Saturday, May 19, 2012

Despite the generally dreadful reputation of medicine during the period 400-1400, there was evidence of progress both in the Arab world as well as the Christian world. Discuss what this progress was, especially institutional responses.

Both Arabic and Christian civilizations in the Middle Ages between 400-1400 made significant medical advances.
From an institutional perspective, hospitals began to crop up in the Middle Ages. The United States National Library of Medicine credits medieval Islamic civilization as the founder of the idea of a hospital, or a place where the ill were welcomed, cared for, and treated by trained staff. Baghdad and Damascus were two early cities famous for their hospitals.
These early Arabic hospitals tended to be more secular than religious, while the early Christian hospitals almost always were administered by monasteries.
While early medicines were not safe, from a conceptual perspective, these civilizations understood that illness could be combated with antidotes. It took a while for the different medicines to work well and many died as a result of bad medicine, but this process was necessary for the advancement of knowledge.
Similarly, before understanding germ theory, these civilizations had the basic conceptual understanding that sick humans could make healthy humans sick through close proximity. During this time period, cities practiced quarantines as a way of separating the sick from the healthy.
During this time period, these civilizations also began studying cadavers which displays a desire to learn about the human body and its role in medicine.


While medical practices have come a long way since then, there were a number of advancements in medicine during the Middle Ages. While knowledge of pathogens was still largely unknown, it was understood that sick people could make other people sick. Therefore, whenever there was fear of plagues, many cities instituted a quarantine. In fact, the very word quarantine comes from the 40 days in which visitors to certain Venetian ports during the Black Death had to wait before entering the city.
Hospitals were also established during the Middle Ages. They were usually run by monasteries in Europe but were secular in the Arab world. Many hospitals had features such as different wards for different diseases and medicinal herb gardens. In 10th Century Bagdad, medical costs were paid by the local government if a patient could not afford it.
Universities of both the Arabs and Europeans often had courses of study that focussed on medicine. At these schools, physicians could even earn a certificate to prove that they had formal training in medicine.
Many Arab and European physicians dissected cadavers in order to get a better understanding of human anatomy. This allowed them to be more successful when diagnosing certain ailments or performing surgery.
https://www.bl.uk/the-middle-ages/articles/medicine-diagnosis-and-treatment-in-the-middle-ages

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2016/11-12/muslim-medicine-scientific-discovery-islam/


One reason that the medical field has such a bad reputation during this time period is due to the Black Plague, which hit the Italian city-states in 1349 and rapidly spread along European trade routes. Medicine did have many advancements during the Middle Ages, however. The first hospitals formed as church-run shelters for travelers and the poor. During the eighth century, secular hospitals were common in the Arabic world. Pharmacies in the Arabic world also date from this period. They would spread to Europe by the twelfth century. While the medicines were often just as dangerous as the diseases they claimed to treat, it was important that there were at least institutions committed to creating mixtures to combat diseases. Eyeglasses originate in medieval Italy with paintings dating from the fourteenth century of monks wearing glasses. Medieval Italian doctors were also pioneers in the field of dissection, though it was still taboo to many in the Church. Under the leadership of Frederick II, medical studies in universities became popular in the thirteenth century. This was important as one can see the beginnings of a secular practice of medicine that would rely on empirical knowledge and research. Medieval Arabic physicians were also pioneers in the field of ophthalmology and could even remove cataracts via syringe. Theodoric Borgognoni proclaimed new methods of wound cleaning. Thanks to him, it became standard medical procedure to remove pus from wounds before suturing. He also soaked rags to be used in surgery in wine before applying them to the patient. While the effects were not as efficient as using alcohol as a disinfectant, it was at least an improvement over no cleanliness at all on the operating table. During a plague outbreak in 1377, the city of Dubrovnik practiced quarantine in order to protect itself from plague ships. In a time without a knowledge of germ theory, isolating oneself from the sick was quite important. I realize that it is a little outside of your geographic specification, but China in 659 also started using silver and tin for tooth fillings. The procedure would not become widespread in Europe until the sixteenth century.
All of these advancements, if not demonstrating rapid medical advancements, at least demonstrate that scientists in the Middle East and Europe were looking more towards science and institutions to train physicians to use proper procedures to treat the sick and injured.
https://www.medievalists.net/2015/11/top-10-medical-advances-from-the-middle-ages/

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