Rome Falls in

476A.D.
As the Roman Empire ended, Europe fell into
the Dark Ages. Superstition crept back into
beliefs about medicine, and people were taught
that diseases were punishment from God.
Some saints were almost specialists:
St. Hubert for
suffering of rabies
St. Dymphna was
favored for mental
diseases
St. Roch for
plague
St. Blaise for throat
complaints

The Middle Ages

● Europe was hit with a terrible
epidemic that killed millions of
people called the plague, or
Black Death.
● Two deadly forms of the plague.
● pneumonic plague was spread
in the air from person to person
● bubonic plague was caused by
bites from infected fleas. The
fleas bit rats and then bit
humans causing the disease to
spread quickly in dirty cities.
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The Arab Influence

●Much of what was learned from the
Greeks and
Romans was transferred to the new
Islamic
regions of Northern Africa, the Middle
East and
Spain.
●Medical schools and hospitals were
built to
support the work of Arabic doctors who
further
explored medicine as a science.
● Avicenna(980-1037 A.D.), the
“prince of
physicians,” is noted for his Canon of
Medicine.