Medieval Superstitions & Medicine

Use the following websites to start your research:

1. http://listverse.com/2014/03/03/10-completely-uncanny-superstitions-from-the-middle-ages/
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8913709/Tony-Robinson-on-the-top-fivesuperstitions-that-gripped-medieval-Britain.html
3. http://www.stylist.co.uk/life/13-strange-superstitions
4. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/health_and_medicine_in_medieval_.htm
5. http://listverse.com/2013/07/31/10-bizarre-medieval-medical-practices/
6. https://www.aimseducation.edu/blog/medieval-medical-practices-still-use-today/
After skimming the websites above, choose the 1 superstition AND the 1 medical
practice that intrigue you the MOST. Continue your narrowed research to learn the
specific details of each. Compile a list of at least 10 facts about each. Bookmark the
website(s) where you found your information on your Pearltrees account.
Superstition:
_________Changelings__________________________________________
1. A blacksmiths son had collapsed into lethargy and everyone thought he would
die.
2. The boy yelled that he was 800 years old.
3. That confirmed that he was a changeling.
4. They threw the imposter into a fire.
5. If you were to put a shoe in a bowl of soup in front of a baby and it giggled, that
means it was a changeling.
6. A changeling was a manikin or elf imposing as a young child.
7. The changeling sometimes gave himself away by telling his age.
8. The fairies would have trouble baring their own healthy children.
9. They would use some babies as slaves and servants.
10.
The theft of the bay would usually take place at night when everyone was
asleep.

Title of Website: http://listverse.com/2014/03/03/10-completely-uncannysuperstitions-from-the-middle-ages/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8913709/Tony-Robinson-on-the-topfive-superstitions-that-gripped-medieval-Britain.html
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/changeling.aspx
http://www.wyrdology.com/fairies/changelings.html

Medical Practice: _ Blood

letting_______________________________________________
1.
2.
3.
4.

Doctors would remove large quantities of blood from a persons veins.

Two ways were leeching and venesection.
The blood-worm was another name for leech.
Another way would be by cutting open a vein with a knife called a fleam and let
the blood drain from the patients body.
5. People would do it so often because they thought it would keep them healthy.
6. Doctors in the medieval times, believed in things called humors.
7. Humors would be yellow bile, blood, black bile, and phlegm.
8. The excess of blood was often seen as a cause of multiple ailments.
9. This practice originated in ancient Egypt.
10.
It was believed that blood loss allowed people to believe that they entered a
trance-like state.

Title of Website: http://listverse.com/2014/03/03/10-completely-uncannysuperstitions-from-the-middle-ages/

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval-england/health-and-medicine-inmedieval-england/
http://listverse.com/2013/07/31/10-bizarre-medieval-medical-practices/
http://www.history.com/news/a-brief-history-of-bloodletting