Medieval Superstitions & Medicine

Use the following websites to start your research:

1. http://listverse.com/2014/03/03/10-completely-uncanny-superstitions-from-the-middle-ages/
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8913709/Tony-Robinson-on-the-top-fivesuperstitions-that-gripped-medieval-Britain.html
3. http://www.stylist.co.uk/life/13-strange-superstitions
4. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/health_and_medicine_in_medieval_.htm
5. http://listverse.com/2013/07/31/10-bizarre-medieval-medical-practices/
6. https://www.aimseducation.edu/blog/medieval-medical-practices-still-use-today/
After skimming the websites above, choose the 1 superstition AND the 1 medical
practice that intrigue you the MOST. Continue your narrowed research to learn the
specific details of each. Compile a list of at least 10 facts about each. Bookmark the
website(s) where you found your information on your Pearltrees account.
Superstition: Changelings
It was believed that fairies could steal a child and substitute another. Throughout
Britain, people often performed similar tests to determine if a suspect baby was a
changeling. The legend of the changeling allowed medieval people to explain premature
deaths in children, as well as childhood diseases, physical and mental deformities, and
disabilities. One test was to put a shoe in a bowl of soup in front of a baby. If it giggled,
it meant it understood the joke and it was a fairy. Also, a baby wasnt human if it found
making a loaf of bread in an eggshell amusing. Suspect babies would be held over a fire
to drive the fairies out, or abandoned. The Scots believed that the fairies had done a
deal with the devil, and every seven years they owed him a tithe. The fairies abducted a
child in order to pay their blood dues. Cross-breeding was another motive for kidnap.
In order to prevent their bloodlines becoming choked, the fairies took humans to inject
fresh blood into their clans.

Title of Website: https://randomdescent.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/irelands-mostsinister-superstition-the-changeling/

http://listverse.com/2014/03/03/10-completely-uncanny-superstitions-from-themiddle-ages/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8913709/Tony-Robinson-on-the-topfive-superstitions-that-gripped-medieval-Britain.html

Medical Practice: Bloodletting

Bloodletting was when blood was drained from a certain spot in your body and the idea
behind it was that it would release bad blood from your body. Leeches was common for
this but dirty knives were also used which only increased the risk to the patient. The
doctors in the medieval period believed in things called humors which were certain
fluids found in the body like blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Humorism was
developed from the Greek and Roman physicians who believed a deficiency of a humor
would strongly influence a persons health. Doctors would try and cure patients by
removing blood from their veins by leaching or venesection. In leeching, a leech was
placed on the part of the body that was a concern and would suck blood from the
patient. Venesection was when a doctor would use a knife to cut a vein open and let the
blood run out. Fevers, apoplexy, and headaches were a result of too much blood, so the
surgeon would tie the arm to make the veins swell, cut the patient and drain out a
certain amount of blood, a process which was called breathing a vein. Bloodletting
was so common that some people drained their blood often just because they believed it
would keep them healthy.

Title of Website: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval-england/health-andmedicine-in-medieval-england/

http://listverse.com/2013/07/31/10-bizarre-medieval-medical-practices/
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/techniques/bloodletting.aspx