1. Elizabethan Medicine (Mid 1500s-Early 1600s)
Dean DiCrescenza, Liam Cavanaugh, Steve Cromity III

2. Medicine
Some medicines that would be used to “cure” many diseases were tobacco, arsenic, lily root, and dried toads. Medicine that was used was simple. Physicians really didn't know what caused the illnesses and diseases. Physicians looked at bodily fluids, called the Humours.The four humors were blood, phlegm’ yellow bile and black bile. They mostly offered concoctions of herbs as treatment for many things.
Elizabethan doctors were the physicians, surgeons, and barbers.
Elizabethan Surgeons- inferior to the Physicians.
Elizabethan Barbers- inferior to the Surgeons. They could only pull teeth or let blood. Pulling teeth was seen as the only cure for toothache.
Elizabethan Physicians- only the wealthy would be allowed to be looked at from an Elizabethan Physician. The fee would usually be one gold coin worth 10 shillings.
People actually believed that bad odors could spread disease.
Children were main victims of disease, their immune systems were weak

3. Medicine (continued)
The Elizabethan Apothecary was used to get rid of drugs. The Apothecaries sold sweets, cosmetics, and perfumes as well as drugs.
The Church provided comfort for the poor.
The local “wise woman” were the people who the poor contacted.
The Elizabethan Housewife would use various herbs to make homemade medicines and potions. Potions were made up of herbs, seasonings, worms, even animal feces and urine. Potions normally would kill those they were intended to heal.
Blood Letting was a very popular medicinal practice of the times, it called for the Practitioner nicking the veins or arteries in the forearm or neck. Then they would let blood until they believed the toxins and bad things had been let out. There were special tools like surgical lances and scarificator which had multiple blades that made parallel cuts. Cupping tools and leeches were also used. George Washington and Marie Antoinette are famous recipients of this treatment, George having presumably died from it.
The Bubonic Plague could be treated by applying a warm poultice of butter, onion and garlic.
Head pains were treated with sweet-smelling herbs such as rose, lavender, sage, and bay.
Stomach pains and sickness were treated with wormwood, mint, and balm.
Lung problems was treated by liquorice and comfrey.
Wounds would be healed with vinegar. Vinegar was used a a cleansing agent and was believed to kill diseases.

4. Prevalent illnesses & Diseases
The Bubonic Plague, or “The Black Death” as it was called, was a disease carried by fleas on rats, primarily who bred in streets. The very bad sanitation habits of most peasants only fueled the diseases rampage across not only England, but most Europe. The disease caused fever, headache, tender, swollen and painful infected lymph nodes. This was the biggest disease during the Elizabethan times. There were two outbreaks in London. One in 1563 and the other in 1603, each killing ¼ of London’s population.
Typhoid was a disease that was spread by improper sanitation. Typhoid and “The Black Death” were the two main diseases who took out some of Europe’s population. Symptoms of Typhoid fever include a high fever.
Scurvy was also a common disease. Scurvy was a result from lack of vitamin C in the body. Symptoms may include the ulceration of gums, loss of teeth, anemia, and exhaustion.
Smallpox’s worst outbreak happened two years before Shakespeare’s birth in Queen Elizabeth was attacked by this virus when she was only 29 years old. She suffered from high fevers, vomiting, excessive bleeding, and pus-filled scabs that left deep pitted scars.This was considered the second most prevalent disease of the times.

5. Prevalent illnesses & Diseases (continued)
Typhus could be spread from one minor cut or sore. Once it enters your bloodstream, you would get high fevers, you would become confused, and get open sores that would become black due to the skin and tissues dying.
Malaria was spread by mosquitoes. Once infected with this disease, your symptoms would be fever, unbearable chills, vomiting, enlarged liver, low blood pressure, seizures, and comas.

6. Physician's Clothing
Bizarre masks featuring long beaks which were filled with oils and rose petals. These masks were good protection against
contracting disease from patients.
Their bodies were covered from head to foot
Stout boots and gloves on their hands and feet
Long dark robes with pointed hoods
Dried blood and ground-up toads were worn at the waists

7. Tools Used In Surgery Fleam - Used in bloodletting
Leeches - Used to reduce blood pressure and cleanse the blood
Hot iron - Used to cauterize tumors
Clyster - Administered for constipation and stomach aches ->
Bow saws - Used to cut through bones
Surgical treatment in unsanitary conditions usually made
ailments worse due to infection. Amputations Were made
without anesthetics, usually for last resorts or life and death.
Surgery was usually mortifyingly painful, they believed amputation would stop the spread of afflictions around the body and relieve.

8. The Four Humors
Hippocrates (ancient Greek physician) proposed that our bodily fluids contained four distinct humors, that when balanced, produced perfect health, and when unbalanced, produces disease and disabilities in our bodies.
In Elizabethan times, the traditional four elements form the basis for a theory of medicine and later psychological typology known as the four humours.
Each of the humours were associated with various correspondences and particular physical and mental characteristics.

9. Four Humors/Fluids of the Body
Blood - Hot: fiery personality
Phlegm: Cold- calm personality
Choler (yellow bile) : Dry- bad-tempered personality
Melancholy (black bile): Moist- gloomy personality

10. Works Cited
Alchin, L.K. Elizabethan Medicine and Illnesses. 16 May Presentation. 22 January 2014.
Cohen, Jennie. A Brief History of Bloodletting. 30 May Presentation. 22 January 2014.
klopyrev. Medicine During the Elizabethan Era. April Presentation. 22 January 2014.
Mabillard, Amanda. Worst Diseases in Shakespeare's London Presentation. 22 January 2014.