In 1348, the Bubonic Plague swept through western Europe’s hemisphere taking out thirty to fifty percent of the total population. The Black Death set the stage for more modern medicine and spurred changes in public health and hospital management. The plague sent physicians scrambling to develop treatments and find causes. The Black Death also helped shift medicine toward greater emphasis on practice than there had been before. Lastly, it helped blend old and new practices of medicine in the Middle Ages. The Bubonic plague was a disease that not only held society, economy and medicine back in the Middle ages by causing lack of doctors and scientist; but it also pushed forward and opened pandoras box to research and treatment for disease.
The Black Death propelled physicians and surgeons to develop treatments for the plague and find a cure. Someone had to find a cure and stop the mass amounts of death that was occurring, and this is where physicians and surgeons stepped in. The fight between physicians and surgeons became more pronounced and serious, especially as plague outbreaks continued to occur periodically in different locations. The causation of the fight was over who was most experienced to deal with disease. With the shortage of experienced and qualified people, there were many second-rate physicians that had to fill the duties. A few techniques they used were Bloodletting and other remedies such as putting frogs or leeches on the buboes to "rebalance the humors," as a normal routine. “Bloodletting is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness and disease. Bloodletting was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluid were regarded as "humors" that had to remain in proper balance to maintain health” (“Bloodletting”). Another idea these doctors had was producing theriac from snakeskin and was considered an all purpose cure in the 14th century. Even though there were several remedies used, none seemed to work. With nothing working Europeans gave community plague doctors special privileges and valued their help. For example, plague doctors were freely allowed to perform autopsies, which were otherwise generally forbidden in Medieval Europe and caused controversy among medical professionals and community. Seeing that nothing was working and no cure was invented doctors had to investigate more deeply and advance in their current ideas of medicine.
The Black Death shifted medicine toward more emphasis on practice than there had been before. The plague revealed the failure of the existing medical system. This is where the most influential medical practitioners focused on theories of explanation and prevention of disease rather than practical medicine. People started looking toward medicine for help since God was not helping them like they expected. As traditional methods of praying to God and the Lord for help failed across Europe, medical practitioners raced to explain the origins of the plague and develop ways to prevent and cure it. Theoretical medicine provided several explanations of causation but few effective remedies were successful because the close proximity of people and unsanitary hygiene. Following the disaster of the plague more people turned to practical medicine, looking less to abstract theory such as God punishing people on Earth. The Black Death accelerated a shift in medicine toward its more practical elements as exemplified by the intensification of the debate on surgery.
The Black death created several new ideas and practices, but it did not completely destroy the existing medical system; such as giving a rise to a new emphasis on theories involving contagion. People have been aware that diseases could be spread from person to person, but then gained new knowledge that the spread of the disease could be caused by forms of travel. The increase of education on contagion led to new strategies such as quarantining incoming ships that could possibly carry the disease. The Bubonic plague slowly led to the reassessment of traditions in medicine that helped evolved practices. This placed medicine firmly on the road to modern development.While education based on the works of Hippocrates and Galen still survived in the universities, their teachings of surgery and anatomy were now gradually being included. While Galen and Hippocrates’ ideas of surgery were being taught, universities were able then able to strengthen their ideas. Additionally, before the Black Death the discussion about whether theory or experience was more important had been going on for a long time. After the hardship, people in the universities usually agreed theory triumphed experience. The merge of new and old ideas on medicine helped shaped a new medical system.
The Black Death represents an event that shaped medieval medicine's course of development, and helped shape the development of future medical practices. Middle age medicine was able to develop with the help of physicians searching to develop treatments and find causes, and then greater emphasis on practice. The education gained during the time created new ideas which incorporated the previous ideas and practices that pushed medicine through a dark time to the next level.
"Bloodletting." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Vanneste, Sarah Frances, "The Black Death And The Future Of Medicine" (2010). Wayne State
University Theses. Paper 29.
Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death: natural and human disaster in medieval Europe (Simon & Schuster, 1983), pp. 126-28.
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