Hello, I'm Mr. Marchant and I'll be your history teacher for today.

I'm really looking forward to starting our learning journey together, and my role will be to make sure that you can meet today's learning objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on mediaeval medicine and health, where we're asking ourselves how much was known about medicine and health? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to evaluate the effectiveness of mediaeval approaches to the treatment and prevention of disease.

There are three keywords which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are penance, bloodletting, and purging.

Penance is an act that shows you are sorry for something that you have done.

Bloodletting is a procedure that involves deliberately draining blood from the body, and purging is the act of getting rid of something which is considered undesirable.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts, and we'll begin by focusing on treatment and prevention.

Treatment and prevention are two different approaches to medicine; both aim to protect people's health.

So based on what we've just heard, I want you to write the missing word from the following sentence: Medical treatments and prevention both aim to "blank" people's health.

So what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing word was protect.

Medical treatments and prevention both aim to protect people's health.

Whilst forms of treatment and prevention are both aimed at protecting people's health, they do this in different ways.

Methods of treatment are adopted after a person has already become unwell or caught a disease.

These methods often focus on restoring a person's health by curing the illness or disease they are suffering from.

Alternatively, treatments may sometimes focus on making it easier for people to cope with an illness they are suffering from.

By contrast, forms of prevention focus on maintaining people's good health and stopping them from becoming unwell in the first place.

This might include requiring a person to take certain actions themselves or managing the environment they live in.

Both treatment and prevention are most effective when the correct cause of illness and disease is understood.

However, at many points in history, including during the mediaeval period, the causes of disease and illness were poorly understood, and many forms of treatment and prevention were therefore ineffective.

Nevertheless, methods of prevention have generally proved more effective at protecting people's health than treatments.

So let's check our understanding of everything that we've just heard.

We have a statement on the screen that reads: "Forms of treatment focus on protecting people from developing illness in the first place." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false.

But we need to be able to justify our answer.

So why was that original statement incorrect? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said forms of treatment focus on restoring people's health after they have already caught a disease.

Prevention focuses on protecting people from becoming unwell in the first place.

So that's an important distinction which we need to remember.

And let's try another question.

Which of the following is most likely to improve the effectiveness of treatments and prevention? Is it accurate knowledge of the causes of illness, larger populations living in a country, or medics having access to more books? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was A.

Accurate knowledge of the causes of illness is most likely to improve the effectiveness of treatments and prevention because they can address that cause to try and protect people.

If those causes are unknown or poorly understood, the effectiveness of treatments and prevention can be very limited.

And let's try one more question.

Which statement is most accurate? That mediaeval methods of treatment and prevention were equally effective, that mediaeval treatment was more effective than prevention, Or that mediaeval prevention was more effective than treatment? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was C, mediaeval prevention was more effective than treatment.

Okay, so now we're in a good position to put all of our knowledge of treatment and prevention into practise.

I want you to describe two differences between treatment and prevention.

You may consider when they're used, the aims of these different methods, or the effectiveness of these methods.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I asked you to describe two differences between treatment and prevention, and your answers may have included: Treatments are used to protect a person's health after they've already become unwell, whereas prevention is used to protect people before they have become ill.

And historically, methods of prevention have often been more effective at protecting people's health than methods of treatment.

So well done if your own answers look something similar to those models which we've just seen there.

So now we're ready to move on to the second part of our lesson, where we are going to focus on religious approaches to treating and preventing disease.

Religion was perhaps the most common explanation for the causes of disease and illness in mediaeval Britain.

Consequently, many methods of treatment and prevention were religiously influenced.

Mediaeval Christians believed that disease was a punishment for sins sent by God.

Therefore, avoiding sin was seen as an important preventative step to protect people's health.

This included regularly praying, attending church, and obeying the church's teachings.

Treatment for those who became unwell frequently involved acts of penance intended to obtain God's forgiveness.

These acts included confessing sins which a person had committed, praying, and acts of suffering like fasting, where people ate nothing for a certain period of time.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

I want you to write the missing word from the following sentence: "Blank" could involve acts of suffering like fasting to show Christians were sorry for their sins.

So what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing word was penance.

Penance could involve acts of suffering, like fasting, to show Christians were sorry for their sins.

This was often done in the hope of obtaining God's forgiveness and therefore ensuring a person could recover from that disease.

Let's try another question.

This time we have a statement that reads: "Religious methods of treating and preventing disease were completely different." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So why was that original statement incorrect? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your response.

Okay, well done to everybody who said it was hoped that prayer could help Christians avoid disease, but also that it could help treat those who were already unwell.

So some methods that were religiously influenced were used for both treating and preventing disease.

Most mediaeval Christians believed in miracles.

Aside from God, it was believed that saints were also capable of performing miracles, including the ability to treat some health conditions.

Christians across Europe, including in Britain, sometimes made pilgrimages, which are religious journeys to sites associated with particular saints, hoping to be cured.

For example, many mediaeval pilgrims travelled to the tomb of St.

Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, including Petronella of Polesworth, an epileptic nun who was reported to be cured of her epilepsy after she visited Becket's tomb.

So thinking about what we've just heard, what condition was it claimed that Petronella of Polesworth was cured of after visiting St.

Thomas Becket's tomb? Was it cancer, epilepsy, or plague? Pause the video here and press play when you are ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

It was claimed that Petronella of Polesworth, an epileptic nun who visited the tomb of St.

Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, was cured of her epilepsy after making her pilgrimage to that site.

So we are now in a good position to put all of our knowledge of religious approaches to treatment and prevention into practise.

I want you to study the image shown on the screen.

We can see an illustration of a person praying.

I want you to explain how the image relates to some mediaeval approaches to the treatment and prevention of disease.

So pause the video here and press play when you are ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to explain how the image related to some mediaeval approaches to the treatment and prevention of disease.

And your answer may have included: The image shows a man in prayer.

As it was generally accepted that ill health could be sent by God as a punishment for sin, it was believed that actions such as praying could help a Christian to avoid sin and therefore to prevent them from becoming ill.

Similarly, prayer could act as a form of penance in the hope that this would achieve God's forgiveness and act as a cure for those who were already unwell.

So well done if your own answer looked something similar to that model which we've just seen.

And so now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today, where we are going to focus on rational and natural approaches to treating and preventing disease in the mediaeval period.

Aside from religion, rational and natural explanations also existed in mediaeval Britain to explain the causes of disease.

Thus, many alternative methods for treating and preventing disease based on these explanations were also in use.

The theory of the four humours explained that ill health was the result of four liquids within the body being out of balance.

As the theory was still accepted in the mediaeval period, many treatments focused on trying to restore a balance between the humours in a person's body.

This might involve purging the humour which was believed to be in excess.

For example, bloodletting was a common but dangerous procedure whereby patients believed to have too much blood had a vein cut so that blood could be drained from their body.

For the same reason, leeches, which are blood-sucking animals, might be applied to some patients' bodies.

Laxatives and emetics were also used to purge some of the other humours, as laxatives cause a person's bowels to empty, whilst emetics make a person vomit.

Treatments also attempted to restore a balance between the humours based on the theory of opposites developed by Galen, an ancient Roman surgeon.

For instance, if a person had an excess of phlegm, which was seen as cold and wet, it was recommended that they consume something considered hot and dry, like pepper or mustard seed.

It was hoped this would restore a balance in their humours.

More beneficially, belief in the four humours did encourage people to try and act in moderation to prevent illness.

Therefore, it was encouraged that people should get some exercise, rest, and eat a variety of food to keep their humours balanced.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

Which of the following treatments are examples of purging? Is it bloodletting, confessing sins, pilgrimages, or the use of emetics? You should select as many answers as you think are correct.

So pause the video here and press play when you are ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answers were A and D.

Bloodletting and the use of emetics are both examples of purging being used to treat people of their illnesses and diseases.

And let's try another question.

Based on Galen's theory of opposites, patients would be given something dry and cold if they had an excess of which humour? You can use the diagram shown on the screen to help you.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was blood.

According to Galen's theory of opposites, patients would be given something dry and cold if they had an excess of blood because that humour was considered hot and wet.

So they needed something opposite to it in characteristics to rebalance their humours.

And let's check our knowledge further.

Peppers were considered hot and dry.

Based on Galen's theory of opposites, patients would be given peppers if they had an excess of which humour? Again, you can use a diagram on the screen to help you with your answer.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your response.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was phlegm.

Peppers were considered hot and dry, whereas phlegm was considered wet and cold.

So a patient who seemed to have an excess of phlegm might be told to eat some peppers to rebalance their humours because its characteristics were opposite to those of phlegm.

Because many people in mediaeval Britain believed that miasma, bad air, could spread disease, some preventative methods focused on purifying the air in a local environment and avoiding foul smells.

To achieve this, towns often tried to ensure their streets were cleaned to prevent decomposing waste creating miasma.

It was also believed that breathing in pleasant smells could help protect a healthy individual from miasma.

For this reason, herbs might be burned in fires, and many people carried sweet-smelling posies, which are bunches of flowers, or pomanders, balls of pleasant-smelling substances such as lavender, which they believed could protect an individual even in an area that had bad air.

So let's check our understanding.

I want you to study the image shown on the right.

It shows a doctor holding a pomander to his nose.

This can be seen in the part of the image circled in blue.

What was the purpose of this? Was it to prevent the spread of germs, to protect himself from miasma, or to show penance to God? Pause the video here and press play when you are ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

The purpose of using a pomander was to try and protect people from miasma.

They believed the pleasant smells would help protect them from the bad air that they believed could spread disease.

In the mediaeval period, herbal remedies were also commonly taken by people suffering from a wide range of health conditions.

These remedies combined various ingredients such as herbs, minerals, plants, and animal parts.

Some of these remedies could provide effective treatment.

For instance, many people knew that mint could help soothe stomach pains and headaches.

However, remedies were not based on scientific understanding, and so many were ineffective.

For instance, it was incorrectly believed that gout could be treated by baking an owl, grinding it up, and rubbing the powder on the body.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

We have a statement on the screen that reads, "Some mediaeval herbal remedies provided effective treatment." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was true.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So why was that original statement correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done to everybody who said remedies containing mint were able to help patients suffering from stomach pains and headaches.

So we can see there were some effective herbal remedies in use for treating people during the mediaeval period.

So now we are in a good position to put all of our knowledge of approaches to treatment and prevention in the mediaeval period into practise.

I want you to study Izzy's statement.

Izzy says, "Mediaeval approaches to the treatment and prevention of disease and illness were ineffective." I want you firstly to explain why some historians might agree with Izzy.

Then I want you to explain why some historians might disagree with Izzy.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I asked you firstly to explain why some historians might agree with Izzy, and your answer may have included: Some historians may agree with Izzy that mediaeval approaches to treatment and prevention were ineffective because they were often based on incorrect explanations for the causes of disease.

For example, many people accepted that disease was a result of the four humours being out of balance.

This encouraged forms of purging like bloodletting, which not only failed to treat the actual cause of disease but could endanger patients through blood loss.

Similarly, pomanders were widely used to protect people from miasma, but because disease is not actually spread by bad smells, this was an ineffective method of disease prevention.

So a strong response to our first question looked something like the model we've just seen.

I then asked you to explain why some historians might disagree with Izzy, and your answer may have included: Some historians may disagree with Izzy because not all approaches were ineffective, and some helpful methods were in use in mediaeval Britain.

For example, herbal remedies were used to treat a wide range of conditions and included various ingredients such as herbs, spices, plants, and animals.

Remedies which included mint were able to help people suffering from stomach pains and headaches.

Therefore, some effective forms of treatment existed.

However, the scientific explanations for why certain ingredients like mint had health benefits were not understood, thus, many herbal remedies, if not all, remained ineffective.

So again, really well done if your own response looked something like that model we've just seen.

So now we've reached the end of today's lesson, which puts us in a good position to summarise our learning about mediaeval approaches to treating and preventing disease.

We've seen that treatments are used to help those who are already unwell, whilst prevention focuses on avoiding illness in the first place.

Religion inspired many mediaeval medical approaches, including the use of prayer, pilgrimages, and the performance of acts of penance.

Many forms of mediaeval treatment and prevention, like bloodletting and the use of pomanders, were ineffective because they were based off inaccurate medical theories like belief in miasma and the theory of the four humours.

And herbal remedies were common treatments, and some, such as those which contained mint, could offer effective treatment for certain conditions.

So thank you for all of your effort and hard work during today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you through our resources today, and I look forward to seeing you again in future as we continue to think about mediaeval medicine and health.