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.

Name Of Website: http://listverse.com/2014/03/03/10-completely-uncanny-superstitions-fromthe-middle-ages/

Superstition: Changelings
1) In medieval Britain there was a superstition that fairies could steal a child and substitute it for
another (a changeling) thus taking its place.
2) A story soon came about a changeling. Involving a blacksmith and his son one old man believed the
son to be a changeling and told the blacksmith to test the theory and see if it was true. The blacksmith
does so and they believe that the child is a changeling. This causes the blacksmith to demand the fries
to bring his son back and because the blacksmith is holding a Bible the fairies cant touch him thus
thrusting them both out of the hill.
3) Often people performed similar tests to determine if a suspect baby was a changeling. 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.
4) Also a baby wasnt human if it found making a loaf of bread in an eggshell amusing.
5) That legend of changelings allowed people to explain premature deaths in children, childhood
diseases, deformities and disabilities.

Title of Website: http://listverse.com/2013/07/31/10-bizarre-medieval-medical-practices/

Medical Practice: Bloodletting

1) Doctors of the medieval period believed in things called humors. The word humors referred to
certain fluids found in the body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.
2) Doctors of the medieval period believed in things called humors. The word humors referred to
certain fluids found in the body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.
3) For some reason, in the Middle Ages, blood and excess blood was often seen as the cause of
multiple ailments. Therefore, doctors would remove large quantities of blood from a persons veins in
the hope that it would cure them. The two main ways of doing this were leeching and venesection.
4) In leeching, a leech was placed on the part of the body that was a concern and the blood-worm
would suck blood (and, in theory, the illness) from the patient.
5) Venesection was a little bit more direct: a doctor would literally open up a vein using a knife called
a fleam and allow blood to drain from the body.
6) Bloodletting was so common that some people drained their blood regularly just because they
believed it would keep them healthy.