Medieval Remedies

Enchiridion of Erasmus (A Handbook)

The medieval treatment plan for diseases falls into three categories; pharmaceutics (pharmacia) which was called medication by Latin speakers (medicamen), surgery (chirurgia) which was also called "work of the hands" in Latin (manuun operatio) and finally, regimen (diaeta) also called rule (regula) which, none surprisingly, is the observance of a regulated life.
All treatment during the middle ages operated under the four humors; and was applied via the use of opposites or similarities. As mentioned previously, symmetry and order were the loves of the time; the idea that the human body could be easily broken down into a balancing act was an alluring one;

"By means of opposites, as cold is applied to hot, or moist to dry - just as in human pride cannot be cured unless it is cured by humility" (Isidore, Etymologies IV.ix.5)

This statement is revealing, likening health and medication to human emotions and desires; If you can "cure" a man of his pride with such an opposite, then surely you can cure a physical ailment through a similar application of opposites. The idea that every thing can be rationalised and broken down into an ordered and structured world view permeates scholarly writings and the medieval period in general; each emotion has an opposite, each humor has an opposite, each symptom has an opposite all in perfect harmony when in its "natural state" - unless something comes along and upsets the balance, whereupon illness of the mind (such as the aforementioned pride), the spirit or the body can occur.

Even the term antidote (antidotum) which is Greek in origin, means "derived from the opposite" in Latin.

However, the second treatment plan was via similarities, with such obvious applications like applying a round bandage to a round wound - or shockingly applying an oblong bandage to an oblong wound - the upshot of this is merely that one should know what you are trying to heal, you cannot heal different limbs and wounds in the same way, but similar is suited to similar.

A couple of examples of the types of medical texts that were in used in the curing of disease; first there were prognostic (prognosticon) treatises that focused upon the predicting the progression of diseases; to quote, "a physician should recognise the past, know the present, and foresee the future" (Etymologies, IV x.2). Second, were texts called dinamidia which described the properties and powers of herbs - what they are best used for etc. 

Shall we move onto some of instruments that were used in the healing of such an unfortunate individual to have his humors unbalanced? The first of note is the "cupping glass" (guva) which was also called a gourd (cucuribita) and ventosa (wind-like) for its hissing noise it makes when the air is heated within it. Basically this bad boy was used to draw up a humor to the surface - usually blood - via heated air in a glass jar placed onto a wound, this created a vacuum seal and the hot air in the glass brought the necessary humor to the surface.

Next on the list is the good, old fashioned Mortar (pila) and Pestle (pilum); still used today but mostly in cooking shows, these were used to crush and grind up grains and herbs so that drugs could be made. Nothing particularly invasive about that so I will finish with the lancet (phlebotomum), or more commonly know as these days as the scalpel, used to cut you up in new and exciting ways such as helping remove limbs that have gone gangrenous, carving out tumors or generally just trying to remove you of an excess of humor by cutting in strategic places.

Medicine was not counted among the "seven liberal arts", not because it was a lesser art, but because it was believed that one must know all of seven arts before you can enter into medicine; a physician must know grammar so that he can understand and explain what he reads, he must know rhetoric so that he might be capable of summing up the case for his treatments, he must especially know logic so that through the proper application of reason he might deduce the cause of an illness.
The Quadrivium is equally important; a physician must know arithmetic so that he might be able to count hours and track the development of disease, he must know geometry so that his knowledge of areas and places will allow him to instruct as to the best way a patient might look after themselves at home, music must be known to him so that he might use it to soothe the ill, and through astronomy a physician can track the seasons and stars - for as they change so does their impact upon the body.

For this reason, Medicine was called the "Second Philosophy" - for philosophy cures the human soul, whereas medicine cures the body.

Next Time: Laws and Time.