History GCSE Summer work Project:

Exploring the first part of your next topic: Medicine

Medieval medicine

a) Doctors in medieval times

1) If you visited a doctor in Medieval times how would they diagnose your ailment, and what kind of
treatments might you receive?
2) What were the 4 humours, and how would a doctor use this theory?
3) What training would a doctor receive in Medieval times?
4) Would everyone see a doctor? If they didn’t see a doctor, who might they see?

b) Christianity and medieval medicine

1) What did Christians believe about health and medicine in medieval times?
2) How did Christians treat the sick?
3) Create a table showing how it could be argued Christianity helped health and medicine in medieval
times, and then how it could be argued it hindered it.

c) Islam and medieval medicine

1) What did Islam believe about health and medicine in medieval times?
2) How was this different to Christian ideas?
3) Create a list of Islamic writers at this time and what they were writing about?
4) Create a table showing how it could be argued Islam helped health and medicine in medieval times,
and then how it could be argued it hindered it.

d) Medieval surgery

1) Who were surgeons in medieval times?

2) What sort of operations could they carry out?
3) Create a list of surgeons who managed to help progress surgery in this period, and how they did this.

e) Public Health

1) What is meant by the term ‘public health’?

2) What was it like living in towns in medieval times?
3) Why were local councils/ mayors reluctant to make improvements?
4) Make a list of what some town councils did to try and improve public health.
5) What was it like to live in a monastery in medieval times?
6) Why was public health better in monasteries than in towns in this period?

f) The Black Death

1) What was the Black Death?

2) What did people think caused it?
3) How did they try to cure it?
4) What were the consequences of the Black Death?