Introduction
Anglo-Saxon medicine comprised remedies and prescriptions of illnesses in a combination of plant herbs, knowledge with magical and spells work. The medicine was more based on faith and religious practices, charms and a mixture of theory. Medicine relied less on Hippocrates and Galen, four hundred years after the fall of the Roman Empire. The trained physician used two methods in treatment; surgery and pharmacopeia which was mainly the use of plants as herbs. The plants had many different names as they had incorporated the use of Latin plants. Most of the plants were less important and some even being more harmful to the health of the body, Some were important in the treatment practice such as salts being used in the treatment of iron deficiency and garlic for the treatment of bacterial infection 1 . But still, the diagnosis process by testing urine was still intact and important. Blood was also used in the diagnosis process though it led to more infections in the body due to the use of dirty needles which were often checked by using of herbs. Horse dung was used to stop bleeding in wounds.
During the Anglo period, the use of herbs as medicine was important in treating illness. Anglo-Saxon medicine had little of surgical work. Broken limbs and badly damaged wounds were sewn up using silk which later dissolved. Herbs like lesser century were used as antiseptic medicine to treat sutured wounds. Other prescriptions other than the use of herbs were also important. Such recommendations included taking buck liver which contained elements of vitamin A, which is a good remedy for night vision problems. Prescriptions for a burn included the use of animal faeces and urine. Such animals included snail, worms, horse and pigeon 2 .
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Learning the medicine practice linked with religious grounds. The people believed that sickness was associated with God. There was a connection between learning and church, although not all the physicians were priests and clerics. Prayers were accompanied by the use of charms and magical work. The clerics though did not engage in the use of the charms and spells. Charms and spells were often used when the use of surgery and use of herbs failed probably due to the use of infected needles leading to more infections. In this case, the resort was therefore to invoke magic work. A simple touch could heal a sick person. Surgery was conducted by physicians who were perceived to be hard and unsympathetic during their work. Their work involved removing of teeth, amputation and sewing up serious wounds. The Anglo-Saxon way of treatment remedies is not well understood by the twenty-first-century generation. They cannot fully comprehend that animal fat and faeces were used as medicine 3 .
The doctors made several prescriptions and procedures for various illnesses. Various remedies can be pictured from the tests that were noted by the Anglo doctors. There has been no discovery of the surgical tools although surgery practices were part of their treatment. The books of Venerable Bede and Leech describe cures for treatment of diseases. Some of the simple Anglo-Saxon prescriptions were positive. However, the effectiveness of these remedies is not incorporated in today’s medicine.
Anglo-Saxon medicine involved the use of a number of plants although they didn’t know their main roots. They combined garlic and leeks and also with some contents of wine. This mixture was used as an antiseptic. Honey was also used as an antiseptic due to its high level of sugar content. The sugar easily dehydrated a wound hence facilitating faster healing. Remedies for coughs included the use of boiled horehound water.
Bibliography
Cameron, Laurence, M. Anglo-Saxon medicine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Getz, Faye, M. Medicine in the English middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Larissa, Tracy & Devries, Kelly. Wounds and wound repair in medieval culture . London: Harper, 2015.
1 Tracy Larissa & Kelly Devries, Wounds and wound repair in Medieval culture (London: Harper, 2015), 78.
2 Laurence Cameron M, Anglo-Saxon medicine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 34.
3 Faye Getz, M, Medicine in the English middle Ages (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), 28.
