430 BC. and until the end of the XIX century, there are 85 plague epidemics. The most devastating was the epidemic of the XIV century, which swept through the countries of Europe and Asia in 1348-1351.

Lion Feuchtwanger's historical novel The Ugly Duchess vividly describes the pages of this distant past. “The plague came from the East. Now she raged on the sea coast, then penetrated deep into the country. She killed in a few days, sometimes in a few hours. In Naples, in Montpellier, two-thirds of the inhabitants died. In Marseilles, the bishop died with the entire chapter, all the Dominican friars and minorites. Entire areas were completely depopulated ... The plague was especially raging in Avignon. The slain cardinals fell to the ground, the pus from the crushed buboes soiled their magnificent vestments. Papa locked himself in the most distant chambers, did not allow anyone to see him, maintained a big fire all day, burned herbs and roots that purify the air ... In Prague, in an underground treasury, among gold, rarities, relics, Charles, the German king, sat, he put on myself fasting, praying.

The plague spread in most cases with merchant ships. Here is her path: Cyprus - late summer 1347; in October 1347 she penetrated the Genoese fleet stationed in Messina; winter 1347 - Italy; January 1348 - Marseille; Paris - spring 1348; England - September 1348; moving along the Rhine, the plague reached Germany in 1348. The structure of the German kingdom included the present-day Switzerland and Austria. There have also been outbreaks in these regions.

The epidemic also raged in the Duchy of Burgundy, in the Kingdom of Bohemia. 1348 - was the most terrible of all the years of the plague. It went for a long time to the periphery of Europe (Scandinavia, etc.). Norway was hit by the Black Death in 1349.

The plague left depopulated cities, deserted villages, abandoned fields, vineyards and orchards, devastated farms and abandoned cemeteries. No one knew how to escape the black death. Fasting and prayer did not help. Then people rushed to seek salvation in fun. Processions of dancers, calling to the mercy of St. Wallibrod, the protector from the plague, stretched along the streets and roads. One of these processions was depicted on a canvas dated 1569 by the artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder (the painting is in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum). This custom of organizing mass dances to fight the plague, despite its complete uselessness, long persisted among the Dutch and Belgian peasants.

The "Black Death" still exists on the planet, and people are still dying from it, especially in those countries where the epidemic service is poorly set up.

Leprosy (leprosy)

This disease is caused by Mycobacterium leprae, a bacterium related to tuberculosis. This disease proceeds very slowly - from three to forty years and inevitably leads to death, which is why in the Middle Ages it was called "lazy death."

With leprosy, or, as it is more commonly called, leprosy, one of the darkest pages in the history of infectious diseases is connected. This chronic, generalized infectious disease affects the skin, mucous membranes, internal organs and peripheral nervous system... Different peoples have very figurative names for leprosy: fox scab, rot, lazy death, mournful disease.

In Christianity, there are two saints who patronize leprosy patients: Job (especially revered in Venice, where there is the church of San Jobbe, and in Utrecht, where the St. Job hospital was built), covered with ulcers and scraping them out with a knife, and poor Lazarus, sitting at the door of the house an evil rich man with his dog that licks his scabs: an image where sickness and poverty are truly united.

Vintage engraving "Jesus and the leper"

Egypt is considered the birthplace of leprosy. In the time of the pharaohs, the only way to alleviate the disease was to take a bath of human blood. (Wow, doesn't it remind you of anything?! It can be assumed that this is how the legends about vampirism began to appear.) S. Zweig in the chronicle novel "Mary Stuart" mentions the ominous rumors that circulated about the French King Francis II. It was said that he was ill with leprosy and, in order to be healed, bathed in the blood of babies. Many considered leprosy even more terrible punishment than death.

During archaeological excavations in Egypt, bas-reliefs were discovered that convey a picture of mutilation - the rejection of limbs during leprosy. From here, the disease passed through Greece to the countries of Europe - to the West to Spain and to the east - to Byzantium. Its further spread was the result of the Crusades to Palestine, the participants of which were knights, merchants, monks and farmers. The first such campaign under the slogan of the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher took place in 1096. Crowds of thousands of motley rabble led by Pierre of Amiens moved to Palestine. Almost all the participants in this campaign laid down their lives in Asia Minor. Only a few lucky ones managed to return to their homeland. However, the European feudal lords needed new markets, and three years later a well-armed army of six hundred thousand knights and their servants took Jerusalem. Over the course of two centuries, seven crusades took place, during which huge masses of people rushed to Palestine through Asia Minor and Egypt, where leprosy was widespread. As a result, this disease became a social disaster in Medieval Europe. After the cruel massacre of the French king Philip IV over the knights of the Knights Templar in France, a difficult time of popular unrest began, which took bizarre forms of religious and mystical mass campaigns. During one of these outbreaks, a massacre of lepers began in the country, who were blamed for the misfortunes that befell the country.

M. Druon described these events in the novel “The French Wolf”: “Were these unfortunates with a body eaten away by a disease, with the faces of the dead and stumps instead of hands, these people imprisoned in infected leper colonies, where they bred and multiplied, from where they were allowed to leave? only with a rattle in their hands, were they really guilty of polluting the waters? For in the summer of 1321, springs, streams, wells and reservoirs in many places turned out to be poisoned. And the people of France this year choked with thirst on the banks of their full-flowing rivers, or drank this water, waiting with horror after every sip of inevitable death. Didn’t the same order of the Templars put their hand here, didn’t they make a strange poison, which included human blood, urine, witchcraft herbs, snake heads, crushed toad legs, blasphemously pierced prosphora and the hair of harlots, a poison that, as assured, and the waters were contaminated? Or, perhaps, the Templars pushed these God-damned people to revolt, suggesting to them, as some lepers admitted under torture, the desire to destroy all Christians or infect them with leprosy? ... Residents of cities and villages rushed to leper colonies to kill the sick, who suddenly became enemies of society. Only pregnant women and mothers were spared, and even then only while they were feeding their babies. Then they were burnt. The royal courts covered these massacres in their judgments, and the nobility even allocated their armed men to carry them out.

People with signs of leprosy were expelled from the settlements to special shelters - leper colonies (many of them were created on the initiative of the Order of St. Lazarus, established by the Crusaders, at the beginning they were called infirmaries, and later - leper colonies). As soon as the relatives of the sick person or neighbors discovered that someone was ill with leprosy, the patient was immediately put in chains and the church tribunal sentenced him to death. Then one of the cruel and sinister rituals to which the Catholic Church was prone during the Middle Ages was staged. The patient was taken to the temple, where the priest handed him special gray clothes. Then the unfortunate was forced to lie in a coffin, a funeral mass was served and the coffin was taken to the cemetery. The priest said over the grave: "You are dead to all of us." And after these words, a person forever became an outcast. From now on, the leper colony became his lifelong refuge.

If the patient left the territory of the leper colony, he had to announce his approach by ringing a bell or a rattle. He also had a begging bag with him, and a special sign was sewn on his gray cloak: crossed arms made of white linen or a goose paw made of red cloth - a symbol of the disease, often accompanied by the gradual death of the limbs (the bones inside the fingers rotted, crumbled, the sensitivity of the fingers disappeared, fingers withered). If a leper talked to anyone, he was obliged to cover his face with a cloak and stand against the wind.

Although there are drugs to treat leprosy today, it still affects people in India, Brazil, Indonesia and Tanzania.

Medical instruments and operations

It is important to note that in the Middle Ages, no painkillers were used, other than strangulation or a blow to the head, and the use of alcohol. Often, after operations, the wounds rotted and hurt terribly, and when a person tried to ask a doctor for painkillers, the latter answered that pain relief means cheating pain, a person was born to suffer and must endure. Only in rare cases was hemlock or henbane juice used, Paracelsus used laudanum, an opium tincture.

During this period of history, it was widely believed that diseases could most often be caused by an excess of fluid in the body, therefore the most common operation of that period was bloodletting. Bloodletting was usually carried out by two methods: hirudotherapy - a physician applied a leech to the patient, and exactly on the place that most worried the patient; or opening the veins - direct cutting of the veins on the inside of the arm. The doctor cut a vein with a thin lancet, and the blood flowed into a bowl.

Also, with a lancet or a thin needle, an operation was performed to remove the clouded lens of the eye (cataract). These operations were very painful and dangerous.

Amputation of limbs was also a popular operation. This was done with a sickle-shaped amputation knife and a saw. First, with a circular motion of the knife, the skin was cut to the bone, and then the bone was sawn.

Teeth were mostly pulled out with iron tongs, so for such an operation they turned to either a barber or a blacksmith.

The Middle Ages was a "dark" and unenlightened time of bloody battles, cruel conspiracies, inquisitorial torture and bonfires. Medieval methods of treatment were the same. Because of the unwillingness of the church to allow science into the life of society, diseases that can now be easily cured in that era led to massive epidemics and death. A sick person, instead of medical and moral assistance, received general contempt and became an outcast rejected by all. Even the process of giving birth to a child was not a cause for joy, but a source of endless torment, often ending in the death of both the child and the mother. “Prepare for death” - women in labor were admonished before childbirth.

Cruel times gave birth to cruel customs. But still, science tried to break through church dogmas and prohibitions and serve for the benefit of people even in the Middle Ages.

I chose this picture for me:

But it turned out that I had an urgent opportunity to write on this topic elsewhere, and in order not to duplicate information, this post, written back in February, had to be hidden from everyone ... Nevertheless, I always remembered it, and now I had the opportunity to show it to everyone, which I do with pleasure.

This post is dedicated to one of the most sinister outwardly and essentially fertile figures of medieval history - the plague doctor, who is depicted in the photo above. This photo was taken by me on July 19, 2005, while traveling in Estonia, in the Kiek in de Kök Tower Museum in Tallinn.

Thanks to films and historical books, it is known what horror people in the Middle Ages, for example, were inspired by the executioner's costume - this hoodie, a mask that hides the face and makes its owner anonymous ... But no less fear, although not without a share of hope, caused more one suit - the so-called. The plague doctor. Both of them, both the doctor and the executioner, dealt with Death, only one helped take lives, and the second tried to save them, although most often unsuccessfully ... The appearance on the streets of a medieval city of a terrible silhouette in a dark robe and with a beak under a wide-brimmed hat was ominous a sign that the Black Death - the plague - settled nearby. By the way, not only cases of bubonic or pneumonic plague, but also pestilence and other fatal epidemics were called plague in historical sources.

Plague was a long-known disease - the first reliable pandemic of the plague, known as "Justinian", arose in the 6th century in the Eastern Roman Empire, during the reign of Emperor Justinian, who himself died from this disease. This was followed by an outbreak of the bubonic plague in Europe in the 8th century, after which it made itself felt only sporadically for several centuries.

The pandemic, known as the "great pestilence" or "black death" in the 14th century (1348–51), was brought to Europe by Genoese sailors from the East. It must be said that it is difficult to find a more effective means of spreading the plague than medieval ships. The holds of the ships were infested with rats, spreading fleas on all decks.

The cycle of infection from flea to rat and from rat to flea could continue until the rats died out. Hungry fleas in search of a new host transferred the disease to humans. Here, for example, is a diagram showing the cycles of infection and mortality in one single unit of society. The infected rat, marked with a red dot in the "1st day" column, died from the disease on the 5th day. When a rat died, the fleas left it, carrying the plague to other rats. By day 10, these rats were also dead, and their fleas were transferred to humans, infecting about 75% of them. By the 15th day, about half the people on the ship or in the house will have died of the plague; a quarter will recover, and a quarter will avoid infection.

Not a single state of Western Europe escaped the wholesale pestilence, even Greenland. It is believed that the Netherlands, Czech, Polish, and Hungarian lands remained almost unaffected, but the geography of the spread of the plague has not yet been fully studied.

The plague "moved" at the speed of a horse - the main transport of that time. During the pandemic, according to various sources, from 25 to 40 million people died. The number of victims in different regions ranged from 1/8 to 2/3 of the total number of inhabitants. Entire families died. The map of Europe shows the ways in which this epidemic spread:

Unsanitary conditions, constant malnutrition and a decrease in the physical resistance of the human body, the lack of basic hygiene skills and overcrowding of the population contributed to the spread of the epidemic. No one was immune from the plague, neither a simple townsman nor a king. The list of the dead includes French King Louis IX (Saint), Jeanne of Bourbon - wife of Philip of Valois, Jeanne of Navarre - daughter of Louis X, Alphonse of Spain, German Emperor Gunther, brothers of the King of Sweden, artist Titian. As Russov's chronicle tells, the master of the powerful Livonian Order of the Crusaders Bryggene died in Livonia.

The name "bubonic plague" comes from one of the early signs of the disease: the appearance of large painful swellings of the lymph nodes called buboes in the neck, groin and under the arms. Three days after the appearance of buboes, people had a fever, delirium began, and the body was covered with black uneven spots as a result of subcutaneous hemorrhages. As the disease progressed, the buboes enlarged and became more painful, often bursting and opening.

Reconstruction of the appearance of such a patient from a museum in Holland:

About half of the patients died before this stage. Images of patients with buboes are frequent on old images of that time.

On this English miniature of 1360-75. monks are depicted covered with buboes and seeking salvation from the Pope himself:

Doctors of that time could not immediately recognize the disease. It was fixed too late, when it seemed impossible to do anything. The causative agents of the disease will remain unknown for several centuries, the treatment as such did not exist at all. Doctors believed that the plague was spreading as a result of the so-called. "infectious beginning" (contagion) - a certain toxic factor that. can be passed from the sick to the healthy. Person-to-person transmission was thought to be either through physical contact with the patient or through clothing and bedding.

Based on these ideas, the most infernal costume of the Middle Ages arose - the costume of the Plague Doctor. In order to visit the sick during the plague, doctors were required to wear this special dress, which was the result of a combination of both epidemiologically sound things and prejudice.

For example, it was believed that such designs of masks in the form of ravens and other creatures with beaks, giving the doctor the appearance of an ancient Egyptian deity, "scare away" the disease. At the same time, the beak also carried a functional load - it protected the doctor from the "morbid smell". The beak or its tip was filled with strong-smelling medicinal herbs. It was a kind of natural filter that simplifies breathing in conditions of constant stench. He also protected others from other "stench" - since the doctor constantly chewed garlic for preventive purposes, and also placed incense on a special sponge in the nostrils and ears. To prevent the doctor from suffocating from all this bouquet of smells, there were two small ventilation holes in the beak.

The mask also had glass inserts to protect the eyes. A long, wax-soaked cloak and thick leather or oiled clothing were needed to avoid contact with the infected. Often clothes were impregnated with a mixture of camphor, oil and wax. In reality, this made it possible to some extent to avoid the bite of the plague carrier - a flea, and protected from the disease transmitted by airborne droplets, although this was not even suspected in those days.

The doctor's costume was completed by a leather hat, under which they put on a hood with a cape, covering the joint between the mask and clothes. Variations of the costume depended on the area and the financial capabilities of the doctor. For example, in the museum of the Tallinn tower Kik-in-de-Kök, the image of a doctor without a hat is presented, but with a hood that fits around his beak. Wealthier doctors wore bronze beaks. The doctor's gloved hands often clutched two objects necessary in his practice: a stick to drive away hopelessly infected people and a scalpel to open buboes. Or it could be smoking incense. The wand also contained incense, which was supposed to protect against evil spirits. Even in the doctor's arsenal there was a pommander - a box for aromatic herbs and substances that were supposed to "scare away" the plague.

In more recent times, the plague doctor costume became this:

In addition to doctors, there were also so-called. Mortuses (special employees recruited from those who survived the plague, or from convicted criminals), whose duty it was to collect the bodies of the dead and take them to the burial place.

On old engravings from London, mortuses are seen bringing corpses on carts and wagons, digging graves and engaging in burial.

Burning braziers can be seen on the engravings of that time. Then it was believed that fire and smoke purify the contaminated air, so the fires were burning everywhere, not going out even at night, incense was smoked to help cleanse the air of infection. Residents of London in the 17th century, for example, were persuaded to smoke tobacco, equating it with healing incense. Fumigation of premises with tarry substances, washing with odorous compounds, inhalation of vapors of burned saltpeter or gunpowder was practiced. To disinfect the premises where the patients died, the doctors recommended, in particular, to put a saucer with milk, which allegedly absorbs poisoned air. During trade settlements during the plague and other epidemics, buyers lowered money on the market into a vessel with oxymel (honey vinegar) or just vinegar, which each seller had - it was believed that then the infection could not pass from hand to hand.

Leeches, dried toads and lizards were applied to abscesses. Pig fat and butter were put into open wounds. Opening of buboes and cauterization of open wounds with red-hot iron was used.

It is not surprising that with such treatment, mortality among the sick often even at a later time was 77-97%. A tried and tested recipe, which was followed by the people, was, until the 17th century. and later, - cito, longe, tarde: to flee from the infected area as soon as possible, further and return later.

The fear induced by the plague is shown in the painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder "The Triumph of Death", where death in the form of wandering skeletons destroys all life. Neither the king with his gold, nor the young revelers at the table can escape the invasion of the ruthless army of the dead. In the background, skeletons push their victims into a water-filled grave; nearby you can see a barren, lifeless landscape.

The writer Daniel Defoe, known as the author of "Robinson Crusoe" and also at the origins of British intelligence, wrote in his "Diary of a Plague Year": "If only it were possible to accurately depict that time for those who did not experience it, and give the reader the correct the idea of ​​the horror that seized the townspeople, it would still make a deep impression and fill people with surprise and awe. It can be said without exaggeration that all London was in tears; no mourners circled the streets, no one wore mourning and did not sew to honor the memory of the closest dead, but crying was everywhere.The cries of women and children at the windows and doors of the dwellings where their closest relatives were dying, or perhaps just died, were carried so often, it was only necessary to go out into the street, and the most stony heart.Crying and lamentations were heard in almost every house, especially at the beginning of pestilence, because later hearts hardened, since death was constantly before everyone’s eyes, and They have lost the ability to mourn the loss of loved ones and friends, hourly expecting that they themselves will suffer the same fate.

Giovanni Boccaccio, in his "Decameron", which takes place just during the plague epidemic in 1348 in Italy, wrote: "A person who died from the plague caused as much participation as a dead goat."

Boccaccio's description is tragic: "Glorious Florence, the best city in Italy, was visited by a destructive plague ... Neither doctors nor drugs helped or cured this disease ... Since for the great multitude of dead bodies that were brought to the churches every hour, no Enormous pits were dug in overcrowded church cemeteries and whole hundreds of corpses were lowered in. In Florence, as they say, 100,000 people died... How many noble families, rich inheritances, huge fortunes were left without legitimate heirs! How many strong men , beautiful women, charming young men, whom even Galen, Hippocrates and Aesculapius would recognize as completely healthy, had breakfast with relatives, comrades and friends in the morning, and in the evening they dined with their ancestors in the next world.

In those days, people sought salvation from epidemics in churches, prayed for healing all together - sick and healthy ... The feeling of panic horror that epidemics and diseases sowed in medieval society was reflected in the prayer for intercession: "Save us from plague, famine and war us, Lord!"

According to eyewitnesses, the panic was such that "people wrapped themselves in two sheets and arranged a funeral for themselves during their lifetime (which was simply unheard of!)".

Perhaps the most famous Plague Doctor today was Michel de Notre Dame, better known as the soothsayer Nostradamus. At the dawn of his career, Nostradamus became famous for his success in saving his fellow citizens from the plague. The secret of Nostradamus was simple - the observance of elementary hygiene. There were no other means in his arsenal, and therefore he was powerless to save his first family from this terrible disease, after which he went into exile. And only in 1545 (at the age of 42) he returned to Marseilles, and this time his new medicine was able to act on pneumonic plague, and then, in Provence in 1546, on the "black plague".

Scene from the exposition of the Nostradamus Museum in Provence:

Not much is known about Nostradamus' methods. Wherever the bubonic plague raged, he ordered black crosses to be painted on the houses of the doomed to warn the healthy and hinder the spread of the epidemic. It must be remembered that the rules of hygiene familiar to us in those days were not known to many, and therefore the methods of Nostradamus had some effect. He recommended drinking only boiled water, sleeping in a clean bed, in case of danger of the plague, leaving the dirty, stinking cities as soon as possible and breathing fresh air in the countryside.

In the city of Aix, the capital of Provence, Nostradamus first used his famous pills, mixed with rose petals and rich in vitamin C. He distributed them right on the streets of the infected cities, along the way explaining to fellow citizens the rules of elementary hygiene. "All who used them," he later wrote, "were saved, and vice versa."

Nostradamus devoted several chapters in one of his medical books to the description of the disinfectant powder from which he made the pills. The 1572 edition of this book is kept in the Parisian library of St. Genevieve under the unusual title for us "An excellent and very useful brochure on many excellent recipes, divided into two parts. The first part teaches us how to prepare various lipsticks and perfumes to decorate the face. The second part teaches us how to prepare jams of various varieties from honey, sugar and wine Compiled by Master Michel Nostradamus, M.D. from Chalons in Provence, Lyon, 1572." Particularly, the sections of this book were titled "How to make a powder, clean and whiten your teeth... and a way to give a pleasant smell to your breath. Another way, even more perfect, for cleansing teeth, even those that are badly rotten... A way to cook a kind of soap that whitens and softens hands and has a sweet and delicious smell... A way to prepare a kind of distilled water to best beautify and whiten the face... Another way to make beard hair blond or gold-colored, and also to destroy too greater fullness of the body.

Before the discovery of the plague bacterium and the use of antibiotics in the treatment of this disease, almost half a millennium remained ...

The painting "The Plague" by Arnold Böcklin (1898) shows all the horror of this disease - after all, even in his time, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, they had not yet learned how to fight it!

And even in our time, individual outbreaks of this disease are still recorded:

Materials used in the preparation of the article:
from Colin McEvedy's article "Bubonic Plague" from IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE. (Scientific American. Edition in Russian). 1988. No. 4,
Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica
from the article "War against the "Black Death": from defense to offensive" V. S. Ganin, Ph.D. honey. Sciences, Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, in the journal "Science and Life" No. 7, 2006
Filippov B., Yastrebitskaya A. The European world of the X-XV centuries.
HISTORY OF PLAGUE EPIDEMICS IN RUSSIA