16. An examination by a doctor was a standardized practice
Those who could afford to be visited by a physician did not as a rule go to him. Instead, they sent a servant to bring the doctor. Nor was a doctor’s visit called for unless one was sick or injured. There were no routine physical examinations. Doctors were, in essence, repairmen sent for when the body was not working correctly. Doctors seldom asked questions directly of the patient, though peppering the servant with queries about the exhibited symptoms while traveling to his bedside was an accepted means of arriving at an early hypothesis, which also helped him maintain his air of wisdom once in the patient’s company.
Measuring the pulse and checking for fever were routine (pulse was often measured for heart rate using a minute glass) as were checking for skin eruptions or other visible signs. Medieval doctors took great care to examine a patient’s urine, it being a bodily fluid more readily obtained than most. Urine was examined for color, smell, and even taste. The doctor might have called for a barber-surgeon to bleed the patient, or he may have performed the operation himself. On the basis of his examination (and the information earlier extracted from the servant) he would pronounce his diagnosis and the care to be administered. In medieval times the presence of a doctor was often viewed as a harbinger of death, and preparations for mourning often began while the doctor was still present.