History and development of Western medicine.

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Complementary Therapies

BSc (Hons)

 Year 1

 Semester Two 2003

Module:

History and Development of Western Medicine

Task:

“The developments in Western Medicine between the 17th to the end of the 19th century that interested me the most”

Sharna Richardson

Tutor: Stan

Date Set: 29th January 2003

Date Due: 31st May 2003

Essay Title:

“Developments in women’s roles in Western Medicine between the 17th and end of the 19th century.” Discuss

Introduction

This essay will discuss some significant developments in Western Medicine with particular reference to the impact these developments had on women’s roles as ‘healers’  and midwives during the 17th , 18th and 19th centuries.

Historical Overview - women’s roles up to the16th century

From prehistoric up to Ancient Greek and Roman times people superstitious was dominant explanation for sickness, and people believed that spirits caused illness. They thought that when an evil spirit entered the body, the sick persons own healthy spirit left the body.  Illness and injuries were treated with herbs and plants.  It is believed that they used herbs such as chick weed for ulcers and violets for cough medicine, and that they used crude surgery, and could set broken bones were.  Trephining (making a hole in there skull) they believed let out evil spirits and eased bad headaches.  They also used charms to ward off evil spirits and chants, trances and prayers to get rid of the evil spirit causing the illness.

During this time both men and women treated the sick, however medicine men were said to be the most powerful and important members of the tribe, because they understood and dealt with the spirits and also used chants and trances. Women on the other hand, seemed to play a less important role in medicine; they were responsible for day-to-day healthcare of people by using herbs.

Moving onto Egyptian, Ancient Greek and Roman times, we see significant changes in medical practices, beliefs and treatments. The most important changes came about through people like Hippocrates and Galen.  It was the Greeks who first developed ‘rational’ systems of medicine free from magical, superstitious and religious causes of disease and sickness. Explanations began to be based on natural, physical causes, and the first ‘physicians’ and ‘scholars of medicine’ appeared. Nevertheless, herbal medicines were still used and women’s traditional roles did not change. Women were still the primary ‘healer’s within the home and local communities. Women, using traditional herbal remedies, would treat the majority of people, and deliver the babies.

From the 2nd and the 4th centuries A.D. Roman territories declined and finally the Roman Empire failed altogether, and we entered the Dark or Middle Ages. During this time hunger, pestilence and war were prevalent, and the Church of Rome took control of medical education. It was in monasteries that the  ‘scholars of medicine’ could go and feel safe. However, although the written medical information of the Greeks and the Romans survived and records were kept, the Church believed that  “God’s natural law governed all of a man’s life”  (E.J. Mayeaux, Jr. 1998). Therefore medical theories were not something that the Church paid much attention to. This put an end to medical learning and experimentation. False treatments like charms and amulets, superstition and demons were used again to diagnose and heal. Nevertheless, ‘professional’ medical practice, such as it was, was the domain of the monks. Nuns in the convents were allowed to  practice medicine  as ‘nurses’, and  ‘wise women’ were still allowed  to treat and care for the sick in the home and local communities. However it was in the monasteries that lists of medical herbs were kept, and it was from  the Church that the  dominant ideology came.

It was St. Benedict (born 480A.D.) that revived the study of medicine. He re-emphasised the study of Hippocrates and Galen and learning grew over the next several centuries. However it was not until the 13th century that the clergy started to loose some of it’s power and gradually began to be removed from medicine, however the Church still controlled the hospitals – which were usually attached to monasteries . During this time women’s roles as healers and midwives, which were still extensions of their status as housewives and mothers, began to be seen as a threat to the clergy.

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Towards the end of the Dark Ages women midwives or ‘healers’ were tortured and killed. Since women had no access to formal education, it was thought that the midwife or ‘healer’s’ power must come from ‘supernatural’ sources – she was in league with the devil. A frenzy of witch- burning was responsible for the killing of several million women during this time, and according to Jeanne Achterberg (1990) this was

“….an evil that surpasses rational understanding. Here was, indeed, the worst aberration of humanity, and it trickled down the hierarchy of authority”             ...

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