Medieval medicine was CRAZY!

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  • Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
  • Medieval medicine was so CRAZY that you can really see what inspired the fantasy witch.
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 586

  • @KarmasAB123
    @KarmasAB123 Рік тому +473

    Here to see how realistic the alchemy crafting in Elder Scrolls is.

    • @sizanogreen9900
      @sizanogreen9900 Рік тому +18

      Me too, I feel like its pretty legit but it pays to be carefull.
      I'm sure it will be fine and I can start munching myself through anything that looks vaguely edible for profit in no time:)

    • @BenSuzuki
      @BenSuzuki Рік тому +8

      @@sizanogreen9900 Even the Giant's Toe?

    • @willgames416
      @willgames416 Рік тому +4

      @@sizanogreen9900 What about the Vampire Dust?

    • @taylorfusher2997
      @taylorfusher2997 Рік тому +1

      To Tarille:
      How do the people in Elden ring eat? Also if you are going to have a large population of people in a civilization, you still need crop fields, and agriculture crop fields, and also you need cattle, pigs and other grazing animals to feed that civilization. I don’t understand it. Did I miss something. Remember I am not a expert, I am just guessing. I don’t truly know anything. So it does not matter what I say anyways or what I did.

    • @sizanogreen9900
      @sizanogreen9900 Рік тому +2

      @@willgames416 @Breaden Stewart I gotta say after watching the video I am starting to have my doubts...

  • @krystofdayne
    @krystofdayne Рік тому +453

    It's important to remember that people back then weren't stupid. If a treatment had an obvious and immediate bad effect, they wouldn't use it. But medicine is complicated. Infections, especially back then, would happen "spontaneously" all the time. And if a treatment has an immediate positive effect, like lessening some symptoms, but there'd be a high chance of infection afterwards, it's hard to see the clear causation there, especially if you don't even really understand what an infection even is.
    Edit: and of course, things like confirmation/survivorship bias, the placebo effect, etc. also had a big effect.

    • @Lavastaramus
      @Lavastaramus Рік тому +52

      Many modern medicines also have side effects. I believe it's usually question of whether the side effect is worse than the symptom being treated.

    • @Pyriphlegeton
      @Pyriphlegeton Рік тому

      But many people today are stupid. There's a massive interest in useless and harmful pseudomedicine. Why would that be different back then?

    • @ThZuao
      @ThZuao Рік тому

      In the 19th century, Robert Liston revolutionized english medicine by cleaning his instruments and apron after surgeries.
      Dirty tools and apron, especially freshly dirtied ones, were seen as the mark of a good, busy surgeon...

    • @Serahpin
      @Serahpin Рік тому +16

      A lot of medicine they used back then, we still use now. But we don't think about it because it's so orthodox.

    • @Pyriphlegeton
      @Pyriphlegeton Рік тому +20

      @@krystofdayne
      Oh no, I know many very educated people who fall for pseudomedicine. Homeopathy would be a good example. It's very popular amongst certain rather educated groups.

  • @dracone4370
    @dracone4370 Рік тому +122

    A little side note, European nobles were actually sold Narwhal tusks under the guise of being unicorn horns, they had these things turned into special drinking goblets and cups after they bought them, but the things hardly ever protected against poison. You were more likely to notice if your drink had been poisoned if you were drinking from a silver goblet or at least your cup/goblet had its inside lined with silver. A while back, I read that because of its unique antibacterial properties, silver can actually be a good way to indicate if you have toxins in your drink because the way it reacts can either visually change the silver itself or shift the coloration of the drink in response to the silver's reaction. From what I've managed to gather, this method was more well-known in Asiatic nations, and not really known all that well to European nation-states. So, You could have a character particularly cautious about being poisoned, dipping their silver coins in drinks for a few seconds, then pulling them out to observe their reactions, with other characters looking at them with confusion or reacting like they aren't quite right in the head.

    • @taylorfusher2997
      @taylorfusher2997 Рік тому

      To Tarille:
      How do the people in Elden ring eat? Also if you are going to have a large population of people in a civilization, you still need crop fields, and agriculture crop fields, and also you need cattle, pigs and other grazing animals to feed that civilization. I don’t understand it. Did I miss something. Remember I am not a expert, I am just guessing. I don’t truly know anything. So it does not matter what I say anyways or what I did.

    • @Amy_the_Lizard
      @Amy_the_Lizard Рік тому +10

      @@taylorfusher2997If you're so curious about Elden Rings, maybe you should head to the comments section of a video about it instead?

    • @BayWa4eva
      @BayWa4eva Рік тому +8

      silver, like platin, is a catalyst. many poisons are rather reactive (as their reaction with the body is what makes them poisonous), so that should work on some toxins (especially if the drink is warm/hot) but not all.
      however, never put an egg in that goblet because the reaction creating the foul egg smell certainly does use silver as catalyst.

    • @Lttlemoi
      @Lttlemoi Рік тому +6

      @@Amy_the_Lizard I think Taylor is a bot, but accidentally used the wrong account to post these. No sane person would spam such a comment in so many replies.

    • @RohanSpartin
      @RohanSpartin Рік тому +1

      That reminds me of the first Sherlock Holmes movie where one of the victims was killed in his bathtub via a paralytic mixed in with his bath salts that activated on contact with copper, which his bathtub was made of.

  • @leewolf6434
    @leewolf6434 Рік тому +236

    Love how much of a good time Shad is having whilst forcing his staff to watch Velma for Knights Watch 🤣🤣🤣 master genius 👌👌

    • @oagardo
      @oagardo Рік тому +8

      That's hilarious 😆

    • @andregon4366
      @andregon4366 Рік тому +14

      It's good to be the boss.

    • @taylorfusher2997
      @taylorfusher2997 Рік тому +1

      To Tarille:
      How do the people in Elden ring eat? Also if you are going to have a large population of people in a civilization, you still need crop fields, and agriculture crop fields, and also you need cattle, pigs and other grazing animals to feed that civilization. I don’t understand it. Did I miss something. Remember I am not a expert, I am just guessing. I don’t truly know anything. So it does not matter what I say anyways or what I did.

    • @leewolf6434
      @leewolf6434 Рік тому +2

      @@taylorfusher2997 It’s a game 🤷‍♂️

    • @knightjack
      @knightjack Рік тому

      Lol

  • @AfricanTransplant39
    @AfricanTransplant39 Рік тому +149

    Thank you for interviewing this very knowledgable woman! What a treat! I really enjoy all the weapon and combat videos, but these are real treats.

    • @stapelchips6559
      @stapelchips6559 Рік тому +7

      knowledgable women? She is a witch!

    • @theworldofcronis
      @theworldofcronis Рік тому +9

      @@stapelchips6559 And a pretty damn good one it seams. :)

    • @hanzquejano7112
      @hanzquejano7112 Рік тому +3

      @@stapelchips6559
      Or both. Would be awesome

    • @martiddy
      @martiddy Рік тому +2

      @Stapel Chips Most women that were considered as "witches" during 17th and 18th centuries were actually women that tried to make remedies for the sick people. When some of their remedies worked better than the old traditional medicine, they were accused of using witchcraft. Because in those times, male doctors refused to accept that some women were better doctors than men.

    • @7armedman
      @7armedman Рік тому

      I amlost puked...fat, old, he needs to bring in hot women. He literally saying this wok shit sucks and what does he do? Prob a lesbo.

  • @ilari90
    @ilari90 Рік тому +58

    "Puss was what healed the wound, so they would want to enhance the amount of puss in the wound, putting strips of bacon on it."
    "So it got infection and created more puss..."
    Festus the Leechlord: "Yeeeessss..!"

    • @Vandelberger
      @Vandelberger Рік тому +9

      Nurgle priest confirmed.

    • @rhettorical
      @rhettorical Рік тому +6

      Pus has one s. Two is a cat.

    • @TheWickedWizardOfOz1
      @TheWickedWizardOfOz1 Рік тому +2

      @@rhettorical Puss can heal wounds as well. Place it on the wound and power it up, make sure the motor is running, and the patient will feel much better.

    • @jaegercat6702
      @jaegercat6702 Рік тому +2

      @@rhettorical or…the other thing

    • @kellysouter4381
      @kellysouter4381 Рік тому

      Eeewwww!

  • @TC-14-
    @TC-14- Рік тому +55

    Wow those are some crazy ingredients and procedures! The eye needle to remove the lense made me cringe so hard. I can't believe it helped in some cases. So fascinating!

    • @lincolndunford6693
      @lincolndunford6693 Рік тому +7

      Reminds me of the lobotomy procedures that we used to perform not that long ago.

    • @Great_Olaf5
      @Great_Olaf5 Рік тому +11

      I took a class where we had a unit on early modern medicine, so a bit later than this, and one of the things that we read about was a potion provided by a priest to someone suffering... Headaches I think? Anyway, the potion was a small bottle of wine that the priest had said the Lord's Prayer over, and written a Bible verse on a piece of parchment and rolled it up inside the bottle.

    • @lincolndunford6693
      @lincolndunford6693 Рік тому +2

      @ Great_OLAF5
      It worked right?

    • @Great_Olaf5
      @Great_Olaf5 Рік тому +1

      @@lincolndunford6693 Dunno, I don't recall if the book elaborated on that, and it wasn't one of the assigned textbooks, it was just a chapter of the book the professor provided us with a PDF of, so I don't have it anymore.

    • @kellysouter4381
      @kellysouter4381 Рік тому

      The ancient Romans operated on cataracts too.

  • @ARKavli
    @ARKavli Рік тому +15

    From what I've read, the efficacy of witchcraft was controversial in the church. In the 11th century, Pope Gregory VII forbade Harald III of Denmark from executing witches. Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer was expelled from Innsbruck in 1484 by the bishop of Brixen. He later appealed to Rome and Rome supported him. The locals still refused to support him. When Kramer published the Malleus Malleficarum, the University of Köln theologians and the bishop rejected it. Interesting stuff.

    • @LB-ou8wt
      @LB-ou8wt Рік тому +5

      Generally the rise of witch-hunts correlate with protestantism. The Catholic church's stance was either we're gonna ignore them, or they don't exist

    • @berilsevvalbekret772
      @berilsevvalbekret772 Рік тому +1

      Basically. Kramer had a...very disturbed opinion about women like ancient Athenian bad. And the book gained validity because of fearmongering of some priests and truly vile SOB's that didn't like women having even a little say in especially economical or education matters. Basically few bad appels caused some 40.000 woman and some 10.000 men's horrific deaths.

  • @DSzaks
    @DSzaks Рік тому +18

    My favorite witch trial was the guy in Salem who was crushed to death and refused to provided testimony cuz he said the whole trial was a sham and every time they asked if he would like to confess he would tell them that their puny rocks didn't weigh enough. What a Chad.

    • @olivegrove-gl3tw
      @olivegrove-gl3tw Рік тому

      he got crushed to death? o.O

    • @DSzaks
      @DSzaks Рік тому +2

      @@olivegrove-gl3tw yes he was but he never gave in to them and maintained his pride throughout the entire thing.

    • @berilsevvalbekret772
      @berilsevvalbekret772 Рік тому

      Gigachad.

    • @samuelmellars7855
      @samuelmellars7855 Рік тому +2

      ​@@olivegrove-gl3tw he refused to enter a plea of innocent or guilty. They tortured him to get him to enter a plea, by putting a board on him and putting stones on top. He would only say "more weight", until he was crushed to death.
      If he had pled guilty, his lands may have been forfeit as part of his punishment.
      If he had pled innocence and been found guilty by the (massively corrupt) court, his lands could have been forfeit as part of the punishment.
      By not entering a plea, his lands passed to his children (daughters I believe) when he died.

  • @Nostripe361
    @Nostripe361 Рік тому +28

    Talking about Radium. It was super popular through the early 1900s. Really only stopped once a man drank so much of it that his jaw completely fell off.
    The over use of X-ray's on pregnant women led to a massive increase in child leukemia
    the rather recent fight over whether sugar or fat is the culprit to a terrible diet. Most modern doctors believe that sugar is worse but in the 50s they pushed fat and that lead to a massive increase in sugar to foods to compensate for the lost of fat as an ingredient.

    • @pubcle
      @pubcle Рік тому +6

      The last is always fairly odd to me because fat is something we've always eaten and it's use in cooking goes back to prehistoric civilizations, outsized sugar consumption is a very recent change. The oldest recipes in history have rendered fat as explicit ingredients.

    • @taylorfusher2997
      @taylorfusher2997 Рік тому

      To Tarille:
      How do the people in Elden ring eat? Also if you are going to have a large population of people in a civilization, you still need crop fields, and agriculture crop fields, and also you need cattle, pigs and other grazing animals to feed that civilization. I don’t understand it. Did I miss something. Remember I am not a expert, I am just guessing. I don’t truly know anything. So it does not matter what I say anyways or what I did.

    • @Nostripe361
      @Nostripe361 Рік тому +5

      @@pubcle I actually saw a video talking about historical mistakes and its pretty much because of one man. Eisenhower, while he was president, had a massive heart attack and some decided it had to be his diet and not the cartons of cigarettes he smoked per day.
      Because of this one specific doctor argued that high fat in your diet was dangerous and sugar wasn't that bad. He was also known to be extremely combative and would argue with anyone who disagreed with his opinion loudly and publicly. And with some funding by sugar manufacturers we get where we are today where pretty much everything in the US diet has massive amounts of addictive sugar added.

    • @littlekong7685
      @littlekong7685 Рік тому +6

      @@Nostripe361 He was funded by coca cola, they specifically hired him because he was a marketing specialist who happened to do science on the side. They spent 5 years of marketing budget to basically push sugar=good, fat=bad on a global scale because their drink had lots of sugar and kids were having heart attacks and they worried government regulation might come in and shut them down (or at least out them from massive market sectors). So they pushed legislators to worry about fat, and scared the public about fat so much that they couldn't put resources into testing sugar. That was when coca-cola released their (Very) flawed biased research as "proof" that sugar was good, any argument basically had to go through this research and was stalled. Any counter research was actively sabotaged, legislated against, or pre-discredited to protect them from real government oversight.
      The worst part is his own research showed: Sugar is addictive (So they actually upped the sugar contents). Children are an easily addicted market (So they pushed child friendly ads and forced schools to add vending machines to better sell to kids). Caffeine is harmful to kids (But also highly addictive, especially to kids, so they upped that too). Sugar causes many harmful effects and fat in normal amounts is healthy, large amounts can be dangerous (About 1/10 as dangerous as high sugar can be).
      They knew this, and they fudged their results to hide this even though they KNEW from his own research.

    • @robo5013
      @robo5013 Рік тому +1

      X-rays were also used to remove hair and wrinkles in the U.S. Beauty salons would do x-ray hair removal or wrinkle removal services. It was banned in 1946 but some people went to back alley salons to continue the treatments. A study done in 1970's concluded that 35% of radiation based cancers in women were caused by x-ray hair removal treatments.

  • @ogreman2229
    @ogreman2229 Рік тому +81

    She seems like such a nice woman and absolutely a wealth of information. This video is a change from the usual content is such a refreshing way. Would love to see more like this!

    • @taylorfusher2997
      @taylorfusher2997 Рік тому

      To Tarille:
      How do the people in Elden ring eat? Also if you are going to have a large population of people in a civilization, you still need crop fields, and agriculture crop fields, and also you need cattle, pigs and other grazing animals to feed that civilization. I don’t understand it. Did I miss something. Remember I am not a expert, I am just guessing. I don’t truly know anything. So it does not matter what I say anyways or what I did.

    • @taylorfusher2997
      @taylorfusher2997 Рік тому

      To Tarille:
      How do the people in Elden ring eat? Also if you are going to have a large population of people in a civilization, you still need crop fields, and agriculture crop fields, and also you need cattle, pigs and other grazing animals to feed that civilization. I don’t understand it. Did I miss something. Remember I am not a expert, I am just guessing. I don’t truly know anything. So it does not matter what I say anyways or what I did.

    • @JohnMiller-zr8pl
      @JohnMiller-zr8pl Рік тому

      Does she has some kind of "manual" or book of the things she had learn?

  • @MrJinxmaster1
    @MrJinxmaster1 Рік тому +26

    A point about all of these:
    Placebo works, the more ritual the better it works, this is well documented.
    So even though some of these would make things worse, the stuff that has no medical effect could well improve recovery to some extent via placebo.

    • @littlekong7685
      @littlekong7685 Рік тому +4

      Yes, just relieving the stress can do wonders for healing as your body frees up energy for recovery.
      As well community and familial support during healing also has a HUGE benefit (Familiar common ritual being a big part of the stress reducing factor). There have been a lot of studies that basically all say the best place to heal is at home (if not a polluted environment) surrounded by loved ones taking care of your physical and emotional needs and doing familiar ritual acts.

    • @ramennight
      @ramennight Рік тому +1

      Yeah, seems he has a misunderstanding of the word placebo. Placebo effect is when something *shouldn't* have a positive effect, but does because the person believes it should. That's what makes it so confusing. It's not just false positives, like the false bites they used as an example, but would instead be if the concoction actually did help some people because they believed it should.

  • @oagardo
    @oagardo Рік тому +19

    It's so cool to see how this lady is so knowledgeable and passionate about this stuff. This was such a cozy video.

  • @benkayvfalsifier3817
    @benkayvfalsifier3817 Рік тому +12

    The story about the bits of poison creating resistance may be true. I remember watching a video here on yt about a guy who takes care of some of the world's most venomous snakes to make anti-venom. He said he's been bitten a few times and discovered that the effects seemed less effective after every bite so he started injecting himself with small amounts to build up immunity.

    • @Amy_the_Lizard
      @Amy_the_Lizard Рік тому +11

      You can build up immunity to toxins that the body is actually capable of breaking down or ignoring by essentially training it to get better at breaking it down, or training it to function in spite of its presence (same as building a tolerance to alcohol or specific drugs) but if it's something that trashes cells and can't be broken down, there's not really anything you can do to become resistant. The downside is that prolonged exposure to the toxin could still be harmful. For instance, an alcoholic needs to consume more alcohol than a normal person for it to effect them, and in some cases may be able to survive drinking quantities of alcohol that would be lethal to a non-alcoholic because their neurons are used to having to work around the alcohol, but all that alcohol consumption is still slowly damaging their liver, and if they stop consuming it suddenly they'll go into withdrawal because they're body isn't used to functioning without it anymore. Taking small amounts of the same poison over a long period of time to gain resistance to it runs the risk of potentially having something similar occur

    • @benkayvfalsifier3817
      @benkayvfalsifier3817 Рік тому +3

      @Amy I agree. I was responding to Shad's seeming disbelief in such a possibility.

    • @feuerling
      @feuerling Рік тому +6

      Antivenom is created by immunizing animals like horses or cows to a venom and then extracting the antibodies from their blood. Same thing, but on a larger scale.

    • @benkayvfalsifier3817
      @benkayvfalsifier3817 Рік тому +3

      @@feuerling I knew that venom from the source animal was needed to make antivenom, but not the actual process to make it. Thx for the info.

    • @adambielen8996
      @adambielen8996 Рік тому +1

      @@benkayvfalsifier3817 Yes, so basically a horse or cow needs way more venom to kill them. So by only injecting a little bit they will just make the antibodies and survive. In theory this can be done with humans but it is highly dangerous as only a very little venom will kill us.

  • @tiredman99
    @tiredman99 Рік тому +7

    I'd really like to see more videos with this Medieval doctor. She's very well spoken and knowledgeable on what she's talking about. Great that she lets you do a video with her

  • @seanmcguire1952
    @seanmcguire1952 Рік тому +4

    My grandmother had a blood disorder called, polycythemia vera. The body produces an excess of blood. Leaches is one possible modern treatment method.

  • @PANCAKEMINEZZ
    @PANCAKEMINEZZ Рік тому +9

    This has been a lovely video to watch while I eat dinner. Thank you, Shad... From the bottom of my stomach.

  • @abcdef27669
    @abcdef27669 Рік тому +4

    "Doctor, I have an ingrown nail...".
    "Ok, let's prepare the instruments for the trepanation...".

  • @davidsigler9690
    @davidsigler9690 Рік тому +3

    "The Poison King: The Life And Legend Of Mithradates-Rome's Deadliest Enemy." By. Adrienne Mayor; good book.

  • @lowtierwaifu
    @lowtierwaifu Рік тому +32

    Shad, you uploaded at the same time as the Knights Watch channel. C'mon man, you can't try to split us like that lol

  • @Oikolukuhirvi
    @Oikolukuhirvi Рік тому +2

    Mithridatism is named after Mithridates VI Eupator (135-63 BC), King of Pontus in Northern Anatolia, modern Turkey. I first learned of this guy by playing Expeditons: Rome, a great game!

  • @anodyne4670
    @anodyne4670 Рік тому +5

    She's incredibly charming.

  • @masonwheeler6536
    @masonwheeler6536 Рік тому +4

    One noteworthy ingredient in Theriac was opium. So yeah, like the mandrake root, it would have had some level of "dimming your awareness" that could have beneficial medicinal effects, as long as you didn't take too much of it.

  • @iDEATH
    @iDEATH Рік тому +10

    Great video! Doesn't the "theriac" (sp?) sound like it could be the basis for "snake oil" cure-alls? And that thing about using short prayer or chants to time/count mixing was mind blowing for me, in no small part because it seems so obvious after hearing it; it's like counting Mississippis!

    • @B.D.E.
      @B.D.E. Рік тому +1

      Yep, and other words for them from the time actually do translate to something similar to cure-all. Probably a lot more snake oil type salesmen in those days than there are now!

    • @masonwheeler6536
      @masonwheeler6536 Рік тому +3

      When Kodak introduced modern color photography film, (color film existed before Kodachrome, but it was of extremely poor quality,) the process was developed not by professional engineers, but by a pair of musicians who dabbled in amateur chemistry and photography. It was their musical talent that actually made it work: by singing passages they could time the chemical reactions more precisely than the laboratory instruments that were available in the 1920s, giving them a leg up on other researchers.

    • @Amy_the_Lizard
      @Amy_the_Lizard Рік тому +3

      Actually, the term "snake-oil" being used to refer to fake medicines in the US derives from a literal snake oil (melted snake fat) that some Chinese immigrants that worked as laborers in the 1800s used for joint pain. Ironically, the fat from the type of water snake they were using actually does work due to specific compounds it contains, but people started making cheap knock-offs out of various other snakes native to the US, and those didn't do anything, which spawned the saying...

  • @drago2210
    @drago2210 Рік тому +1

    12:55 Yo Shad this is in Dragon's Dogma too!
    Mithridate - "A type of herb that grows throughout Gransys. Consume it to purge the body of poison."
    Now I wonder what other myths they secretly reference in there that I had no idea about.

  • @Tyka_F4FT
    @Tyka_F4FT Рік тому +4

    Seeing your materials from medieval festivals brings one thing up in my mind. Get yourself a pair of historically accurate glasses, those would fit your clothes and you can make a hella interesting video of it.

    • @als3022
      @als3022 Рік тому +1

      They take a little practice to wear, but I agree him getting a period correct pair would be great.

  • @mkuttler01
    @mkuttler01 Рік тому +2

    Fascinating. Thanks for doing these interviews and sharing with us. I love em.

  • @charlesmartinez5869
    @charlesmartinez5869 Рік тому

    Neat.
    That note about reciting a phrase to keep track of time is really interesting.

  • @theworldofcronis
    @theworldofcronis Рік тому +1

    Love your normal content (5/5), and this kind of deepdive is pure gold. giving Shadiversity an avg score 6 on scale 1 to 5.

  • @tessareea
    @tessareea Рік тому +1

    I absolutely love this! Even if they don't understand how or why something works, if it works, it works!

  • @ScratchySpoon
    @ScratchySpoon Рік тому +2

    Another great one Shad!
    I'm loving these vids where you introduce someone from a medieval fair and have them share with us what they know and we get to see what's similar today and what's different, and what we didn't know about our ancestors.

  • @KingDeadMan
    @KingDeadMan Рік тому +3

    Title: "She's a witch!"
    Me: *Slowly reaches for pitch fork* 🌚

  • @ZeroSalvator
    @ZeroSalvator Рік тому +2

    I don't know if any of the bestiaries refer to unicorns as alicorns. However I do know the (horn) of a unicorn is referred to consistently as alicorn. A modern misnomer is alicorn being used to refer to a unicorn and pegasi (pegasus plural) hybrid.

    • @Enyavar1
      @Enyavar1 Рік тому +3

      If anyone else was also curious which physician was doing experiments on unicorn stuff (as our friendly neighborhood witch told), all indications I've found point towards Ambroise Paré, who lived in the 16th century, which is renaissance era already, not quite medieval.
      Paré tested a LOT of fake medicins to weed out good from bad stuff, and he was actually a professional surgeon.

  • @simpson6700
    @simpson6700 Рік тому +3

    always love the medieval festival videos

  • @grayrook8637
    @grayrook8637 Рік тому +1

    Pretty crazy what work even today. Like maggots and leeches are both highly valued for their unobtrusive means of removing blood and necrotic tissue respectively. A leech jaw can make a cut more precise than and clumsy human tool just by natural design.

  • @LangThoughts
    @LangThoughts Рік тому +2

    Also, the Pater Noster is not just a Catholic thing. It's what the Catholics once called The Lord's Prayer. "Pater Noster"=Latin for "Our Father"

  • @ApfelJohannisbeere
    @ApfelJohannisbeere Рік тому

    Thanks for sharing this medieval knowledge with us!

  • @hyschara
    @hyschara Рік тому

    It's like singing happy birthday while washing your hands 🤣

  • @RickardLejonhjarta
    @RickardLejonhjarta Рік тому +2

    Patient: "Oh goodie, what are we having for dinner?"
    Doctor: "What?"

  • @TheSpeep
    @TheSpeep Рік тому

    On the radium medicine, I also remember wristwatches with a radioactive backplate were very common, i think especially for children, because that way you could read them in the dark.
    And what could possibly go wrong walking around with a slab of radioactive material all day?

  • @GarnachoEmpire712
    @GarnachoEmpire712 Рік тому +1

    As someone who studies medicine through time in gcse this is great and even helps with revision

  • @alexshadowfax1119
    @alexshadowfax1119 Рік тому

    I figured you weren't uploading videos anymore as I haven't seen any in my subscription feed for a couple months, but lo and behold you've uploaded plenty and I just wasn't getting notified.

  • @serindas
    @serindas Рік тому +1

    I'm a collector of old books, and trust me, you will find several weird statements about medicine even in books of the 1920.

  • @tabithaalphess2115
    @tabithaalphess2115 Рік тому +2

    This is so cool! I did some research on Victorian-era medicine for my fantasy setting as it's entering into the industrial revolution. But some parts are still very much in the medieval or Renaissance period, so it's very interesting and very helpful to learn what types of medicines they would likely use. Especially because in my world, magic itself is quite common, but healing magic is rarer. Typically effective healing magic is expensive for the average person, so when they get ill or hurt they go to a local wise woman, plague doctor, ranger who sells herbs, or just grow it themselves. Creatures like unicorns do exist in their world, but not all unicorns are the same. The two main types people know about are bearded unicorns and fey unicorns. Bearded are large, powerful, and territorial animals that are sometimes used as beasts of burden but almost never mounts, as they have poor temperaments. They're best known for their rivalry with chimeras and will impale intruders on their territory against trees using their large, curled horns. Meanwhile fey unicorns are more goat-like and much smaller, but their curled horns do have magical properties, some medicinal. However they're very rare, hard to catch, and killing one can incur the wrath of the fey queen, Titania

    • @taylorfusher2997
      @taylorfusher2997 Рік тому

      To Tarille:
      How do the people in Elden ring eat? Also if you are going to have a large population of people in a civilization, you still need crop fields, and agriculture crop fields, and also you need cattle, pigs and other grazing animals to feed that civilization. I don’t understand it. Did I miss something. Remember I am not a expert, I am just guessing. I don’t truly know anything. So it does not matter what I say anyways or what I did.

    • @Amy_the_Lizard
      @Amy_the_Lizard Рік тому +1

      @taylorfusher2997 I'm not sure why you're asking this person about Elden Rings when their comment had nothing to do with it, but yes large populations of people need food, though it should be noted that things like grains and vegetables are vastly more important than livestock for food production, and that with the exception of sheep, most livestock historically were just kinda left in a field to fend for themselves for the most part. I'm also not sure why you listed "crop" and "agriculture crop" as separate things, so I'm just going to assume that was an accident. Also, while the distinction is minor in this context, I'd also like to mention that pigs aren't technically grazing animals, as their digestive system isn't designed to get nutrients out of grass. They require a diet more rich in protein and more easily digested, and actually have similar dietary needs to humans; if they're only given grass or hay to eat, they'll die from malnutrition.

    • @Enyavar1
      @Enyavar1 Рік тому +1

      If anyone else was also curious which physician was doing experiments on unicorn stuff (as our friendly neighborhood witch told), all indications I've found point towards Ambroise Paré, who lived in the 16th century, which is renaissance era already, not quite medieval.
      Paré tested a LOT of fake medicins to weed out good from bad stuff, and he was actually a professional surgeon.

  • @umbraelegios4130
    @umbraelegios4130 Рік тому +2

    Bedevere: What makes you think she is a witch?
    Villager: Well, She turned me into a newt!!

    (pause)

    Bedevere: a newt?

    (long pause)

    Villager: I got better...

  • @bradmakesgains8779
    @bradmakesgains8779 Рік тому +1

    *Zoomer reenactors in 2623* “doctors around the fall of the western world used to prescribe statins, opioids, acutane, penicillin, and SSRI’s for everything while their patients carried on a sedentary life of eating microplastic glyphosate seed oils and teflon.”

  • @dragonfireink139
    @dragonfireink139 Рік тому +1

    Awesome video! So much interesting information to get us started

  • @Tizjiz
    @Tizjiz Рік тому +2

    Master of Dogs is one of the most baller titles

  • @FVWLN
    @FVWLN Рік тому

    Theriac was really a fascinating and VERY popular stuff. Especcially from Venice, they sold it all over europe. In almost all (wealthy) parts of Europe, the seals from Theriac bottles or boxes can be found (today these are populpar collector items)

  • @JeremieBPCreation
    @JeremieBPCreation Рік тому +1

    Great fascinating video! Love learning with Shad!

  • @biddinge8898
    @biddinge8898 Рік тому

    there was actually a history channel show that talked about the ancient egyptians and how they had brass tools that had a small hole in them, so they'd poke it into the eye, and then use hte hole to suck the lense out so you can see.

  • @reaganjanaerichard5009
    @reaganjanaerichard5009 Рік тому +1

    I just love this stuff so much.

  • @matthewlofton8465
    @matthewlofton8465 Рік тому

    chanting the Pater Noster reminds me of the covid handwashing guidelines where you were advised to sing the Happy Birthday song as you washed your hands (to give yourself enough time for the surfactant to do its work). I wonder if that is the origin of these chants, just a convenient way to time how long you needed to perform a process?

  • @markguyton2868
    @markguyton2868 Рік тому

    In the realm of science, most of these ingredients went from humours to humourous.

  • @Salt_Master_Queue
    @Salt_Master_Queue Рік тому

    14:02 "Mandrake, or Mandagora, is a powerful restorative. It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state."
    15:15 Allons-y, Alonzo!

  • @Lightice1
    @Lightice1 Рік тому

    14:40 - Alicorn is the name of a unicorn's horn or the stuff that it's made out of.

  • @WizardReel
    @WizardReel Рік тому

    Love the title, I keep thinking Monty Python and the Holy grail: " What makes you think she is a witch? Well, she turned me into a newt."

  • @DelayedSpaceOwl
    @DelayedSpaceOwl Рік тому +5

    This is an early post. Very interesting topic, can't wait to watch the video in its entirety

  • @theetruetolkienpatriot7701
    @theetruetolkienpatriot7701 Рік тому +2

    Sincerely lady

  • @FrostFire1649
    @FrostFire1649 Рік тому +1

    Does she give you the magic words "Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang"?

  • @shibalikchakraborty5344
    @shibalikchakraborty5344 Рік тому +2

    Don't mind me, I am just a cleric here to learn how to heal better.

  • @HolyApplebutter
    @HolyApplebutter Рік тому

    I have a fantasy character who, unbeknownst to him, has an incredibly specific ability, in that medieval mythological remedies actually work with him (there's really a whole region that's like that but whatever). So this is an absolute gold mine of ideas for him.
    That said, these remedies only work when they're from him. So if he gives a woman some theriac, that bottle will work fine. But if they recreate it through a given recipe, or even dilute it with water, it does nothing.

    • @Kas3-
      @Kas3- Рік тому

      Unrelated to your comment but apple butter is fucking delicious lmao

  • @alext6933
    @alext6933 Рік тому +2

    Great video. Lots of info.

  • @samuelmellars7855
    @samuelmellars7855 Рік тому

    Ooh, very interesting video!
    Some things that popped into my head while watching:
    The whole "eye of bat, tongue of newt" thing associated with witches may just be weird/secret names for herbs - used to keep recipes secret, or just local names that then were recorded by non-locals who took the names at face value. I'm pretty sure there is are plants/fungi called "snake heads" and "dead babies fingers" and the like.
    "Pills of white mercury" is a song about a man dying of venereal disease and the use of mercury to treat him. The chorus blames the woman, naturally: "had she but told me oh when she disordered me, had she told me, oh but in time, I might have been cured by those pills of white mercury! Now I am a young man, cut down in his prime" It's probably set in the 1800s, I think?

  • @erografos5326
    @erografos5326 Рік тому +2

    How do you know she is a witch?
    She turned me into a newt !!!
    Well i got better...

  • @articusramos808
    @articusramos808 Рік тому +4

    Judge frollo: WITCHCRAFT!

  • @Wbfuhn
    @Wbfuhn Рік тому +1

    When it came to medicine and technology there was always learning. We didn't explode with the medical advancement until after the computer was invented.

  • @RULERofSTARS
    @RULERofSTARS Рік тому

    Thanks Michelle :)

  • @KairuHakubi
    @KairuHakubi Рік тому

    I remember seeing a neat documentary talking about biblical-era medicine and how much more advanced it was compared to the past people usually think of, because we're thinking about medieval europe

  • @janicemcalisterdouglas7351
    @janicemcalisterdouglas7351 Рік тому +1

    This is so interesting. It is also funny story-wise.

    • @7armedman
      @7armedman Рік тому

      His other channel's better. He'd shred this woke old fatty.

  • @jaywerner8415
    @jaywerner8415 Рік тому

    On todays episode of Shad goes to Festival: Medieval Medicine. Very Cool subject.

  • @derskalde4973
    @derskalde4973 11 місяців тому

    14:54 min
    They also thought this of other things. For example, that if you throw sharks teeth in your drink, they would either neutralize poison in the drink or show some reaction, indicating the presence of poison (can't remember which). Similarly, the claws of a Griffin would neutralize poison. I saw in a book a goblet, that was fashioned from a Wisent horn, which they apparently believed to be a Griffin claw. Or you use powdered Griffin claw to put in the drink.
    20:30 min
    Like in one of the Terry Pratchett novels, I think the title was "An Island"? They create Beer from a root or something, but unless you spit in it and recite a prayer to a deity of the islandfolk, it'd be a deadly poison. The female Protagonist then experiments with this, and discovers, that it's not the prayer, that's important, but the time you need to recite it, while the spit reacts with the Beer to be. You could also sing some childrens song (I think it was Happy Birthday) for a dozen times or so, and it'd have the same effect.
    20:47 min
    I'm somewhat surprised, that Shad doesn't know what the Paternoster is.

  • @embee7434
    @embee7434 Рік тому +3

    "The medieval period is not the only period where toxic materials were used as medicine." No joke. 🤣 Have a look at the warning labels on modern medicines...

  • @maccurtis730
    @maccurtis730 Рік тому

    Shad went to a Medieval Doctor and served.

  • @darkman237
    @darkman237 Рік тому

    The four Humors came originally from Hippocrates. Today it works well for personality types.

  • @BLS31
    @BLS31 Рік тому +1

    Ah yes, ye olde freelance medical care. "Here, have a porridge of yarrow and sea Hawthorne for your knee, I'm sure it'll work!"

  • @francoislacombe9071
    @francoislacombe9071 Рік тому

    Radium is chemically similar to calcium, so most of the radium people ingested would go into their bones, the radiation would kill the cells in those bones, which would eventually cause them to break down into dust. That was a gruesome and painful way to die.

  • @calvingreene90
    @calvingreene90 Рік тому +3

    Small doses of arsenic does increase your tolerance to arsenic (Sometimes called inheritance powder) to the extent that the sly poisoned can share a bottle of poisoned wine with his victim killing him but leave unharmed.

    • @UngodlyFreak
      @UngodlyFreak Рік тому +2

      True, but the arsenic is deposited in the body causing all kinds of nasty chronic ailments which is probably not worth the benefit of being resistant to that one specific poison.

    • @calvingreene90
      @calvingreene90 Рік тому

      @@UngodlyFreak
      Consider the name inheritance powder and who is likely to inherit before deciding on the wisdom of taking small doses.

    • @UngodlyFreak
      @UngodlyFreak Рік тому

      @@calvingreene90 Yes, you'd be a chronically ill king who's probably going to die to a heart attack or cancer in the next 10 years, if your kinslaying has not been avenged before that.

    • @calvingreene90
      @calvingreene90 Рік тому

      @@UngodlyFreak
      There you go assuming that that only kings are killed for the inheritance and that the only response to the threat is murder.

  • @TheShieldery
    @TheShieldery Рік тому +1

    Better Placebo then nothing, I guess.

  • @TheShieldery
    @TheShieldery Рік тому +1

    What was the role of Mariuana in medieval medicine? I red that it was pritty important.

    • @lonelystrategos
      @lonelystrategos Рік тому +1

      I've never heard of cannabis being consumed in medieval Europe, but in the Muslim world it was eaten for recreational purposes (yes, eaten, smoking it didn't become common until the 16th century). I'm not an expert, so maybe there's something I'm not aware of, though.

    • @TheShieldery
      @TheShieldery Рік тому +2

      @@lonelystrategos Hildegard von Bingen metioned it in the year 1150 as an antidot to many illnesses, like stomach kramps, sleeplesnes, headache and abdominal pain. It was forbidden by a pope in the late fifeteenth century though, I think.

  • @coreystockdale6287
    @coreystockdale6287 Рік тому

    Laudable puss is actually pretty good, not as a treatment but as a sign of triage. If you have laudable puss you will most likely recover as long as you have adequate food water and shelter

    • @coreystockdale6287
      @coreystockdale6287 Рік тому

      @Shadiversity_Gaming_____ ah a scammer I see go f yourself boyo

  • @golDroger88
    @golDroger88 Рік тому

    There were people who who would take medicines that weren't even tested before, can you believe it?
    Oh wait, that wasn't in the middleages, that was last year.

  • @shieldwallofdragons
    @shieldwallofdragons Рік тому

    Great Video. Very interesting.

  • @JohannRaphaelTKing
    @JohannRaphaelTKing Рік тому

    "Pater Noster" is the "Lord's Prayer" or "Our Father" prayer in Latin.

  • @jonafen5504
    @jonafen5504 Рік тому

    17:40 Absolutely. The prevalence of witch hunting is exaggerated overall. I think it partly comes from that people read about the Salem witch trials and assume that it was like that everywhere - and that it was worse in the medieval ages.

    • @LB-ou8wt
      @LB-ou8wt Рік тому

      beyond that witch hunting is more of a renaissance thing than a medieval thing, even though the perception of the renaissance is more refined and middle ages more dirt and gloom

  • @efueds
    @efueds Рік тому

    Very slight spoilers for Vinland Saga, there's one point where they talk about selling narwhal horns in Greece and passing them off as unicorn horns

  • @thumbwarriordx
    @thumbwarriordx Рік тому

    It's actually surprising how much of herbal medicine has been sucked up into mainstream modern medicine.
    Aspirin is the most ubiquitous example but a whole lot of stuff is either a synthetic version of a chemical in an herb or, when it's cheaper, extracted and refined from said herb. The pharma companies really tried with their synthetic THC but they get utterly trounced by cannabis extract economically.
    Heroin is even used as an anesthetic in countries that allow it in medicine and is significantly cheaper than synthetic opioid painkillers.
    People think of herbal medicine as some hippie newage woo woo junk but despite the dire state of medieval medicine and especially chemistry, a lot of it was not.

  • @paulherman5822
    @paulherman5822 Рік тому

    FYI: the Pater Noster is the Lord's Prayer. Basically "Our Father."

  • @neoaliphant
    @neoaliphant Рік тому

    Theriac featured in one of my game sessions....

  • @runkurgan
    @runkurgan Рік тому

    Pater Noster is also known as The Lord's Prayer. Our Father Thou art in heaven, that one.

  • @CaptainFrost32
    @CaptainFrost32 Рік тому +1

    An excellent video, but an important question left unanswered:
    Does she weigh the same as a duck?
    You can send your reply by swallow-borne coconut courier.
    [Edited: it would be sheer folly to suggest sparrows in lieu of African or European swallows.]
    Did you see any Frenchmen among the macchicolations?

  • @clobberelladoesntreadcomme9920

    @16:26 Sounds like a familiar scenario

  • @seymourfields3613
    @seymourfields3613 Рік тому

    Alicorn is a winged unicorn

  • @CuidightheachODuinn
    @CuidightheachODuinn 24 дні тому

    13:43 I thought she pulled out a joint for a second.

  • @josuesepulveda6850
    @josuesepulveda6850 Рік тому

    Very informative.

  • @colinbluth5461
    @colinbluth5461 Рік тому

    this is some great stuff

  • @raging_n00b50
    @raging_n00b50 Рік тому +2

    Where did this idea of balancing humors come from? Did the Romans, Greeks or some other preceding civilization believe this idea or did Medieval come with this on their own?

    • @KingFancyson
      @KingFancyson Рік тому +3

      The idea originated from ancient Greece. Galen came up with the model used in the medieval period

  • @roycehuepers4325
    @roycehuepers4325 Рік тому +2

    Why does after watching this I'm thinking mideval people pretty much applied redneck logic to some things? 😆 wonder what they'd do if ducktape was a thing.
    Definitely some stuff I as a redneck would do. I have used salt for infected wounds before when I was broke and didn't want to go to the doctor. It works. But holy hell it hurts!
    As to 20:00
    The song "staying alive" is what you want to sing during cpr because of the beat

    • @robo5013
      @robo5013 Рік тому +1

      There was a comic strip in Dragon magazine back in the day where the party's cleric used duct tape to 'cure' just about every wound.

    • @roycehuepers4325
      @roycehuepers4325 Рік тому +1

      @@robo5013 OK that's hilarious 😂 sounds about right

  • @blankfrankie3747
    @blankfrankie3747 Рік тому

    Shad seems to have a way with the ladies of LARP.

  • @christophhofland8890
    @christophhofland8890 Рік тому

    She turned me into a newt!
    ... I got better.