To what extent did medicine and public health change between the Roman withdrawal from Britain and 1350?
The Romans occupied Britain in AD43, and brought with them good systems of public health and logical solutions to medicine and treatment given to them by Hippocrates in around 300AD. This was then enhanced by Galen a little after the occupation, and this left Britain well managed in terms of public health and medicine. I believe that the high standard of public health severely deteriorated and the standard of medicine stagnated or possible got a little worse.
Primarily, the public health system became undeniably worse. The water supply from aqueducts was almost completely cut off without the workforce of slaves and the skilled engineers. The wooden pipes decayed, and when attempts were made to replace them with lead it resulted in widespread lead poisoning. Attempts were made by a very few town councils to supply clean water and free, public baths called stewes, but they were simply not common enough resulting in more widespread dirt and disease. However, there was some degree of continuity in what people had been taught, for instance any new settlements were built near a clean water source, and this supply reached certain monasteries and convents such as Canterbury Abbey very effectively. Some attempts were even made by the government to improve cleanliness, but the Anglo-Saxon wars were rampant at this time meaning kings were preoccupied, and unable to make any country wide decisions since the government was never unitary. Also, the latent laissez-faire attitude at the time prevented the government caring too much. With regards to public health, there was very little continuity between the Roman withdrawal and 1350 because everything was left in near anarchy so few changes could be made.
