Medical Treatment
& More Town Life
Although, hospitals were invented during this time, there were few of them. The ones that were available were usually full. With that, people treated people in their homes or called a doctor to come treat them. Treatments varied from prayers, to obscure means, chants, herbs, or sometimes scientific methods during that time. These were often passed down throughout history, especially from the Greeks and Romans.
WHY were there SO many diseases?!
GROSS!
To start, almost every person was sick ALL the time with some sort of disease. Children were lucky to live to the age of ten.
The living conditions contributed to the rapid spread of diseases. There were NO toilets or running water, so people went to the bathroom in the streets, in pots that were dumped into the streets or water canals, public restrooms in the streets that were emptied into the streets. With that, the streets were FULL of trash, dead animals, dead people, human waste, and MORE! People literally walked through dirty streets on a daily basis, so diseases rapidly spread due to the living condition and animals, including fleas and rats carrying multiple diseases.
Streets were full of trash, dead people, human waste, and dead animals. This was because there was no trash service, places were overwhelmed with dead people so were tossed in the streets, there was no sewer system so waste was in the streets, and animals were for purchase or just dying. Because of the filth, rats and fleas were also everywhere.
There was no "water system", so everyone shared a well. Water was only used for drinking and rarely cleaning. People maybe bathed once a month and generally in the dirty water where waste and trash made their way into the canals. People often washed their clothes in urine to save the "fresh water"
WHY DIDN'T THEY CLEAN UP?
WHERE DO THEY THINK ALL THE SICKNESS CAME FROM?
During this time, no one knew exactly where the diseases came from and how they spread. Unfortunately, this made many people panic and blame others. During this time, people often had targeted and unjust anger. For instance, during a few outbreaks, people blamed Jewish people for poisoning the wells to get everyone sick.