The people of the Middle Ages were afflicted with many of the same sicknesses, from cancer to nosebleeds, that exist today. But they also had to contend with a variety of skin lesions and other ailments that are no longer the scourges they once were. Diseases such as smallpox, leprosy, St. Anthony’s fire, and St. Vitus’s dance were products of the unsanitary living conditions, overcrowding, and malnutrition that characterized the lives of the majority of Europe’s population.

At that time disease was thought to result from an imbalance in the four fluids, or humors, of the body–choler, phlegm, black bile, and blood. The physician’s task was to restore the balance of these humors. Means at his disposal included cauterization, surgery, diet, and medicine. A common medical practice was bloodletting, in which a specific vein was opened to treat a particular disease. The blood was then checked for distinctive properties, such as smell and greasiness.

Medical science during the Middle Ages became increasingly sophisticated and even extended to the study of cadavers. Profusely illustrated manuals guided apprentice doctors through every step of patient diagnosis. There were charts to aid in inspecting urine for color, smell, and sediment; calendars and tables for use in astrological medicine; manuals on techniques of bloodletting; pharmaceutical reference books depicting herbs and their applications; and collections of recipes for balms and potions.

Members of the medical community ranged from university-trained doctors-strongly influenced by centuries of Greek and Islamic insight–to traditional healers, who learned their craft through apprenticeship to other folk practitioners.

The care provided by a formally-trained doctor was priced beyond the reach of most people, although in the early 13th century some Italian cities retained physicians to treat the poor for free. And during the 14th and 15th centuries, religious communities offered the poor and aged refuge in hospitals, providing food, shelter, and prayer, along with limited medical care.

On the whole, however, in the Middle Ages such care for agrarian peasants and poor city dwellers was limited to the ministrations of village healers, herbalists, and barber-surgeons, as well as self-medications and visits to mineral baths.