Page 55 - All About History - Issue 52-17
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Medieval #Trends
Medieval maladies
LOCATION: GERMANY Falling ill in the Middle Ages
Couples in medieval Germany didn’t waste time entered you into a very dangerous
when it came to solving their disputes. Rather than
just arguing like any normal couple, they took to game of chance
the ring. Trial by single combat was a popular It’s safe to say that the Middle Ages weren’t the
way to solve disagreements, and when best time to fall ill. It can best be described as an
man and wife were fighting there were ‘experimental’ time for medicine, where everything
bizarre restrictions, for example the from demons to bad smells were blamed for illness.
husband must stand in a hole with Some of the remedies used to cure maladies were
a hand behind his back, while his equally as bizarre, including the patient whipping
wife ran around with a sack themselves, burning their teeth with a candle for
filled with rocks. toothache and, of course, a good old-fashioned
hazardous pilgrimage. However, whether by sheer
The precursor for luck or actual medical knowledge, some of the
marriage counselling
unusual remedies actually worked and are, to an
extent, still used today.
An example of this is bloodletting, where blood
was drawn from a vein by nicking it with a blade, or in
certain situations, leeches were applied. Trepanation
probably sounds the most brutal of all medieval
remedies, as it involved cutting a hole directly into
the human skull to release ‘evil spirits’, however
trepanning is still used as treatment today but is
known as a craniotomy.
But it isn’t just the procedures that have now been
deemed as suitable. It has also been discovered that
many bizarre medieval herbal concoctions were
actually successful such as using onion, which has
antibiotic properties, to treat a stye, and bizarrely, snail
slime on a burn. This is still utilised today under the
innocuous name of ‘Snail Gel.’
LOCATION: WESTERN EUROPE
People in the medieval times were
very preoccupied with death, which is
understandable if you consider how pious
society was at the time and also the fact
that many people were falling victim to the
Black Death. As a result, a trend known as
‘ars moriendi’ or ‘The art of dying’ came The aim was
serenity in death
into fashion. The idea revolved around
dying a good Christian death. This
‘good’ death should be planned,
peaceful. Just to add further stress
when you’re about to pop your
clogs, the dying person should, like
Christ, accept their fate without
despair, disbelief, impatience, pride
or avarice. Dying well was particularly
popular with the priesthood, which led to
In order to solve dental woes, people would have to visit the
many of the infamous medieval paintings of
barber, who doubled up as a dentist
monks and holy men accepting their brutal
murders with calm serenity.
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