Memory Aids: Lock In the Key Facts
Part of Medieval Ideas about Disease — GCSE History
This memory aid covers Memory Aids: Lock In the Key Facts within Medieval Ideas about Disease for GCSE History. Revise Medieval Ideas about Disease in Medicine Through Time for GCSE History with 8 exam-style questions and 5 flashcards. This is a high-frequency topic, so it is worth revising until the explanation feels precise and repeatable. It is section 12 of 15 in this topic. Use it for quick recall, then test yourself straight afterwards so the memory aid becomes usable in an answer.
Topic position
Section 12 of 15
Practice
8 questions
Recall
5 flashcards
🧠 Memory Aids: Lock In the Key Facts
The four humours — "Blood Pours Yellow Black":
- Blood — hot & wet — treat with bleeding
- Phlegm — cold & wet — treat by warming
- Yellow bile — hot & dry — treat by purging
- Black bile — cold & dry — treat by purging or bleeding
Why medieval ideas lasted — "AGENT" framework: Use this for "Explain why" questions about why medieval ideas persisted:
- Authority — Galen's ancient texts treated as unquestionable
- God — Church enforced Galen as God's confirmed design
- Evidence lacking — no microscopes, no technology to disprove theories
- No dissection — Church ban prevented correcting Galen's errors
- Theory seemed logical — symptoms could always be "explained" by humours
Key dates for this topic:
- c.460-370 BC — Hippocrates develops the Four Humours
- c.130-210 AD — Galen expands the theory; writes ~500 medical texts
- 1348 — Black Death arrives — medieval medicine has no answer
- 1543 — Vesalius publishes his anatomy book, beginning the challenge to Galen
Visual association — "The Locked Library": Picture a vast medieval library filled with Galen's books, chained shut with a padlock. A monk stands guard with a key labelled "Church Authority." Outside, a sick patient lies dying. A curious doctor tries to open the library door to find new ideas, but can't — the monk shakes his head. This is medieval medicine in one image: knowledge exists (Galen's books) but it is locked in place by authority, preventing any new ideas from getting in.