Black Plague

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In the thirteen hundreds Europe was hit with the worst epidemic the world has ever seen. It was called the black plague. This disease was spread throughout the continent in less then 4 years. The amount of death this disease caused formed severe mental damage on the people who lived around it at that time. Some historians believe that the plague was so bad that Europe is still recovering from it today.

Due to the lack of technology at that time to battle the disease the black plague spread without and signs of slowing. The "doctors" of their time did their best to combat its spread but without knowing the cause they assumed that it was god punishing them for impure deeds and therefore used many holistic medicines that had often caused it to spread faster yet.

Because of the vast amount of death and pain that was experienced during the plague it had a profound effect on the society. In doing so it also affected religion as well as art. During this time art was almost lost and showed no growth. Understanding the effects of the "black death" on society is key when learning about British literature today.

The first sign of this disease occurred in 430 B.C. However, the epidemic first struck Europe in 1347 and ended in 1351. It hit today's England the hardest of all and it took over 400 years to regain the same population before the plague.

The most memorizing part of the black plague is how quickly the disease was spread throughout the world. The epidemic was spread by infected rats. Fleas would then bite these rats and eat the infected blood. However they would then need to regurgitate this blood into their next host which is of course humans. There are actually three different strains of the plague.

The first and most common of these is the bubonic plague. Some of the symptoms of this disease are enlarged lymph nodes, head aches, nausea, aching, vomiting, and a fever ranging from 100-105. These symptoms would take up to 7 days to first appear.

The second most common version is the pneumonic plague. This strain has a 90-95% death rate. It mainly affected the lungs and gave symptoms such as slimy suptum (saliva) that is tinted with blood.

Finally, the last strain is septicemic which is the rarest of all. This is mainly because the host dies before having a chance to spread the disease.

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