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By Carter
Picture yourself as a peasant in a once quiet and serene European town during the Middle Ages. The town has lost it's serenity due to a sudden outbreak of a deadly disease. There are now people dropping dead on every side of you. That was reality back in the day. If you get sick, then may the Lord be with you, because no medicine's going to save you. The medicine during that time period was rather primitive. Find a leaf that is shaped like a lung and VIOLA! A lung disease cure has been found. If one has contracted a malady, then one of those "doctors" might do a blood letting, or extraction, which would make the patient more prone to infection. But what exactly were these terrible epidemics? The most historically important epidemic was the Black Death, which was the name that the Europeans assigned to the Bubonic Plague, or the rarer, but more dangerous variant, the Pneumonic Plague. The Bubonic Plague caused death in 2-4 days. It caused swellings in a certain gland, creating the black spots called buboes, for which the death is named. More symptoms include extremely high fever and frequent vomiting. On occasion, Bubonic victims would show green and black blood during blood lettings. It was carried by the fleas on common rodents such as rats. The other form of the Black Death, Pneumonic Plague, can kill in 1-3 days, and targeted the lungs. Victim's lungs would fill up with blood, causing them to cough and vomit that same substance. The Black Death first hit from the Middle East. It hit Italy in 1347 and quickly spread through Europe via trade routes. Historians estimate a 30-40% European mortality rate. The Plague caused Peasant revolts and people called flagellants would torture themselves in public to "appease God's anger". Almost every child knows the nursery rhyme entitled "The Ring Around the Rosy". But not many of them know the meaning of the song. Many say that it is about the Black Death. Here is a rough translation as they envision it, by line: The Ring Around the Rosy: One of the earliest symptoms of the Bubonic Plague is a "rosy", which is surrounded with a ring-like rash. A Pocket Full of Posy: Many thought that the plague was transmitted by smell, and that flowers, or posies, would ward the plague off. Ashes, Ashes: People would burn bodies and houses of the dead to ward off the disease (which of course didn't work). We All Fall Down: Many people fell, dead. Others say that this explanation of what the song is about is implausible, and that people were just reminded of the Black Death by it. Another feared epidemic was Leprosy. It was a disfigurement disease with a long period of dormancy. Low-Resistance Leprosy attacked external features, such as hands, feet, and noses. High-Resistance Leprosy attacked internal organs and had minimal visible effect. Most believed that Leprosy was God's punishment to sinners. Some towns and cities even segregated those infected. Back in the Medieval Times, almost nothing was curable, so flu, fever, small pox, and even the common cold could lead down the tumultuous road to the morgue. THE END
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Black death. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from middle-ages.org.uk |