In the Middle Ages, medicine developed slowly. There was practically no accumulation of new knowledge, so the knowledge that was obtained during Antiquity was actively used. However, it was in the Middle Ages that the first hospitals appeared, and interest in a number of diseases that caused epidemics increased.

Medicine and religion

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

Amulets and amulets were very popular. It was believed that they were able to protect against disease and misfortune. Amulets with Christian symbols were common: crosses, lines from prayers, names of guardian angels, etc. There was a belief in the healing effects of baptism and communion. There was no disease against which there was no special prayer, spell or blessing.

Medieval doctors

Practical medicine was a developed industry, which was mainly carried out by bath attendants and barbers. Their duties included: bloodletting, joint adjustments, limb amputations and a number of other procedures. Bathhouse barbers at that time were not respected in society. This was due to the fact that among the common people their image was certainly associated with illness and uncleanness.

Only in the late Middle Ages did the authority of doctors begin to increase. In this regard, the requirements for their skills have also increased. Before practicing, a bathhouse barber had to undergo eight years of training and then pass an examination in the presence of the oldest representatives of the profession, doctors of medicine and one of their members of the city council. In a number of European cities, surgeons' guilds were later created from the ranks of bath attendants and barbers.

Medicinal plants

A large number of plants and herbs were known. But even their collection was certainly combined with religious and magical rituals. For example, many plants were collected at a specific time and place, and the process was accompanied by rituals and prayers. It was often 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

The first hospitals appeared in the Early Middle Ages. At first they were organized at churches and monasteries. These hospitals were originally intended for beggars, wanderers and the destitute. The treatment was carried out by monks.

In the late Middle Ages, hospitals began to be opened by wealthy citizens. Later, local authorities began to participate 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, typhus and dysentery. In the Middle Ages, many more people died from these infections than from wars.

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

Kazakh-Russian Medical University

Department of Social Sciences

On the topic: Philosophy of the 20th century - changing the style of thinking of medicine in the 20th century

Completed by: Sadyrova Ruzanna

Group 203 A stoma. faculty

Checked by: Bekbosynova Zh.B.

Almaty 2013

Introduction

exceptions.

various problems.

specialties.

twentieth century.

Scientific medicine in the Middle Ages was poorly developed. Medical experience crossed with magic and religion. A significant role in medieval medicine was given to magical rituals, influencing the disease through symbolic gestures, “special” words, and objects. From the XI-XII centuries. In healing magical rituals, objects of Christian worship and Christian symbolism appeared, pagan spells were translated into a Christian way, new Christian formulas appeared, and the cult of saints and their relics flourished.

The most characteristic phenomenon of healing practice in the Middle Ages were saints and their relics. The cult of saints flourished in the High and Late Middle Ages. In Europe, there were more than ten of the most popular burial places of saints, where thousands of pilgrims flocked to regain their health. Gifts were donated to the saints, the afflicted prayed to the saint for help, sought to touch some thing that belonged to the saint, scraped stone chips from tombstones, etc. Since the 13th century. the “specialization” of saints took shape; approximately half of the entire pantheon of saints were considered patrons of certain diseases.

As for diseases, these were tuberculosis, malaria, dysentery, smallpox, whooping cough, scabies, various deformities, and nervous diseases. But the scourge of the Middle Ages was the bubonic plague. It first appeared in Europe in the 8th century. In 1347, the plague was brought by Genoese sailors from the East and within three years spread throughout the continent. The Netherlands, Czech, Polish, Hungarian lands and Rus' remained unaffected. Medieval doctors could not recognize the plague, as well as other diseases; the disease was detected too late. The only recipe used by the population until the 17th century boiled down to the Latin advice cito, longe, targe, that is, to flee from an infected area as soon as possible, further and return later.

Another scourge of the Middle Ages was leprosy (leprosy). The disease probably appeared in the Early Middle Ages, but the peak incidence occurred in the 12th-13th centuries, coinciding with increased contacts between Europe and the East. Those with leprosy were prohibited from appearing in society. use public baths. There were special hospitals for lepers - leper colonies, which were built outside the city limits, along important roads, so that the sick could beg for alms - the only source of their existence. The Lateran Council (1214) allowed the construction of chapels and cemeteries on the territory of leper colonies to create a closed world, from where the patient could only leave with a rattle, thus warning of his appearance. At the end of the 15th century. Syphilis appeared in Europe.

Under the influence of Arab learning, which began to penetrate Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries, the first timid interest in experimental knowledge appeared. So. R. Grosseteste (about 1168-1253) experimentally tested the refraction of lenses, and he, along with Ibn al-Haytham (965-1039), is credited with introducing lenses for vision correction into practice; R. Lull (about 1235-1315) - one of the creators of alchemy - was searching for the “elixir of life”. The disputes and works of medieval scholastics contributed to the development of logic, alchemy prepared the emergence of scientific chemistry, etc. At the same time, the intellectual life of medieval Europe did not contribute anything to the development of fundamental problems of natural science and even contributed to some regression in the field of natural science knowledge. R. Bacon (about 1214-1292) was, perhaps, the first European medieval thinker who called on science to serve humanity and predicted the conquest of nature through its knowledge. However, it took almost two centuries of intellectual development before the “titans of the Renaissance” brought natural science out of oblivion and it found itself at the center of interests of educated circles of European society.

The dominance of the theological worldview, traditional thinking, and stagnation in natural science greatly hampered progress in the field of mathematics. However, the development of mathematics did not stop. During the period of the formation of feudalism, the most favorable conditions for the development of capital arose in the eastern regions.

Medicine and education in the Arab states of the Middle Ages - Surgery and anatomy - Prominent personalities of Arab medicine - Hospitals and clinics of the Arab world

In the 7th century, when the Arabs conquered Iran, Syria and Egypt, Greek science and Greek philosophy developed in the scientific centers of these countries. The most famous at that time were Alexandria School in Egypt and the Christian Nestorian school in Gundishapure (Jundi-Shapur) in the south of Iran. The court physician of Caliph al-Mansur (754-776) came from this school. Jurjus ibn Bakhtish- the founder of a dynasty of Christian court doctors who served impeccably at the court of the Baghdad caliphs for two and a half centuries. Realizing the importance of ancient science, the caliphs and other Muslim leaders contributed to the translation of the most important Greek works into Arabic.

This activity began at the end of the 8th century, but the main work of translators began during the reign of Caliph al-Mamun (813-833), who specially organized for this purpose in Baghdad "House of Wisdom"(Arab, bait al-hikma). During the 9th and 10th centuries. Almost all available literature of interest to Arabs was translated into Arabic. Over time, translations into Arabic began to be done directly from Greek. Most researchers associate this transition with the activities of the most famous translator of the era of the caliphates - a Christian Nestorian Hunayn ibn Ishaq(809-873) from Hira. He translated Plato and Aristotle, Soranus and Oribasius, Rufus of Ephesus and Paul from Fr. Aegina. At that time, there were no original texts in Arabic on the topics of the works he translated, and Hunayn ibn Ishaq mastered medical terminology, introduced it into Arabic and laid the precious lexical foundation of medical texts in Arabic. Many texts were also translated from Persian. Through the Persians, the Arabs became acquainted with the achievements of Indian civilization, especially in the fields of astronomy, medicine, and mathematics. From the Indians they also borrowed numbers that Europeans called “Arabic”. The translation activity of the Arabs played an invaluable role in preserving the heritage of the civilizations that preceded them - many ancient works reached medieval Europe only in Arabic translations. However, scientists believe that no more than 1% of medieval Arabic manuscripts have survived to this day. Education in the Caliphate was largely influenced by Islam. In the medieval Muslim world, all knowledge was divided into two areas: "Arab"(or traditional, basically associated with Islam) and "foreign"(or ancient, common to all peoples and all religions). The “Arab” humanities (grammar, lexicography, etc.) were formed in connection with the study of hadiths (traditions about the sayings and deeds of Muhammad) and the Koran, knowledge of which is extremely important for Muslims. The study of “foreign” sciences was dictated by the needs of a developing society and reflected its interests: geography was necessary for an accurate description of the subject lands, history served as the basis for studying the life of the Prophet, astronomy and mathematics clarified the sacred calendar. Interest in medicine also increased, which over time began to be defined as a profession worthy of praise and blessed by Allah: according to Islamic tradition, Allah will not allow illness until he creates a means of treating it, and the doctor’s task is to find this remedy.

Medicine and education in the Arab states of the Middle Ages As major scientific manuscripts were translated into Arabic, Christians lost their monopoly on medicine, and centers of science and higher education gradually moved to Baghdad, Basra, Cairo, Damascus, Cordoba, Toledo, Bukhara, Samarkand. The library of Cordoba consisted of more than 250 thousand volumes. There were large libraries in Baghdad, Bukhara, Damascus, and Cairo. Some rulers and rich people had their own libraries. So, in the library of the head of the Damascus doctors Ibn al-Mutran (Ibn al-Mutran, XIII century), who treated Caliph Salah ad-Din, had about 10 thousand books. Head of Baghdad doctors Ibn al-Talmid (Ibn al-Talmld, XII century)- the author of the best pharmacopoeia of his time - collected more than 20 thousand volumes, many of which were rewritten by him personally. In the 12th century, when there were only two universities in Western Europe (in Salerno and Bologna), in Muslim Spain alone (Cordoba Caliphate) there were 70 libraries and 17 higher schools, in which, among other disciplines, medicine was taught. Arabic-language medicine occupied a leading place in the Mediterranean region for eight centuries. It preserved, supplemented and returned to Europe in an improved form all the most important knowledge accumulated in the region by the early Middle Ages. In the field of disease theory, the Arabs adopted the ancient Greek teachings about the four elements and four bodily juices (Arab. ahlat), set forth in the “Hippocratic Collection” and the works of Aristotle, and then commented on in the works of Galen. According to the ideas of the Arabs, each of the elements and liquids participates (in varying proportions) in the creation of four qualities: heat, cold, dryness and moisture, which determine mizaj(Arabic, mizag - temperament) of each person. It can be normal, if all components are balanced, or “unbalanced” (of varying degrees of complexity). When the balance is disturbed, the doctor’s task is to restore the original state. Mizaj is not something permanent and changes with age and under the influence of the surrounding nature. In the treatment of internal diseases, primary attention was paid to establishing the correct regimen and only then were medications used, simple and complex, in the preparation of which the Arabs achieved high perfection. This is largely due to the development of alchemy. Having borrowed from the Syrians the idea of using alchemy in the field of medicine, the Arabs played an important role in the formation and development of pharmacy and the creation of the pharmacopoeia. Pharmacies began to open in cities for preparation and sale. Alchemists of the medieval Arabic-speaking East invented a water bath and alembic, applied filtration, obtained nitric and hydrochloric acids, bleach and alcohol (which was given the name alcohol). Having conquered the Iberian Peninsula, they brought this knowledge to Western Europe.

Ar-Razi (850-923), an outstanding philosopher, physician and chemist of the early Middle Ages compiled the first encyclopedic work on medicine in Arabic literature "A comprehensive book on medicine" ("Kitab al-Hawi") in 25 volumes. Describing each disease, he analyzed it from the perspective of Greek, Syrian, Indian, Persian and Arab authors, after which he outlined his observations and conclusions. In the 13th century Kitab al-Hawi was translated into Latin and then into many European languages, was constantly reprinted in medieval Europe and, together with Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine, was one of the main sources of medical knowledge for several centuries. Another encyclopedic work of Al-Razi "Medical book" in 10 volumes ( "Al-Kitab al-Mansuri"), dedicated to the ruler of Khorasan Abu Salih Mansur ibn Ishak, summarized the knowledge of that time in the field of medical theory, pathology, medicinal healing, dietetics, hygiene and cosmetics, surgery, toxicology and infectious diseases. In the 12th century it was translated into Latin, and in 1497 it was published in Venice. Among the numerous works of Ar-Razi, a small treatise is of particular value "About Smallpox and Measles", which is recognized by many authors as the most original work of medieval Arabic-language medical literature. Essentially, this is the first detailed presentation of the clinic and treatment of two dangerous infectious diseases that claimed many human lives at that time. Even today it would be a great teaching tool for students!

Surgery and Anatomy Surgery in the medieval Arabic-speaking world was more of a craft than a science, unlike the ancient world. This was explained by the Muslim tradition, which prohibited both autopsy and vivisection. It is clear that in the caliphates surgery developed to a lesser extent than medicinal healing. Nevertheless, Muslim doctors made significant contributions to the development of certain areas of anatomy and surgery. This was especially evident in ophthalmology.

Exploring the structure of the animal eye, the famous Egyptian astronomer and doctor Ibn al-Haytham(965-1039, known in Europe as Alhazen) was the first to explain the refraction of rays in the media of the eye and give names to its parts (cornea, lens, vitreous body, etc.). Having made models of the lens from crystal and glass, he put forward the idea of correcting vision using biconvex lenses and proposed using them for reading in old age. Capital work of Ibn al-Haytham "Treatise on Optics" ("Kitab al-Manazir") glorified his name in the countries of East and Western Europe. Unfortunately, the Arabic original of this book has not survived. It has survived to this day in Latin translation - "Opticae thesaurus Alhazeni arabis" ("Treasures of optics of the Arab Alhazen"). Among the galaxy of remarkable Arab ophthalmologists is Ammar ibn Ali al-Mausili (Ammar ihn Ali al-Mausili, 10th century), one of the most famous eye doctors in Cairo. The operation he developed to remove cataracts by suctioning the lens using a hollow needle he invented was a great success and was called the “Ammara operation.” Treatment of eye diseases was the area of medicine in which the influence of the Arab school was felt in Western Europe until the 17th century. The outstanding achievements of the Arabs in the field of anatomy include the description of the pulmonary circulation, which was made in the 13th century. Syrian doctor from Damascus Ibn an Nafis, i.e. three centuries earlier than Miguel Servetus. Ibn al-Nafis was revered as a great scientist of his time, famous for his commentaries on the anatomy section of Ibn Sina's Canon. The most outstanding surgeon of the medieval Arabic-speaking world is considered Abul-Qasim Khalaf ibn Abbas az-Zahrawi (lat. Abulcasis ca. 936-1013). He was born near Cordoba in Muslim Spain and thus belongs to the Arab-Spanish culture. Al-Zahrawi lived in the “golden period” of its development (the second half of the 10th century), when the Arab-Spanish culture was the most advanced in Western Europe, and, along with the Byzantine, in all of Europe as a whole. The main scientific centers of Muslim Spain were universities in Cordoba, Seville, Grenada, and Malaga. In the chain of historical development of surgery, al-Zahrawi became a link between ancient medicine and the medicine of the European Renaissance. He considered knowledge of anatomy absolutely necessary for a surgeon and recommended studying it from the works of Galen. The criterion of truth for him was his own observations and his own surgical practice. This partly explains the fact that his writings contain few references to the work of others. Compared to the surgery of antiquity, al-Zahrawi made a big step forward. He described what is today called tuberculous bone disease and introduced cataract surgery (al-Zahrawi's term) into Western eye surgery. He was the author of new surgical instruments (more than 150) and the only author of antiquity and the early Middle Ages who described them and presented them in drawings. He was often accused of replacing the knife with a hot iron. However, we should not forget that at that time they did not yet know the nature of inflammation and the infectious process and did not know how to deal with them. Al-Zahrawi highly valued the cauterization method (remember the centuries-old experience of traditional Chinese medicine) and successfully used it to treat local skin lesions and other diseases. Abu al-Zahrawi gained fame as the largest surgeon of the medieval Muslim world - no one in that era surpassed him in the art of surgery and innovation in it. Hospitals and clinics in the Arab world The organization of hospital business received significant development in the caliphates. Initially, the establishment of hospitals was a secular matter. Hospital name - bimaristan-Persian, this once again confirms that hospital care in the caliphates was significantly influenced by Iranian and Byzantine traditions. According to the historian al-Maqrizi (1364-1442), the first known hospital in the Muslim world was built during the Umayyad era under Caliph al-Walid (705-715). A hospital in the modern sense of the word appeared in Baghdad around 800. On the initiative of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, it was organized by an Armenian Christian doctor from Gundishapur - Jibrail ibn Bakhtishi (Gibra"il ibn Bahtisu), third in the famous Bakhtishu dynasty. His grandfather Jurjus ibn Girgis ibn Bahtisu- the founder of the dynasty and the head of the doctors of the medical school in Gundishapur - in 765 he cured the seriously ill Caliph al-Mansur, whom no one could cure. And despite the fact that Jurjus ibn Bakhtisha was a Christian and did not convert to Islam, the Caliph appointed him head of the doctors of the capital of the Caliphate, Baghdad. He and all his descendants successfully served as court doctors of the caliphs for six generations, were known in the Muslim world and were highly revered by rulers until the beginning of the 11th century. Hospitals founded by Muslims were of three types. The first type included hospitals established by caliphs or famous Muslim figures and designed for the general population. They were funded by the state and had a staff of doctors and non-medical staff. Libraries and medical schools were created at hospitals. The training was theoretical and practical: students accompanied the teacher during his rounds in the hospital and visited patients at home with him. One of the largest was the hospital "al-Mansouri" in Cairo. Opened in 1284 in the premises of a former palace, it, according to historians, was designed for 8 thousand patients, who were housed in accordance with their diseases in men's and women's departments. The doctors of both sexes serving her specialized in various areas of medical knowledge. The second type of hospital was financed by famous doctors and religious figures and was small. The third type of hospitals were military medical institutions. They moved with the army and were housed in tents, castles, and citadels. During military campaigns, along with male doctors, warriors were also accompanied by female doctors who cared for the wounded. Some Muslim women who practiced medicine have earned widespread recognition. Thus, under the Umayyads, a female ophthalmologist became famous Zainab from the Avd tribe. Sister Al-Hafidah ibn Zuhr and her daughters (their names are not known to us) had high knowledge in the treatment of female diseases; they were the only doctors who were allowed treatment in the harem of Caliph al-Mansur. The high level of organization of medical practice in the medieval East is closely related to the development of hygiene and disease prevention. The ban on autopsies, on the one hand, limited research into the structure of the body and its functions, and on the other, directed the efforts of doctors to find other ways to preserve health and led to the development of rational hygienic measures. Many of them are enshrined in the Koran (five-time ablutions and maintaining cleanliness of the body, the prohibition of drinking wine and eating pork, norms of behavior in society and family. According to legend, the Prophet Muhammad received his knowledge in the field of medicine from a doctor al-Harit ibn Kalada (al-Harit ibri Kalada), who was born in Mecca in the middle of the 6th century, and studied medicine at the Gundishapur Medical School. If this fact took place, the hygienic recommendations of the Koran go back to the traditions of Gundishapur, which absorbed the traditions of ancient Greek and Indian medicine.

Medicine of the Middle Ages

Russian State Medical University named after. N.I. Pirogov

Department of History of Medicine

Abstract on the history of medicine

"Medicine of the Middle Ages"

Moscow Faculty of Medicine, stream “B”

completed by student of group No. 117

Kiryanov M.A.

Scientific supervisor Dorofeeva E.S.

Moscow 2002

Introduction 3

Chapter 1. Medicine in medieval Western Europe 5

Chapter 2. On the history of Western European hospitals in the Middle Ages 23

Chapter 3. On the clinical training of doctors in medieval universities 35

Conclusion 41

References 42

Introduction

The Middle Ages are usually viewed as a dark era of complete ignorance

or complete barbarism, as a period of history that is characterized in

in two words: ignorance and superstition.

As proof of this, they cite that for philosophers and doctors during

throughout the medieval period, nature remained a closed book, and

indicate the predominant dominance at this time of astrology, alchemy,

magic, witchcraft, miracles, scholasticism and gullible ignorance.

As evidence of the insignificance of medieval medicine they cite

complete lack of hygiene in the Middle Ages, both in private homes and

in cities in general, as well as rampant throughout this period

deadly epidemics of plague, leprosy, various skin diseases and

In contrast to this view, there is an opinion that the Middle Ages

because they are superior to antiquity because they follow it. Nothing to prove, just that

and the other is without foundation; at least as far as medicine is concerned, there is already one

common sense speaks in favor of the fact that there was and could not be a break in

medical tradition, and like the history of all other fields

culture will show that the barbarians were the immediate successors of the Romans,

in the same way, medicine cannot and could not constitute in this regard

exceptions.

It is known, on the one hand, that in the Roman Empire and, especially in

Italy was dominated by Greek medicine, so Greek writings served

present manuals for teachers and students, and on the other hand,

that the invasion of barbarians in the west did not have such all-destructive

consequences for science and the arts, as was usually expected.

I found this topic interesting because the era of the Middle Ages

is an intermediate link between ancient and modern times, when science

began to develop rapidly, discoveries began to be made, including in medicine.

But nothing happens or happens in a vacuum...

In my essay, I showed in the first chapter the general picture of this era,

since it is impossible to consider any sectors separately, be it

art, economics or, in our case, medicine, because to create

objectivity, it is necessary to consider this branch of science in relation to its own

period of time, taking into account all its specifics and considering from this position

various problems.

It was interesting for me to consider the topic more specifically in the second chapter

history of the medieval hospital, its development from a simple monastery

charity for the poor and places of punitive activity of the church before the formation

social institution of medical care, although even a semblance of modern

hospitals with doctors, nurses, wards and some

The hospital began to specialize only in the 15th century.

The clinical training of doctors during the Middle Ages is also interesting,

which is the subject of the third chapter, their process of studying for medical

faculties of universities of that time, since education was mainly

theoretical, moreover, scholastic, when students had to

just rewrite the works of the ancients at lectures, and not even themselves

works of ancient scientists, and comments on them by the holy fathers. Science itself

was within strict limits dictated by the church, the leading slogan that gave

Dominican Thomas Aquinas, (1224-1274): “All knowledge is sin if it

does not have the goal of knowing God” and therefore any free-thinking, deviations,

a different point of view - was considered heresy, and quickly and mercilessly

punished by the “holy” Inquisition.

The abstract was used as reference literature

the following sources, such as the Great Medical Encyclopedia,

reference manual that formed the basis of this work. And which is probably

most fully covers the most current issues related to medicine and,

interesting, both for students and for practicing doctors of any kind

specialties.

As periodical literature, I took the magazines: “Problems

social hygiene and history of medicine”, where on its subject there are

"Clinical Medicine" and "Russian Medical Journal", which contain

The books “History of Medicine” by L. Meunier,

“History of Medieval Medicine” Kovner, “History of Medicine. Favorites

lectures" F.B. Borodulin, where the entire period of the history of medicine is described in detail,

starting with primitive society and ending with the beginning and middle

The era of the formation and development of feudalism in Western Europe (5th-13th centuries) was usually characterized as a period of cultural decline, a time of dominance of obscurantism, ignorance and superstition. The very concept of “the Middle Ages” took root in the mind as a synonym for backwardness, lack of culture and lack of rights, as a symbol of everything gloomy and reactionary. In the atmosphere of the Middle Ages, when prayers and holy relics were considered more effective means of treatment than medicine, when dissection of a corpse and the study of its anatomy was recognized as a mortal sin, and an attempt on authority was seen as heresy, the method of Galen, an inquisitive researcher and experimenter, was forgotten; only the “system” he invented remained as the final “scientific” basis of medicine, and “scientific” scholastic doctors studied, quoted and commented on Galen.

In the development of Western European medieval society, three stages can be distinguished: - early Middle Ages (V-X centuries) - the process of formation of the main structures characteristic of the Middle Ages is underway;

The Classical Middle Ages (XI-XV centuries) - the time of maximum development of medieval feudal institutions;

Late Middle Ages (XV-XVII centuries) - a new capitalist society begins to form. This division is largely arbitrary, although generally accepted; Depending on the stage, the main characteristics of Western European society change. Before considering the features of each stage, we highlight the most important features inherent in the entire period of the Middle Ages.

Marked by superstition and dogmatism, the medicine of medieval Europe did not require research. Diagnoses were made based on urine analysis; therapy returned to primitive magic, spells, amulets. Doctors used unimaginable and useless, and sometimes even harmful, drugs. The most common methods were herbal medicine and bloodletting. Hygiene and sanitation fell to extremely low levels, causing frequent epidemics.

The main remedies were prayers, fasting, and repentance. The nature of diseases was no longer associated with natural causes, being considered a punishment for sins. At the same time, the positive side of Christianity was mercy, which required a patient attitude towards the sick and crippled. Medical care in the first hospitals was limited to isolation and care. The methods of treating contagious and mentally ill patients were a kind of psychotherapy: instilling hope for salvation, assurances of the support of heavenly forces, complemented by the goodwill of the staff.

Eastern countries became the place for the creation of medical encyclopedias, among which the “Canon of Medical Science” compiled by the great Avicenna was considered the most impressive in terms of volume and value of content. The five books of this unique work summarize the knowledge and experience of Greek, Roman and Asian doctors. Having more than 30 Latin editions, Avicenna’s work was a mandatory guide for every physician in medieval Europe for several centuries.

Beginning in the 10th century, the center of Arab science moved to the Cordoba Caliphate. The great surgeons Ibn Zuhr, Ibn Rushd and Maimonides once worked in the state formed on the territory of Spain. The Arab school of surgery was based on rational methods, proven by many years of clinical practice, free from the religious dogmas followed by European medicine.

Modern researchers view medieval medical schools as “a ray of light in the darkness of ignorance,” a kind of harbinger of the Renaissance. Contrary to popular belief, the schools only partly rehabilitated Greek science, primarily through Arabic translations. The return to Hippocrates, Galen and Aristotle was of a formal nature, that is, while recognizing the theory, the followers discarded the invaluable practice of their ancestors.

Medieval society in Western Europe was agrarian. The basis of the economy is agriculture, and the vast majority of the population was employed in this area. Labor in agriculture, as in other branches of production, was manual, which predetermined its low efficiency and generally slow pace of technical and economic evolution.

The vast majority of the population of Western Europe lived outside the city throughout the Middle Ages. If for ancient Europe cities were very important - they were independent centers of life, the nature of which was predominantly municipal, and a person’s belonging to a city determined his civil rights, then in Medieval Europe, especially in the first seven centuries, the role of cities was insignificant, although over time Over time, the influence of cities is increasing.

The Western European Middle Ages was a period of dominance of subsistence farming and weak development of commodity-money relations. The insignificant level of regional specialization associated with this type of economy determined the development of mainly long-distance (external) rather than short-range (internal) trade. Long-distance trade was focused mainly on the upper strata of society. Industry during this period existed in the form of crafts and manufacturing.

The Middle Ages is characterized by an exceptionally strong role of the church and a high degree of ideologization of society. If in the Ancient world each nation had its own religion, which reflected its national characteristics, history, temperament, way of thinking, then in Medieval Europe there was one religion for all peoples - Christianity, which became the basis for uniting Europeans into one family, the formation of a single European civilization.

If in the East the cultural upsurge of the 1st millennium AD. e. occurred on a solid foundation of well-established ancient cultural traditions, then among the peoples of Western Europe by this time the process of cultural development and the formation of class relations had only just begun. “The Middle Ages developed from a completely primitive state. It wiped out ancient civilization, ancient philosophy, politics and jurisprudence and started all over again. The only thing that the Middle Ages took from the lost ancient world was Christianity and several dilapidated cities that had lost all their previous civilization.” (F. Engels). Moreover, if in the East established cultural traditions made it possible for a long time to resist the constraining influence of the dogma of organized religions, then in the West the church, even subjected to the 5th-7th centuries. “barbarization” was the only social institution that preserved the remnants of late antique culture. From the very beginning of the conversion of barbarian tribes to Christianity, she took control of their cultural development and spiritual life, ideology, education and medicine. And then we should talk no longer about the Greco-Latin, but about the Romano-Germanic cultural community and Byzantine culture, which followed their own special paths.

How did medicine develop in medieval Europe? Back in the 14th and 15th centuries, the best experts recommended this method of combating the disease as hanging by the legs so that “the poison would come out of the ears, nose, mouth and eyes.” But maybe these are isolated incidents, but otherwise everything was not so bad? Familiarization with other sources leads to a disappointing conclusion - no, that’s how it happened.

European medieval medicine knew only a few universal “medicines” - enemas, emetics, bloodletting, cauterization, mercuric chloride and, of course, prayer. This entire set of “medicines,” as you might guess, did more harm to the cure of the sick than it helped. All sources only confirm the decadent state of medieval Christian medicine in comparison with Arabic.

Here is one of the amazing examples of healing among the Franks.

“The ruler of al-Munaytyra wrote a letter to his uncle, asking him to send a doctor to cure several of his sick comrades. His uncle sent him a Christian doctor whose name was Thabit. Less than twenty days passed before he returned back.

“How quickly you cured the sick,” we told him. “They brought me a knight,” the doctor told us, “who had an abscess on his leg, and a woman suffering from tabes. I put a small poultice on the knight, and his abscess opened and began to heal, and I ordered the woman to warm up and moisten her composition. A Frankish doctor came to these patients and said: “This Muslim does not understand anything about treatment. What is more pleasant for you,” he asked the knight, “to live with one leg or to die with both?” “I want to live with one leg,” answered the knight.

“Bring me a strong knight,” said the doctor, and bring me a sharp ax.” The knight appeared with an axe, and I was present. The doctor placed the patient's leg on a log and said to the knight: “Hit his leg with an ax and chop it off with one blow.” The knight struck before my eyes, but did not cut off his legs; then he hit her a second time, the brain flowed out of the leg bones, and the patient died immediately. Then the doctor looked at the woman and said: “In this woman’s head is a devil who has fallen in love with her. Shave her head." The woman was shaved, and she again began to eat the usual food of the Franks - garlic and mustard. Her tabes got worse, and the doctor said, “The devil has entered her head.” He grabbed a razor, cut the skin on her head with a cross and tore it off the middle of her head so much that the skull bones became visible. He then rubbed salt on her head and she died immediately. I asked them, “Do you still need me?” And they said, “No,” and then I left, having learned something about their healing that I didn’t know before.”

Can we trust this description of Osama ibn Munkyz? After all, he was a participant in the wars with the crusaders, and, of course, he could not stand the Franks - he saw in them “only animals that have the dignity of valor in battles and nothing more, just as animals have valor and courage in attack...”. But judging by what we know about medieval surgeons, Munkyz’s description is quite adequate. It is worth remembering that autopsies were prohibited until the 16th century. Anatomy was viewed only through the prism of religion - for example, Adrian Spigelius (1578-1625) argued that a person needs the ass solely because it is a natural pillow, “shining on which a person can righteously and diligently indulge in thoughts about the divine.”

Even if the surgeon learned to cut quickly - and this is what they strived for, remembering Hippocrates: “What causes pain should be in them for the shortest time, and this will be when the section is performed quickly” - then due to the lack of pain relief, even the surgeon’s virtuoso technique could only help in rare cases. In Ancient Egypt, attempts at pain relief were made already in the 5th-3rd millennia BC. Anesthesia in Ancient Greece and Rome, in Ancient China and India was carried out using tinctures of mandrake, belladonna, opium, etc., in the 15th-13th centuries BC. Alcohol was used for the first time for this purpose. But in Europe they forgot about all this (despite the fact that the same mandrake, for example, was mentioned in the Bible). In the Middle Ages, there were only such curious methods of pain relief as “the method of general anesthesia by hitting the head with a heavy object,” when, as a result of a concussion, the patient fell into an unconscious state, remaining indifferent to the surgeon’s manipulations, bloodletting, clamping of the carotid artery and cooling (until now Since then, the term “freezing” has existed, although now this does not at all mean the cooling of tissues as such). Later, an equally intricate idea of rectal anesthesia arose - tobacco enemas.

The analgesic effect of such drugs was negligible, and patients could only rely on the skill of the surgeons, who tried to perform complex operations with very high speed. Usually it didn’t help - patients died from painful shock (the rest died a little later from sepsis). The pattern of getting sick and dying in those years was the norm rather than the exception.

“The surgeon’s knife and pain are inseparable from each other! Making operations painless is a dream that will never come true!” - said the famous French surgeon A. Velno at the end of the 17th (!) century. It was only in the mid-19th century that ether was first used; October 16, 1846 is the date of the beginning of modern anesthesiology. Nevertheless, superstitious people in the Middle Ages flocked to surgeons in order, for example, to cut out “bumps of stupidity” without any anesthesia. These are wen on the head. It was believed: if they cut you out, you will become wiser. Hieronymus Bosch captured this action in the painting “Removing the Stone of Folly.”

“Medical methods of providing assistance at that time were primitive and, often, cruel. Especially in surgery. For example, in order to amputate a limb, a heavy wooden hammer, a “mallet,” was used as a “painkiller,” the blow of which on the head led to the loss of consciousness of the patient, with other unpredictable consequences. The wounds were cauterized with a hot iron, or poured with boiling water or boiling resin.”

Throughout the second millennium, the European population was decimated by epidemics of ergotism, smallpox, plague, tuberculosis, typhoid, syphilis and leprosy. The famous Nostradamus successfully fought the plague by following basic hygiene rules - he bathed every day. But a strongly religious Christian could not afford this, because washing is a sin. Back in the 11th century, Pope Clement III issued a decree by virtue of which it was forbidden to bathe or even wash your face on Sundays. But de facto, by the 11th century in Christian Europe, few people washed themselves. Later, in addition to religious reasons, quite objective ones will arise - forests will run out in Western Europe (there was no longer enough firewood for cooking - only for the fires of the Holy Inquisition), a cold snap will set in (the so-called Little Ice Age, in Paris even the bells cracked from the cold) and It will become almost impossible to wash in cold water: after all, not everyone is a “walrus.” People are so unaccustomed to water procedures that Dr. F.E. In a popular textbook of medicine at the end of the 19th (!) century, Biltz had to persuade people to wash themselves.

“There are people who, to tell the truth, do not dare to swim in a river or in a bath, because since childhood they have never entered the water. This fear is unfounded,” Biltz wrote in the book “The New Natural Treatment,” “After the fifth or sixth bath you can get used to it...” Few people believed the doctor...

Epidemics were fought in different ways in the Middle Ages. Lepers, for example, many of whom appeared in Europe after the first crusade, were simply not allowed into the cities, because the leper himself was considered damned. Special gatekeepers were stationed at the city gates to detain people with leprosy. In rural areas, lepers were required to warn of their appearance with the sounds of a rattle, horn or bell. Anyone who seemed “unclean” to their neighbors was simply expelled from the city. The sick person was considered doomed. When the first signs of leprosy appeared, a person was buried in church, as if he were already dead, after which he was given special clothes and the already mentioned rattle or bell in order to warn healthy people of his approach. Those who were “lucky” came under the supervision of the next Christian order named after. St. Lazarus, who gave the name to the infirmaries. The Order organized leper colonies for leprosy patients, from which they “could not leave under threat of death. In Central Europe alone, by 1250 there were already 19,000 of these leper colonies. Everyone was terribly afraid of people “rotting alive.”

In France, lepers were forced to live in special houses - leper colonies. Throughout the Middle Ages, “rules” were drawn up for the behavior of the leper and his relatives. Here is one of them. “As soon as the disease was discovered, the person was taken to a religious tribunal, which ... condemned him to death.” What did this mean? The unfortunate man was taken to the church, where everything was prepared for the funeral. The patient was placed in a coffin, a funeral service was served, taken to the cemetery, lowered into the grave and several shovels of earth were thrown on him with the words: “You are not alive, you are dead to all of us.” After this, the patient was pulled out of the grave and taken to the leper colony. Forever. He never returned home to his family again. To everyone he was dead.

This is a good time to ask the question: how accurate was the diagnosis of the disease? How could illiterate monks and doctors make the diagnosis correctly? Diagnosis usually amounted to something like looking for “leprosy on the clothing and on the beard” - exactly as explained in the Bible. Therefore, if chroniclers write about a plague epidemic, it is still necessary to find out what kind of disease is meant - the “fire plague” (ergot poisoning) or the plague itself. The symptoms are too similar.

The church and population “understood” the causes of epidemics better than doctors. If there is an epidemic, then it means for sins. The churchmen did not delve into further diagnostics, and fought against the “machinations of the devil” in the only logical way for them - in medieval Europe, bells constantly rang during epidemics, helping people cope with the disease. Sometimes, in addition to the “deeds of the devil,” less metaphysical explanations were found. So the epidemic of the “Black Death” - the plague - was believed to have occurred because the Jews poisoned the wells. The godless Jews were burned, of course, but this had no effect on the spread of the disease - apparently, the Devil himself helped them in poisoning Christians. No one had yet suspected the existence of deadly bacilli (the causative agent of the plague, for example, was discovered only at the very end of the 19th century by the French physician Alexandre Yersin in Hong Kong) and the need for hygiene. “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands,” the Pharisees once asked Christ. “Eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.” - answered the Savior.

Obedient Christians stopped washing their hands. And not just before meals.

And here is another “funny” and, you see, shameful episode from the recent history of medical “art”: Ignate Semmelweis, a Hungarian gynecologist, was deprived of the right to practice in 1848 because he began to publicly insist on washing his hands during childbirth. Ridiculed by his fellow doctors, convicted and stripped of his license, Semmelweis went mad and died relatively young, while tens of thousands of mothers and newborns continued to die from infections introduced by doctors and midwives. Medieval medicine was based on four types of human nature: black bile , yellow bile, phlegm and blood. Their “balance” meant good health for the patient. And this “balance of the types of human nature” was achieved through diets, enemas and bloodletting. Doctors, even at a much later time, trying to explain the causes of diseases from some principle, found themselves captive to even more fantastic ideas.