Examples Of Elizabethan Medical Practices In The 1600s

Elizabethan Medical Practices of the 1600s

In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries victims of the Bubonic plague (Black Death) would be sealed in their houses (Byrne).The houses would be locked and bolted from the outside. The victims were not allowed to leave and no one else could enter also. This action was equivalent to signing a death warrant for the whole family. Unfortunately, it was one of the terrible consequences of the disease. The disease could also be air bound and transmitted from an infected person's breath. A devastating outbreak of the Elizabethan plague occurred in 1563 claiming 80,000 people in England (Byrne). The cause of the Bubonic plague (Black Death) was unknown during the Elizabethan era so people were not

“insufficiently organized to carry out with success an elaborate set of unpopular orders… the authorities were forced to sit with their hands folded until the plague had spent itself” (Rowse? In large cities such as London were prime examples of the lack of sanitation in England at the time (Alchin).Homes were extremely close to each other and people regularly dumped their wastes out their windows. Garbage filled open sewers scattered the streets of these cities. In addition, to the unsanitary living conditions, many people did not bathe regularly. Also, the garbage was often times dumped in the nearest river; thus leading to contaminated water. This led to a large problem for the people of London. Only wealthy people had their own private wells. Otherwise, the people shared water from fountains that came directly from the contaminated river. A.L. Rowse mentions, “Many of the citizens possessed chamber pots, usually made of tin, or close stools” (157). Since there were no bathrooms, people excreted waste in their chamber pots. Once they completed that action, they dumped the waste out into the roads. Rats, fleas and lice all found home in these disease-stricken conditions (Alchin). Disease was easily spread in towns where rats and other rodents flourished

As mentioned in “Medical Practitioners in England: 15th and 16th Centuries”, “the vast majority of people never consulted a physician” (Olsen). Physicians were costly and scarce. Surgeons, though less educated, were more in demand. They were certainly in demand in the military. The most common practitioners to the everyday people were the barber surgeons and midwives. Barber surgeons served many rolls. They cut hair, shaved, bled, pulled teeth and cleaned simple wounds (Olsen). Midwives attended every birth. They assisted the birthing mother by checking the birth canal, lubricating the birth canal and cleaning the newborn and tied its cord off. They also administered medicine to the newborn, aided in the breast feeding process and delivered the placenta. Barber surgeons and midwives lacked medical degrees from medical