...R. Glover Professor Schmitt English 2111-45 November 27, 2012 The Black Plague The Black Plague is a disease contracted from diseased animals, mostly by fleas, to human. The Black Plague then may be contracted by humans touching or breathing on one another. This disease is highly deadly and the bacterium that causes this disease is Yersinia Pestis. The Black Plague or as many call it “The Black Death” arrived in Europe by sea October 1347 when twelve Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after traveling through the Black Sea. Europe’s communities were devastated by the amount of suffering and death the disease brought to the people. The most common characteristic of the black plague is the black boils that appear all over the human body and then the boils bursts open with the blood oozing out black. The black blood that oozes out is why people call it the black plague. The symptoms of the disease can progress to other categories of the black plague which are: septicemia plague, pneumonic plague, and bubonic plague. The Sopticemic plague is the rarest deadliest bacterial infection caused by a bacterium called Yersinia Pertis. The plague begins to destroy the human body “when the bacterium enters the bloodstream through an open wound the person is known to be infected by plague. The bacterium multiplies in the blood and results in septicemic plague. This form of plague like the other types is capable of causing disseminated intravascular...
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...The Black Death One of the most important factors that shaped medieval literature was the Black Death. It left the country barren and desolate, without farmers to provide for the nobles, without monarchs to govern the people, and without officers of the law to prevent crimes. The Black Death crippled the European economy and hierarchy leaving the countries without people educated enough to read and most certainly not educated enough to write. Who knows what literary works would have been written had it not been for the plague and the rate at which it devastated. The Black Death caused, prevented, and interrupted many works of literature. The Black Death, a plague on humanity capable of wiping out one fourth of Europe’s one hundred million people in the course of five years, made its mark between the years 1347 and 1351 (Marks). During that time, three types of plague were to have know to exist: Bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic (Marks). Although bubonic variant of the plague took the most time to kill it was still the most deadly simply due to it being the most widespread of the three (Marks). The bubonic plague got its name from the numerous buboes or cancer like growths that would develop on the victim’s armpit and groin (Marks). Another symptom that accompanied the growths was the presence of a constant fever. The buboes were swelled lymph glands as a result of the body’s lymphatic system trying to fight the disease. Basically, they were pockets of the dead...
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...The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in history. Spreading via rat fleas, the bacteria Yersinia Pestis infected millions of humans and lead to a world-wide panic. The combination of bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, and septicemic plague created this fatal disease. Its deadly symptoms and high mortality rate greatly afflicted countries worldwide. In a span of about seven years, 1346-1353, it was able to kill off about sixty percent of the European population. The disease originated in Asia,...
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...existence. In the span of just five short years the Bubonic Plague managed to kill nearly one-third of Europe’s population, leaving very little answers and unclear causes to such a horrendous and aggressive plague. The most common result of the Bubonic Plague was death, killing more than eighty percent of infected individuals (Benedictow 2005). Living in a time with very little medical experience and scientific understanding, the Bubonic Plague and the middle 14th century was a recipe for disaster. The Bubonic Plague; now known to be caused by Yersinia pestis of the Bacillus species, was a devastating plague in the 14th century. The concept of a pneumatically- transmitted bacteria seemed to baffle the minds of the medieval people, leaving victims to question God and their own sanity. In untreated circumstances, the mortality rate of the Bubonic plague is more than of 50%, while in treated cases the mortality rate is under 15% (The Plague 2014). Since the lack of medical knowledge in this time, typically medical treatment could make the patient more susceptible to infection and even more susceptible to the Bubonic Plague’s more...
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...the beginning of documented history, it has been noted on many occasions that pandemics have swept the world claiming the lives of millions. Among them are the Antonine Plague, HIV/AIDS, and the Black Death. While the Bubonic plague has occurred many times throughout the world’s history, the Black Death was a devastating epidemic that occurred in the late fourteenth century that spread to all areas of Europe. In totality, it caused the deaths of more than fifty million people. The devastation caused by the Black Death resulted in a total restructuring of everyday life in fourteenth century Europe. The Black Death was a disease that first originated in China in the early 1330’s. Over a period of ten years, the disease had killed more than...
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...ESSAY TOPIC: Plague, is it still a threat? History Aetiologgy and treatment Plague in the modern world Abstract The plague is a communicable disease, having a high mortality rate without treatment. There are three huge pandemics in history with millions of deaths occurring. The first pandemic occurred around the year 541AD and was called “plague of Justinian”, the second pandemic “Black Death” occurred in 14th century, and the third epidemic resulted in China around the 1860s. There are three main types of plague such as bubonic plague, septicaemic plague and primary pneumonic plague, with each type of the plague; the antibiotics are the most important method of treatment for plague currently. The Yersinia pestis, as the causative agent of plague, is a Gram-negative bacillus in the bacterial family. This disease is transmitted by the biting of fleas, which occur in some animals such as the rats, rabbits and dogs. Early detection, reporting, isolating and early treatment are very important in preventing huge scales of the plague’s happening. People should take more precautions to prevent plague from infection. Today, this infectious disease is still a threat for people around the world, especially in Africa, Asia and South American countries. “Plague or its cause, Y. pestis, has been used by humans as a weapon (bioterrorist weapon) against other humans for centuries, including this current time”(Nettleman, 2012). The plague is an infectious bacterial disease, caused...
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...Christian and Muslim responses to The Black Death were different in many ways. The Plague or The Black Death was a combination of three plagues, bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Bubonic was the most common, the symptoms were chills , high fever, delirium, vomiting, and rapid heartbeat. the infected person would then develop buboes, inflamed swellings filled with pus. Pneumonic plague was less common, but was the deadliest, it infected the respiratory system,it would kill most of its victims in hours. Septicemic plague affected the bloodstream, it killed all of its victims. No matter what plague it was, it would result in terrible death. Christianity started with Jesus Christ in the Common Era. Christ was a Jew from Judea, which today is...
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...The Black Plague “The Renaissance Death of England” Jayne Ritzinger GS102 – Introduction of Life Science September 2, 2009 The Black Plague in a Medieval Perspective “The Renaissance Death of England” The Sixteenth Century and Bubonic Plague The year is 1350 and death has travelled Western Asia and Europe for a decade. The death rate has exceeded 10 million due to the Black Plague, which is the curse of Europe (Bollinger, 1983). Travelling by boat and carriage, the Black Death has infected the known world from Constantinople to London. “The first attack, known since the late sixteenth century as the Black Death but to contemporaries as “the great mortality”, occurred in southern England in 1348; by the end of 1349 it had spread to Central Scotland” (Morgan, 1984). Rats and the lice that traveled on them were the common cause, but the Sixteenth Century had no such mechanism to identify the causation of the plague “Plague is characterized by periodic disease outbreaks in rodent populations, some of which have a high death rate. During these outbreaks, hungry infected fleas that have lost their normal hosts seek other sources of blood, thus escalating the increased risk to humans and other animals frequenting the area” (Plague, 2009). As defined by the Center for Disease Control, the Black Plague is defined as follows: Plague is an infectious disease of animals and humans caused by a bacterium named Yersinia Pestis. Epidemics of plague in humans usually involve house rats...
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...How the Black Death Affected the Modern World The Black Death is the worst plague that mankind has ever had to face, much worse than anything we face today. The mortality rate was astounding; whoever was unfortunate enough to become infected with the Black Death would die in a matter of days while suffering through a great deal of pain and agony (Snell). Its peak was around 1348-1353 in Europe, ranging from England all the way to Eastern Europe and beyond (The Black Death, 1348, 2001). The Black Death is thought to have started in China or central Asia, before spreading west. The plague then travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1347. From there, it was probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships. Spreading throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, the Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe's population. All in all, the plague reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century (Ibeji, 2011). The plague disease, generally thought to be caused by Yersinia pestis, is commonly present in populations of fleas carried by ground rodents, including marmots, in various areas including Central Asia, Kurdistan, Western Asia, Northern India and Uganda (Edmonds). Plague was reportedly first introduced to Europe at the trading city of Caffa in the Crimea in 1347 (Whipps, 2008). After a protracted siege, during which the Mongol...
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...between 1300 to 1650. For many peasants, their lives could be depicted as overwhelming, depressing, discouraging, and hopeless; yet, many events during these 350 years opened up opportunities for the peasantry to improve their lives. Events ranging from the Hundred Years War to the Black Death, and up until the beginning years of the Renaissance, changed the lives of the peasantry dramatically, all for the better. Before the Black Death reached Europe, peasants’ lives were very difficult. They usually never left the manor on which they served without the master’s permission. It was illegal for them to even move to another city or manor, if they so desired. They were forced to pay rent to their landlords for the land they cultivated themselves. In addition to the rent that was required of them, “they were also required to provide free labor on the lands used by the lord, known as a demesne.”[1] Although there were rewards to living on a manor, the peasantry had more advantages when the manorial system began to break down at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Even though the nobility still dominated rural Europe, peasants were beginning to move out of their status as servants. The Black Death, striking Italy in 1347, was one of the events that began to shape the lives of the peasantry. It is seen throughout history as one of the worst epidemics to ever hit the European nations. Later it became known as “the greatest natural catastrophe ever to strike Europe and one of the...
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...The Black Death Bubonic Plague The bubonic plague is a highly infectious and fearsome disease that attacks the lungs and lymph nodes. It is also called the Black Death or black plague. The bubonic plague is caused by Pasteurella pestis, a bacteria which resides within infected fleas and rats. Victims of the bubonic plague develop early symptoms, such as shivering, vomiting, headache, intolerance to light, back and limb pain, and a white coating on the tongue. Eventually, they develop black egg-sized swellings (buboes) filled with blood and pus under the armpits and in the groin. As the disease progresses, internal bleeding leads to black patches on the skin, and the victim may die in three to five days. Invasion of the lungs by the bacterium causes an equally fatal form of the plague called pneumonic plague, which can be transmitted from person to person by air droplets and saliva. Historical records document outbreaks of the plague as early as 430 b.c., when an epidemic struck Athens, Greece; but the most notorious bubonic plague epidemic began in Europe around 1346, reportedly when a ship of sick and dying sailors arrived at the Black Sea port of Caffa. This plague lasted four years and killed about one-third of the population of Europe, or approximately 20 million people. For hundreds of years after, epidemics of bubonic plague would sweep across the world killing millions more. The disease was so lethal that some victims supposedly would go to bed healthy and die in...
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...Christian’s and Muslim’s responses to the plague were different because they were treated differently. In five short years the plague killed between twenty-five percent and forty-five percent of the population. The Black Death was a combination of three types of plagues from three different bacterial strains. Such as bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Some doctors weren’t sure what was really going on, the bacteria and viruses were unknown. Christians and Muslims were different as in beliefs and what they actually did. Christians had a ''golden rule'' referred as ''do unto others as you would have one unto you''. Christ was crucified on a cross which now is the symbol for Christianity. Mohammed's teaching was similar to Christ', you should...
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...There were many different theories about the origin of the Black Death during the outbreak during the Dark Ages. Some believed the disease was caused by miasma, bad water, bad smells, by sight, by poison, by Jews or simply as vengeance sent from God. Some of these combined Jews poisoning wells, God and miasma. None of them came close to understanding that the disease was bacterial in nature and was being spread by fleas infecting rats. Perhaps the closest to the truth was Girolamo Fracastoro who described the cause as a seed of contagion. The response to the disease varied and changed as time went by. Quarantine and Isolation were used to stop the spread of the disease. There were attempts at masking the bad smells believed to cause the disease...
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...Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is spread by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. These bacteria remain in a dormant state primarily in a rat flea’s foregut. Once the flea has bitten a victim it regurgitates the contents in its foregut into the bite location. Once the bacterium has entered into a mammal’s warm body it begins to reproduce and spread throughout the mammal’s body. The reproduction of this bacterium creates large painful swollen lymph nodes which are called buboes. Once these buboes get large enough they begin to ooze infected body fluid so that any contact between an infected person and a healthy person will facilitate the spread of this disease. (The Mayo Clinic Staff, 2012) The areas where the buboes form are the neck, armpits, upper femoral, and groin. Once a person has been infected with Yersinia pestis it usually takes 2-5 days until they begin to show signs and symptoms of the illness. These symptoms include acral gangrene which is gangrene of the extremities to include fingers, toes, lips, and tip of the nose. Total body chills that also comes with severe uncontrollable shakes. A high fever of 102 degrees Fahrenheit that induces muscle cramps. Seizures are another common symptom as well as pain begins before the buboes begin to form. In very extreme cases the victim will begin to change skin color to a pinkish hue. Some more less common symptoms are the vomiting of blood, heavy breathing, aching limbs, extreme pain, and coughing. With cases that the...
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...Black Death The Black Death struck Europe in the spring of 1348. The Black Death killed off 60% of Europe’s population. This plague would kill fast, and had three different forms. The plague was incredibly painful to go through. The Black Death was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, so a lot of the people of Europe thought that god was punishing them for their wrong doings. The Black Death was air born and if you so much as cough or sneezed on someone, while you had the plague you had just infected them. Doctors put flowers in their beak shaped masks to protect them from the plague, because the plague was air born they thought that if they put flowers in there masks they wouldn’t breathe the same air as the victims. The Black Death started in the east and then came to Europe’s shores in the spring of 1348. The people of Europe would go to the ships and find all of the ships passengers were dead, this was a concern so they checked it out, once they found out it was the plague it was too late, the plague was already spreading. The Black Death is a deadly plague that starts with a flea. These fleas would attack rats that have the plague. Fleas would drink some of their blood and then hop on to a human and puke on them. This would infect humans with the plague. There are...
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