AS.140.105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Internal Medicine, Medical Astrology
23 Jan 2017
School
Course
Professor
Practitioners
1. Domestic Medicine
2. Religion
3. Midwives and Specialists
4. Physicians, Apothecaries, and Surgeons
1. Most of healing occurred at home; although it was a vast practice that went on, literacy
rates for these pratitioers ere lo ad so there as’t uh douetatio
a. Hard to study even though domestic medicine was ubiquitous – irony
b. If patients/sufferers lived in a family/household, they were usually taken care of by
the family (only medicine that some people would get – access, affordability,
convenience)
c. Nursing care was commonplace; very likely that the person doing the care was a
female relative – coded as female work, even though men could do it too
d. Women were essential to domestic, daily medical care in the household setting
e. There was an association between women and medical practice even though they
did not have a place in formal medical practice (barred from universities)
f. Women were seen to be appropriate in clinical settings and could have roles beyond
just being a female relative or bystander – active participant in clinical practice who
did important medical work
g. A lot of domestic care was daily, mundane, quotidian (feeding, cleaning up bodies,
managing excreted waste, laundry, etc.) – essential to taking care of sick people
h. Guilds give more latitude to women than universities
i. Masters’ ies a pratie ediie i guilds
ii. Sometimes girls and women were formally apprenticed (i.e. as surgeons)
iii. Widow can take over practice i her deeased husad’s stead
iv. However, this is only through male relatives; thus practice is still strictly
limited/controlled
i. Women were often associated with the gathering and preparation of herbal
medicine – especially simples (drug that is or based on a single herb)
i. More complex medicines were associated with men (apothecaries)
ii. Although we know that women made complex medicines too from early
modern medical recipe books
j. Overlap and complex mixing between what is considered appropriate for women,
what women actually do in real practice, and what higher status practitioners do as
well
i. Many learned male practitioners focused on herbal medicine
ii. Since women are in charge of cooking in the household, by association, they
are also in charge of simple medicine as well
1. Especially since there is not strict distinction between what is
medicine and what is food
2. Charms and magical items were used; a lot of patients still seek out religious healing; and
fewer monks and clergymen practice medicine
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