The Spanish: Health Problems and Practices of the Old World

By 1450, the Old World was one unified area of disease. Epidemics of smallpox, measles, typhus, and influenza emerged in outbreaks regularly, but in fairly mild forms. The people lived from epidemic to epidemic, blaming their reoccurring illnesses on God. It was the common belief that disease was sent as a curse from above, as punishment for doing wrong against a neighbor. To "be rid" of the sickness, Europeans repented or made amends. They may have then turned to physicians for herbal remedies and cures, afterwards, but religion always played a dominant part in the European health care of the time. Physicians relied on the theory of the Hippocratic Corpus for medical practice. The idea, one from the Greek philosopher, Hippocrates, stated that health was achieved by balance of bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, yellow, and black bile). While herbal remedies may have proved successful, Europe could have been healthier if it was cleaner. The people of the Old World placed little emphasis on sanitation and hygiene, and lived in towns that were the breeding grounds for lice, rats, and bacteria. Unlike their Aztec enemies, the Spanish soldiers were said to have despised washing their clothing, and even more so, taking a nice, long bath!