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Did You Know? 10 Strange Facts About Medieval Medicine
Medieval medicine, practiced roughly between the 5th and 15th centuries, was a fascinating blend of ancient wisdom, religious beliefs, and sometimes bizarre practices. While our modern sensibilities might find these treatments shocking or even amusing, medieval physicians were genuinely attempting to heal their patients using the best knowledge available to them. The medical practices of this era reveal a world where urine charts, mystical gemstones, and creative surgical techniques were all considered legitimate healing methods. Here are ten strange facts about medieval medicine that shed light on this peculiar period of medical history.
1. Urine Was a Diagnostic Wonder Tool
Medieval physicians relied heavily on uroscopy, the practice of examining urine to diagnose illness. Doctors would inspect the color, clarity, smell, and even taste of a patient’s urine, comparing it against elaborate urine wheel charts that featured up to twenty different colors and consistencies. These charts helped physicians diagnose everything from diabetes to liver disease. A doctor’s ability to interpret urine was considered one of the most important medical skills, and physicians would carry special glass flasks called matulas specifically for urine examination. While this practice seems odd today, medieval doctors were actually observing real symptoms—dark urine could indeed indicate liver problems, and sweet-tasting urine was a sign of diabetes.
2. Barbers Were Also Surgeons
The iconic red and white striped barber pole has a surprisingly gruesome origin in medieval medicine. Barbers didn’t just cut hair—they also performed bloodletting, tooth extractions, and even amputations. The red stripe represented blood, while the white symbolized bandages. Physicians, who were university-educated and considered themselves scholars, often viewed surgery as beneath their station. This created a clear divide between physicians who diagnosed and prescribed treatments, and barber-surgeons who performed the actual cutting and bloodletting. This dual role continued for centuries, and barber-surgeons formed their own guilds separate from physicians.
3. Trepanation: Drilling Holes in Skulls
One of the most dramatic medieval surgical procedures was trepanation—drilling or scraping holes into the skull. Medieval surgeons performed this procedure to treat head injuries, skull fractures, and even mental illness, believing it would release evil spirits or relieve pressure on the brain. Remarkably, many patients survived this procedure, as evidenced by archaeological findings showing healed skull bones with clear signs of trepanation. Some individuals underwent the procedure multiple times in their lives. While the spiritual reasoning was flawed, medieval surgeons had accidentally discovered a procedure that could indeed relieve intracranial pressure, a technique still used in modern neurosurgery.
4. The Four Humors Governed Everything
Medieval medicine was dominated by the theory of the four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. This ancient Greek concept, promoted by Hippocrates and Galen, taught that illness resulted from an imbalance of these bodily fluids. Each humor was associated with specific qualities—blood was hot and moist, phlegm was cold and moist, yellow bile was hot and dry, and black bile was cold and dry. Physicians prescribed treatments designed to restore balance, which might include bloodletting to reduce excess blood or specific foods to increase deficient humors. This theory influenced not just medicine but also personality descriptions, giving us terms like “sanguine,” “phlegmatic,” “choleric,” and “melancholic” that we still use today.
5. Zodiac Signs Determined Treatment Timing
Astrology and medicine were inseparably linked during medieval times. Physicians consulted astrological charts before performing procedures or prescribing treatments, believing that the position of stars and planets directly affected the body’s health. Each zodiac sign was thought to govern specific body parts—Aries ruled the head, Taurus the neck, and so on down to Pisces governing the feet. Doctors would avoid performing surgery on body parts during times when the corresponding zodiac sign was ascendant, as this was believed to increase the risk of complications. Medical textbooks routinely included astrological information alongside anatomical knowledge.
6. Animal Dung Was a Common Ingredient
Medieval pharmacopeias included numerous recipes incorporating animal excrement. Pigeon droppings were used to treat baldness, dog feces were applied to treat sore throats, and mouse droppings were prescribed for various ailments. Perhaps most bizarrely, powdered unicorn horn (likely narwhal tusk or other animal horns) mixed with various substances including dung was considered a cure-all for poison and plague. While utterly unsanitary by modern standards, some of these treatments may have had antibacterial properties due to the presence of certain compounds, though this was purely accidental and the overall practice likely caused more infections than it cured.
7. Bloodletting Was the Go-To Treatment
Bloodletting was perhaps the most common medical treatment in the medieval period, prescribed for nearly every ailment imaginable—from fever and inflammation to mental disorders and old age. Physicians believed that removing blood would help rebalance the humors and remove toxins from the body. Methods included using lancets to open veins, applying leeches, or using cupping glasses that created suction on the skin. Bloodletting was so prevalent that specific days were designated as better or worse for the procedure based on astrological calendars. Unfortunately, this practice often weakened already sick patients, likely contributing to many deaths that doctors were trying to prevent.
8. Dead Animals Were Worn as Cures
Medieval medicine embraced the concept of sympathetic magic, where the properties of one thing could be transferred to another through contact. This led to the practice of wearing dead animals or animal parts to cure diseases. A person with a toothache might tie a dead mole around their neck, while someone with epilepsy might wear a piece of a hanged man’s rope. Live puppies were sometimes cut open and applied to the plague-stricken, and dead pigeons were strapped to plague victims’ feet to draw out toxins. These treatments reflected the medieval understanding that disease could be drawn out or transferred to another living thing.
9. Cauterization Was Preferred Over Stitches
Medieval surgeons frequently used red-hot irons to cauterize wounds rather than stitching them closed. This brutal-sounding technique actually had some merit—the extreme heat sealed blood vessels, stopped bleeding, and sterilized the wound, preventing infection in an era before antibiotics. Cauterization was used for amputations, deep cuts, and even to treat hemorrhoids. Special cautery irons in various shapes were designed for different body parts and types of wounds. While excruciatingly painful, cauterization gave patients a better chance of survival from wounds that might otherwise have become infected. Some battlefields had braziers constantly burning to keep cauterization tools ready.
10. Holy Relics Were Medical Treatments
The medieval worldview made no clear distinction between physical and spiritual healing, leading to the use of holy relics as medical treatments. Saints’ bones, pieces of the True Cross, holy water, and consecrated oils were all prescribed for various ailments. Pilgrimages to shrines were considered therapeutic, and touching or kissing relics was thought to transfer divine healing power. Some saints became associated with specific diseases—Saint Apollonia for toothaches, Saint Vitus for epilepsy, and Saint Roch for plague. Churches and monasteries became centers of healing, with monks serving as both spiritual advisors and medical practitioners. While these treatments had no physical efficacy, the placebo effect and the psychological comfort they provided may have genuinely helped some patients.
Conclusion
These ten strange facts about medieval medicine reveal a world vastly different from our own, where spiritual beliefs, ancient theories, and desperate attempts at healing combined to create a unique medical landscape. While many medieval practices seem shocking or superstitious today, they represented genuine efforts to understand and treat disease with the knowledge and tools available at the time. Medieval physicians made important observations about symptoms and disease progression, even if their explanations and treatments were often misguided. Some practices, like trepanation and cauterization, contained kernels of medical truth that have evolved into modern procedures. Understanding medieval medicine helps us appreciate both how far medical science has advanced and the timeless human desire to heal the sick and suffering, regardless of the era in which we live.
