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Gil Voremberg

Ms. DeWinne & Mrs. Stoller

English Writing & Research

16 February 2021

Medicine & Disease In the Elizabethan Era

Would you believe that someone can die from a cut in just a few days? There are many

things that we would not think of dying from now, for example could be something as small as a

cut or as serious like the black death. Illnesses that caused, so much death in the Elizabethan Era

would not kill as many people in today’s society because of our advances in medicine, such as

antibiotics. The medicine during the Elizabethan Era was mistaken and flawed and because of

that many people were mistreated and died.

The Medicine used during the Elizabethan Era was not nearly as good to today’s

medicine. Such as, during the Elizabethan Era the way they got rid of lung problems is by giving

people liquorice and comfrey which is unhealthy and can kill someone even faster because

comfrey contains poisonous chemicals called pyrrolizidine (Elizabethan Medicine). When

anyone ever got a wound they would “use vinegar as a cleansing agent and it was believed to kill

the disease, but vinegar has significant health benefits on the inside of the body, but does not

affect the outside, so the person would die” (Elizabethan Medicine). From just a small cut that

has been infected, a person could die in just a few days. In the Elizabethan Era many people

believed that good smells could cure a person from the number of things they used that had a

good smell. For example, to get rid of head pains they gave sweet smelling herbs to people and

to get rid of a stomach pain they gave people wormwood, mint, and balm, which are things that

smell good but do not help cure a disease or illness (Elizabethan Medicine).
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The lack of medicine allowed people to die from the black death. The black plague killed

nearly one third of the population of Europe. The medicine that they thought to treat the black

death was “by lancing the buboes and applying the warm poultice of butter, onion and garlic.

Various other remedies were tried including tobacco, arsenic, lily root and dried toad”

(Elizabethan Medicine). This tells how the people in the Elizabethan Era tried to cure the black

death. It spread extremely fast and killed so many because there were open sewers that were

filled with garbage. By having streets dirty like this “diseases were easily spread in this

unsanitary environment where fleas, lice and rats all flourished” (Elizabethan Life). This shows

by letting areas get too dirty, they were making it so people are at higher risk of transferring

diseases. By not having good medicine and bad hygiene at the time it led to one third of the

population deaths in Europe by letting it spread so quickly and by not having a good enough

medicine to help people survive the black death.

Depending on what class you were in is what treatment you got depending if you

had money for a good treatment you got a good doctor or a bad treatment. For example “the

Elizabethan medical profession had no idea what caused the plague-the best they could offer was

to bled the patient or administer a concern of herbs” (Elizabethan Physician). The doctor that

would help only the wealthy Elizabethans would be called the “Elizabethan Physicians” and they

“received an education at one of the Universities and the College of Physicians” (Elizabethan

Doctors). The reason why they would only help the wealthy was because the usual fee would be

a gold coin worth 10 shillings and that price is well above the means of most Elizabethans

(Elizabethan Doctors). The Elizabethan Surgeons were inferior to the Physicians and had a

similar reputation to the barber because they both belonged to the “Company of Barber

Surgeons”, and the only thing the barber is allowed to do is “pull teeth or let blood” (Elizabethan
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Doctor). The doctor that most people went to was the apothecary, or dispenser of drugs. The

apothecaries were a part of the “Grocer’s Guild and sold sweets, cosmetics and perfumes as well

as drugs” (Elizabethan Doctors). 

         Elizabethans had a superstition about generally everything and illnesses. The cunning

folk were people who told fortunes, they would find lost or stolen belongings and artifacts, they

would also create love potions (pg.74). The citizens believed illnesses were caused by witchcraft

and from this it made people concerned about witchcraft grow even bigger in the second half of

the sixteenth century, cunning folk were becoming increasingly valued (pg.75). “The cunning

folk were sought for their healing powers at times of crisis.” (pg.74). The reason for why people

thought that illnesses was caused by witchcraft because it states “In clerical writing, literary

works, court proceedings, medical records, pamphlets, and elsewhere, the part cunning folk

played in the diagnosis and treatment of supernatural afflictions-illnesses believed to be caused

by witchcraft-is in clear evidence” (pg.75). This tells that the cunning folk were the people who

helped treat the supernatural afflictions. This talks about how the cunning folk were treated by

illnesses that were believed to be caused by witchcraft.

         All things considered, the Elizabethan Era’s medicine and disease was a big problem by

having so much death. Another one of the big problems is how the people believed that the

illnesses they got was from witchcraft and nothing else. The worst thing about the medicine

during that time is how it was used for the wrong purpose or it just did not help at all and even

sometimes by giving the wrong medicine it would kill the patients. The medicine during the

Elizabethan Era did not help get rid of most of the diseases and illnesses, and many times

the medicine caused the Elizabethans to get worse instead of better. During the Elizabethan Era
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something as simple as head pain or getting a cut, which caused many more people to die than

there had to be.

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Works Sited

Bonzol Judith. “The Death of the Fifth Earl of Derby: Cunning Folk and Medicine in Early

Modern England.” Renaissance & Reformation/Renaissance et Reform, vol. 33, no. 4,

Fall 2010, pp.73-100. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=lfh&AN=70204660&site=ehost-live.

Health Line, (January 16, 2020), What Is Wormwood, and How Is It Used?, February 17, 2021

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-is-wormwood

Heath Line, (July 31, 2018), White Vinegar: Ingredients, Uses and Benefits, February 17,2021

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/white-vinegar

Linda Alchin, (May 16, 2012), Elizabethan Medicine and Illness, February 17, 2021

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-medicine-and-illnesses.htm

WebMD, (2005-21), Comfrey: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions, Dosage, and Warning, February

17, 2021

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-295/comfrey