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GCSE History · key term
Using medicines to cause vomiting or empty the bowels, historically intended to remove excess humours.
Used by AQA and Edexcel
Paper 2
Revise: Medieval MedicinePurging used medicines that caused vomiting or emptied the bowels. These treatments followed the logic of restoring balance, but their purpose should not be confused with proof that they worked. Removing blood could weaken an already ill patient.
Using treatments to cause vomiting or empty the bowels, commonly intended to remove harmful or excessive humours.
Explain change and continuity together. Better anatomical knowledge and training could coexist with bleeding, purging and dangerous surgery.
Link each response to its underlying belief: prayer to divine punishment, purifying air to miasma, and bleeding or purging to balancing the humours.
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Paper 1
Making a patient vomit or empty their bowels, historically intended to remove excess humours.
Revise: Approaches to Prevention and TreatmentPurging aimed to remove excess humours through vomiting or bowel movements. Emetics made patients vomit; laxatives encouraged them to empty their bowels. An enema introduced liquid through the anus to stimulate a bowel movement.
A treatment that made a patient vomit or empty their bowels, intended to remove harmful material or excess humours.