Medieval EnglandIt is said that 'An apple a day keeps the dentist away.' This has become a common saying in today's society. We don't stop to think about how it reflects our view of Medicine in our lives. We have understood the value of simple practices to keep ourselves healthy. This, however, is not the case in medieval England. Most "medical practices" of the time were based on superstition, ancient texts, myth, or church direction. The medical practices of medieval England, often based on nothing more than superstition, proved useless if not harmful to the English people. Part of the obvious problem was the fact that the ordinary person had little care or sense for improving their health. The life and livelihood of an average person was less than desirable even from the moment of birth. In the villages chronic inbreeding must have produced many children who began life with inherent weakness, mental or physical. Many would die in childhood, but others, as adults, could drag out a useless existence, dependent on charity for their sustenance. Overall, infant mortality was extremely high... Once the baby was free to crawl among the unsanitary rushes, with the baby's natural instinct to put everything in its mouth, it is a miracle that anyone survived. From then on, illnesses and accidents provided ample space for a medical service, which was practically non-existent. (Tomkeieff 119). Furthermore, collective knowledge (what little there was) was held and practiced by the Monks in the Monasteries. In summary of medical practice until the end of the 1400s, it can be said that medicine was practiced mainly by clerics in monasteries and lay people whose place of activity was the pharmacy. The doctor thought the surgery was beneath his dignity (having blood on his hands and clothes) and left it to uneducated "barbers". The practitioner bore the title "Master", while the teachers bore the title "Doctor". knowledge of Galen's time. They still believed in the doctrine of the four humours, making diagnoses by inspection of blood and urine. Most therapeutic measures included bloodletting, steam baths, amulets, spells, curses, prayers, the king's touch, and the polypharmacy known as theriac. (Snyder 1). The problem is compounded by the fact that these “practices” have proven to be of little benefit. Most of these had no scientific basis and were instead rooted in superstition and/or the church. "The concern of Christian theology, on the other hand, was to cure the soul rather than the body; illness was usually