Emily Chan
The Halloween season is upon us, and during this time of year, it’s always fun to dive into the gruesome and the gory to give ourselves a scare. After all, it’s part of getting into the spirit of the holiday!
So, let’s take a look at some of the medical procedures that were practiced during the medieval period. Several of these, if not all of them, have done more harm than good. You’ll be highly relieved that these methods are not used today and glad for how far medicine has advanced.
Bloodletting
Bloodletting is the practice of draining the blood from a person’s veins for the purpose of curing an illness. The removal of the blood is done by either a physician or leeches. It was a common therapy for thousands of years and actually dates all the way back to ancient Greece.
The logic behind bloodletting was based on a theory posed by a famous ancient Greek physician named Hippocrates. Hippocrates believed that there were four fluids or “humors” in the human body and that each humor was associated with a specific organ and personality type. An imbalance in these humors was thought to be the cause of many physical and mental illnesses.
Two centuries before the start of the medieval ages, a Greek physician, Galen of Pergamum, proposed the theory that draining some of the patient’s blood would restore balance among the four humors.
So, during the medieval period, doctors would perform bloodletting for conditions such as smallpox, gout, fainting spells, and poor temperament. They would make cuts in the patient’s neck and forearm or place leeches in those areas and let the worms do the work.
Trepanation
If you thought bloodletting was appalling, this medical practice is even more dreadful and is like something straight out of a horror film. Trepanation refers to the practice of drilling a hole into a patient’s skull. It was used to treat headaches, epilepsy, head wounds, and mental illnesses.
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