Beaulieu

The Infirmary: Health and Medicine

Now completely destroyed, the Infirmary was the medical centre of the Abbey. In matters of health, abbeys and monasteries were institutions where great care was taken, although the monks were unaware of the scientific theories explaining the cause of disease and physical injury, and the measures needed for cure or relief.

The Medieval view was based on the classical treatises of men like Roger of Salerno and Gilbertus Anglicus, whose books have been found in monastic librar ies. They believed that the human body contained four humours, yellow bile, blood, phlegm and black bile, and that an excess of any one of these caused ill-health. This was why blood letting, often using leeches, was such a popular form of treatment. All members of the Abbey were subject to a quarterly bleeding as a form of prevention. Theories that the blood circulated around the body were not put forward until the 17th century. Surgical treatment was carried out, but in a time when anaesthetics, other t han alcohol, were non-existent the importance of antiseptics not realised, the success rate was low.

The large number of books containing herbal remedies found in monastic bookcases suggests that herbs were the mainstay of Mediaeval practices. A good supply of a variety of herbs was grown in and around the Cloisters: Penny Royal as taken to aid toothache and asthmatic disorders, violets taken for diseases of the lung, and lavender said to aid pains of the head were just some of those grown and indee d still growing in the Cloisters. Honey was also used, both as a medicine and a disinfectant.

Beaulieu Abbey had three infirmaries or hospitals: one for choir monks, one for lay brothers, and one for hired workers and other non-monastic persons such as the local poor. All were under the charge of the Infirmarian. Of these only the outline of the Choir Monks' infirmary can be seen today, a self-contained unit east of the Cloisters, comprising a ward, chapel, kitchen, and dining hall.

The Account Book reveals something of the diet of the sick and aged residing in the Infirmaries. All were sent beer and bread daily from the bakehouse and brewery. Meat was provided, the sick being given the livers and other offal of animals slaughtered by the larder er, and all the infirmaries kept pigeons, doves and chickens. Delicacies like almonds, cummin, liquorice, sugar, and pepper were also available for the weak and infirm. The sick were permitted these prohibited foods, for it was found that they aided a quick recovery. However, the strict Patterns of Worship in Monastries meant that even the ill had to fast at the designateed times. This may be why the expense of running the secular infirmary was twice that of the monastic ones.

There is no record of the numbers of monks who were sick or who lived permanently in the infirmaries, but amounts of meat (almost one pig a week), fish and cheese consumed in the secular infirmary indicate that it was kept busy. There are no references to visiting physicians, so it is likely that one or more monks were trained in treatment procedures, although what they treated remains unclear. Their drinking water was exceptionally pure and was unlikely to cause disease, but their interrupted sleep patterns and limited exercise must have contributed to some illnesses. The Black Death, an outbreak of plague, struck England in 1349. Losses within the Abbey are not known, but even if these were low, it must have bee n difficult to attract hired labour, for the population of the country dropped by a third. Excavations on the infirmary site in 1926 unearthed a number of skeletons. Examination revealed the majority as men of over sixty suffering from intense rheumatism.