Some
people believed that diseases were a punishment from God. Others thought
illnesses were linked to the positions of the stars and planets. Another
theory was that there was an invisible poison in the air, which they
called 'miasma'. Greek and Roman ideas about the four humours of the
body still existed. Cities were dirty places to live in. There was no
sewage system. Many people threw toilet waste into the street along
with other rubbish. Rats were very common in cities and villages and
helped to spread the Black Death.
People used pigs to eat what rubbish there was. Water was far from clean.
The local river was polluted with toilet waste thrown into it from villages.
As people used this as a source of water (they had no other choice)
and because people knew little about health and hygiene, disease was
common. Life for a poor person in a city or village was brutal and short.
Peasants houses were filthy, usually no more than two rooms, with walls
covered with a mixture of mud, straw and manure. People's diet was mainly
pulses, nuts, black bread, and a few homegrown vegetables.
MEDIEVAL
MEDICINE
Many people in the Middle Ages were less healthy than earlier people
had been. The Romans had known that good buildings, clean water and
sewers were important. But after the collapse of the Roman Empire many
people lived in poorer and dirtier conditions. Many of the Romans' ideas
about medicine were lost too.This was a time of little change in medicine.
Medical knowledge and treatments stayed at the same low level for nearly
a thousand years:
· Knowledge of public health was lost after the Roman Empire
fell. Apart from the monasteries, people forgot about the importance
of clean water.
· There was instability and war.
· Learning was lost as libraries and universities collapsed.
· Communications were poor so it was hard for doctors to learn
or discuss ideas.
The Church controlled all learning. Trees, fruits, flowers, and vegetables
were imported from one monastery in a country to another and the healing
virtues of plants and minerals were studied and applied to alleviate
the sufferings of the sick. As dissections were not allowed, knowledge
of anatomy was poor.
MEDICAL
SCIENCE AND HEALTHCARE
The most important sources of medical science were Arabic texts. The
Islamic world was the centre of medical knowledge. Greek medical texts
were translated into Arabic and augmented with pharmaceutical information.
Arnau de Vilanova, the most outstanding physician of the age, translated
medical texts from Arabic into Catalan.
In Medieval period the monasteries were practically the only place of
study and learning. The monks were the best-educated members of society
- often they were the only educated members of society. Monasteries
acted as
libraries for ancient manuscripts, and many monks were occupied with
medicine
studies. Many theologians considered disease and injury to be the result
of supernatural intervention and insisted that cures were only possible
through prayer.
The monasteries were hospitals and places of refuge for the weak and
homeless. The condition that qualified an individual for assistance
was poverty, old age, or disease.
HOSPITALS
AND PHYSICIANS IN CATALONIA
Until the fourteenth century, Catalan hospitals took care more than
cured. As a consequence, most hospitals did not distinguish between
the sick and the homeless. This sort of hospital sheltered pilgrims,
invalids, and poors. Medical care was introduced into Catalan hospitals
around the middle of the fourteenth century. Tortosa, asked in 1345
that the town physician, doctor, also visit and treat the sick in the
municipal hospital. The Hospital of the Poor in Girona and the Hospital
of Sant Feliu de Guixols had contracts with physicians. At Barcelona's
Hospital of Sant Macià there were two physicians: Berenguer Banyeres
and Francesc Pedralbes. In addition, the hospital had the services of
certain apothecaries. King Pere ordered in 1336 to visit all who were
ill in the city's hospitals free of charge. In the early fifteenth century,
the new Hospital of Santa Creu in Barcelona had a barber and an apothecary.
In some areas, Jews, who were less than one percent of the population,
were almost fifty percent of the medical professionals. They were the
doctors of kings and rich people.