Health in Europe Throughout history By David Petrushka, Steve Masline, Tyler Paratte, and Cole Segreti

Diet in middle ages Nobles ate few vegetables ◦ Unprepared food viewed as suspicious Only the poor ate fruits and vegetables Dairy considered to be a poor persons food These lack of proper nutrition led to illness

16 th and 17 th century diet Poor ◦ Unvaried diet ◦ Bread, fish, cheese, vegetables ◦ Barley or rye bread Rich ◦ Variety of meats ◦ Sea food ◦ Imported spices ◦ Occasional fancy fruit but rarely ◦ White bread ◦ New foods  Ice cream  Bananas

18 th Century Diet ◦ Poor  Early 18 th c. ordinary men and women depended on grain.  Bread was the staff of life.  In years of poor harvests and soaring prices, food riots broke out.  VEGETABLES  Rural and urban poor ate a large quantity.  Peas and beans were most common.  Fruit was uncommon and eaten in the summer months only ◦ Rich  Consumption of meat was lower in 1700 than it was in  Meat became more expensive  Only eaten on holidays or special occasion

Food supply 16 th century Trade and industry flourished ◦ Caused influx of people Not enough food for poor Series of bad harvests in 1590 ◦ People were starving

Food supply 18 th Century Population steadily increasing New foods introduced because of trade Poor still having trouble scraping by Only people benefiting from greater food supply was bourgeoisie and rich Population fell

18-19 th Century Food Supply Food easier to get by all ◦ Prices dropped New agricultural innovations led to more food ◦ Seed drill ◦ No more fallow land ◦ Plow People didn’t need to work all day for food ◦ Key to industrial revolution New crops helped sustain people ◦ Potato and corn Only 10% of people starved to death ◦ Big improvement! ◦ Longer life expectancy  (in the country)

DISEASES: THE BLACK DEATH The most devastating disaster in European history /3 of Europe’s population died

DISEASES: THE BLACK DEATH What led up to the Black Death? ◦ The Little Ice Age  A small decrease in temperature shortened the growing seasons.  The shortened harvest brought in less food, which caused for malnourishment, which made them susceptible to the plague. ◦ The Population  The population increased during the time leading up to the Black Plague.  The amount of paupers greatly increased, and were not able to support themselves.

DISEASES: THE BLACK DEATH Where did the plague come from? ◦ Originated from Asia ◦ The Mongols arrived in China in the mid 13 th century, and brought flea infested rats. ◦ These rats went through Central Asia, and from there brought the plague to Caffa on the Black Sea.

DISEASES: THE BLACK DEATH Reactions: ◦ Some people stayed secluded from everyone in hope to get through the tough times ◦ Others partied all day by drinking and having sex. Art: ◦ The 14 th century produced an artistic outburst in new directions of art.  Post plague art focused on pain and death  Ars Moriendi: The Art of Dying

FRANCESCO TRAINI, TRIUMPH OF DEATH

DISEASES: SMALLPOX In 1519, Cortés landed at Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. ◦ The Europeans brought with them bacteria in which they were immune to, but the Aztecs were not, and faced the disaster of smallpox. In 1530, Pizzaro invaded the Inca empire. ◦ Pizzaro was also lucky because like the Aztecs, the Incas had no immunities, and succumbed to smallpox.

DISEASES: COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE Old World  New World: Smallpox, Measles, Chicken Pox, Malaria, Yellow Fever, Influenza, The Common Cold New World  Old World: Syphilis

DISEASES: TREATMENT Galen’s idea of the four bodily humors strongly influenced the treatment of diseases, by correcting diseases by fixing chemical imbalances in the body. Paracelsus also experimented with treating diseases by curing them with what caused the disease in the first place.

DISEASES: THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Population increased due to the major decrease in breakouts of disease. The workhouses often housed many people sick with a fever, and due to the close encounters, it was inevitable to get sick. Working in the coal mines resulted in deformed bodies, and ruined lungs. Children were forced to work in contorted positions, which left their bodies severely deformed

Little Ice Age Heavy rains in northern Europe destroyed harvests ◦ Caused: food shortage  serious food shortage Historians estimated the famine killed 10% of European population ◦ First half of 14th century : Broughton England ◦ Inhabiters of village migrated to find better economic opportunities in urban areas 1330: Florentine chronicler estimated the population of his city was 100,000 ◦ Predicted 17,000 were paupers  Pauper: an extremely poor person, especially one who lives on charity ◦ Evidence led historians to believe that since there was an increase in population  Peasants who owned land in 1300 had to give up land because they could no longer support their family  Europe reached the limit of its population growth The famine caused by the Little Ice Age could have lead to ◦ chronic malnutrition ◦ Increased infant mortality ◦ Lowered birthrates ◦ Higher susceptibility to disease  Malnourished people are less able to resist infection  Spielvogel states that this aids the explanation of the high mortality of the Black Death

IRISH POTATO FAMINE The Great Hunger The potato was the only nutrition that the Irish consumed that sustained them ◦ Grew three times as much food per acre as grain ◦ Gave them the nutrition to survive and cultivate ◦ : Irish population doubled from 4 million to 8 million  Estimated half of Population depended on potatoes for survival Summer of 1845: Potato crop in Ireland was struck by blight due to a fungus that turned the potatoes black ◦ Blight: a plant disease especially one caused by fungus such as mildews, rusts, and smuts : The Famine decimated Irish population ◦ More than one million died of starvation and disease ◦ About two million emigrated to the United States and Britain ◦ Only country to have its population decline in the nineteenth century

SANITATION IN THE FORM OF PROSTITUTION Post-Black Plague ◦ People began living in the moment Joined in sexual orgies Middle Ages ◦ During the Renaissance, courtiers were important in upper-class society ◦ Royal couples lead separate lives  Marriage between royal families were only to secure bloodlines and political alliance ◦ Prostitution was only tolerated to prevent the greater “evils” of:  Rape  Sodomy  Masturbation High Middle Ages ◦ France and Germany set specific streets aside for prostitutes to stand on  This was a form of regulation ◦ Civic Brothels  Form of regulation  Outside of brothels prostitution was illegal

SANITATION IN THE FORM OF PROSTITUTION PART 2 16th-17th Century ◦ Attitudes hardened against prostitution ◦ Naples 1494: an outbreak of syphilis Later spread throughout Europe  Syphilis outbreak in Naples could have been due to the Columbian Exchange or STDs  STDs could have originated from the sixteenth century could have caused the hate in prostitution

SANITATION IN THE FORM OF WASTE Industrial Revolution ◦ Sanitary conditions were appalling  Streets were regularly used as sewers and drains ◦ Cities could not deal with human feces ergo cities were very unhealthy and extremely smelled foul ◦ Edwin Chadwick’s Report on the Conditions of the Laboring Population of Great Britain 1842  Various epidemics, and other diseases were caused by the impurities of the cities atmosphere such as: decomposing animals and vegetables, by the damp and filthy feces, and the over crowed dwellings in each city  Chadwick wanted sanitary reform that had efficient sewers and a pipeline water supply

Medicine  4 humors (Blood= from the heart, phlegm= from the brain, yellow bile= from the liver, black bile= from the spleen  Corresponds to the four elements- Earth, air, fire, water  They have to be kept in balance for the body to function properly   Practiced by a hierarchy of practitioners  The top level was physicians and the next level was surgeons

Medicine  New methods emphasized more clinical experience and training  Surgeons practiced bleeding patients out, performing surgery, and setting broken bones (often done crudely with out painkillers)  Apothecaries, midwives, and faith healers served the common people, they prescribed herbs and potions

3 Main Figures in Medicine  Paracelsus - Traveled widely and many call him the father of medicine  Rejected the works of Aristotle and Galen  New methods derived from fresh observations  Diseases treated with chemical remedies  Versalius - Understanding human anatomy  On the Fabric of the Human Body”- Carefully examined the organs and the human body

3 Main Figures In Medicine  ｷ William Harvey - “On the Motion of the Heart and Blood”  ｷ The heart, not the liver, is the beginning point of blood circulation  ｷ Same blood flows in both veins and arteries