A woman emptying a chamber pot. Wood carving, 1489.
Public health Towns in the Middle Ages were unhealthy. People lived close together, and the streets were narrow and dirty. There was no waste disposal so waste was thrown on the streets. There were no sewers – the contents of toilet pots were thrown out on the streets as well. Animals were common and they dirtied the streets. As a result of these conditions, there were outbreaks of cholera (from dirty water or food) and typhus (from fleas). Death was part of everyday life. Average life expectancy was about 35 years because many children died at birth or within a year of birth. Women lived a little longer than men though some women died giving birth to children. It was not all bad news for health and medicine in the Middle Ages.
New laws were passed on cleaning streets and some towns had bath houses. In surgery, some doctors used wine as an antiseptic to stop the spread of disease. They also used opium as a painkiller.
What happened during the Black Death? The Black Death was a plague (disease) that spread across Europe in the middle of the 14th
century, from 1348 to 1351. It began in Asia and was believed to have been spread
by fleas on black rats, who carried the disease from person to person, although some historians have questioned this. Dead bodies had a black/grey appearance from boils and ulcers on the skin. At the time, nobody knew what caused the plague. Some thought it was a punishment from God for their sins. They believed that if they prayed, fasted and beat themselves with whips, they would escape the disease. Some blamed the Jews and this led to massacres.
