What did we have before Doctors?

In ancient Greece, the study of the human mind and body was one of the great concerns of scholars and philosophers. We know of Socrates and Aristotle, but another hugely influential Greek was Hippocrates, often called the father of Western medicine. He taught that illness had natural causes rather than being a punishment from the gods. His ideas, and those of later physicians such as Galen, were studied for centuries and became influential again during the Renaissance, when more doctors began to train and practise. But for a long time, trained doctors were expensive and mostly served the rich, so what did everyone else do when they felt unwell?

Wise Women and Healers

For many ordinary people, the answer was local healers, often known as wise women or cunning folk. Before you picture gnarled old women hunched over a bubbling cauldron using “eye of newt”, be aware that this is something of a false picture. Much of the popular image of witches comes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which was written in the reign of James I, a king who had a keen interest in witchcraft and wrote a book about it.

Herbal Remedies

Wise women and healers used herbs and remedies passed down through generations. Some worked, some did not, and some were little more than placebos, all without anything like today’s Paid Clinical Trials. But they were usually cheaper than a doctor or apothecary, and healers would sometimes trade cures for goods or services.

Persecution

Sadly, many of these healers, mostly women, were caught up in the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries, and some were persecuted or even executed.