The Plague

921 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Historical ways of analysing the causative agent of black death

The Black Death caused a widespread death rate over the eastern and western parts of Europe during the fourteenth century. Not only did the Black Death take a devastating toll on human life, it also played an important role in shaping European life in years to come.

The Black Death came in three forms, the bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Each form killed people in it’s own vicious way. All forms were caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. The most commonly seen form was the bubonic plague. The death rate was thirty to seventy five percent. The symptoms were inflamed lymph nodes, armpits, neck and groin. The victims were subjected to headache, nausea, aching joints, and fever of 101- 105 degrees, vomiting, and a general feeling of illness (The Black Death). Symptoms usually took one to seven days to appear.

The second most common form of the Black Death was the pneumonic plague; the victims often died before they could reach other places. The pneumonic plague mainly attacked the lungs. Symptoms included slimy sputum tinted with blood. (Sputum is saliva mixed with mucus exerted from the respiratory system.) The death rate was ninety to ninety five percent. Symptoms took one to seven days to appear.

The rarest form of the Black Death was the septicemic plague. The death rate was close to one hundred percent. The symptoms were high fever, and skin turning deep shades of purple, due to respiratory failure. Victims usually died the first day the symptoms appeared.

The disease was spread through an infectious fever caused by the Yersinia pestis, passed on by the rat flea. The infection spread to anyone that had contact with the diseased. The infected found themselves pierced by a pain throughout their whole body. Soon after they developed on their thighs or the upper arms a lump the size of a walnut which some people called them “burn boils.” This then pierced them until the patient violently began vomiting blood. The vomiting of blood persisted without stopping for three days, which didn’t give the victims any time to heal their wounds. Swellings continued to expand until they eventually exploded, with death following immediately after. The whole process from transmission to death usually lasted three or four days. The plague was deathly terrifying to have and to witness, the terrible pain and the bizarre appearance both made the plague especially terrifying. People could not only get infected through the transmission of the disease but by talking to the sick touching them or any of their things.

Show More
Related

  • The Black Plague and Its Impact on Medicine in Medieval Society

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Black Death (also called the "plague" or the "pestilence", the bacteria that causes it is Yersinia Pestis) was a devastating pandemic causing the death of over one-third of Europe's population in its major wave of 1348-1349. Yersinia Pestis had two major strains: the first, the Bubonic form, was carried by fleas on rodents and caused swelling of the lymph nodes, or "buboes", and lesions under the skin, with a fifty-percent mortality rate; the second, the pneumonic form, was airborne after the bacteria had mutated and caused fluids to build up in the lungs and other areas, causing suffocation and a seventy-percent mortality rate.

    Read More

  • The Effects of The Black Death on the Economic and Social Life of Europe

    1343 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Black Death is the name later given to the epidemic of plague that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351. The disaster affected all aspects of life. Depopulation and shortage of labor hastened changes already inherent in the rural economy; the substitution of wages for labor services was accelerated, and social stratification became less rigid. Psychological morbidity affected the arts; in religion, the lack of educated personnel among the clergy gravely reduced the intellectual vigor of the church.

    Read More

  • Bubonic Plague Dbq

    1820 Words  | 4 Pages

    The disease was caused by a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis which was carried by fleas that lived on the black rats. These rodents helped spread the plague. The diseases spread one of two ways. The first was through human contact and the second was through the air, people were infected with the disease just by inhaling it. The symptoms and characteristics of the disease included fever, fatigue, muscle aches and the formation of buboes which is swollen lymph nodes. These buboes were usually found under the arm, on the neck or in the groin area. It is caused by internal bleeding which eventually forms black spots or boils under the skin (which is why it is called the black death). Death usually followed shortly after these symptoms

    Read More

  • Muslim Responses To Black Death Essay

    648 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the thirteenth century the plague started spreading, it spread through the trade routes of many countries. Many people only heard of the plague being in China, but little did they know that the infection was already following the routes. There were three types of the Black Death: Bubonic, Pneumonic, and Septicemic. The Bubonic strain of the plague was more common, and an infected person would have symptoms of chills, fever, vomiting, and rapid heartbeat. The person would soon develop inflamed swelling, which are called buboes.

    Read More

  • The Black Plague

    1637 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Black Plague is an Oriental Plague marked by inflammatory boils and tumors of the glands. Such break outs were found in no other febrile disease ( Hecker, pg 2). Inflammatory boils often appeared and black spots which indicated decomposition of the body ultimately appeared on the skin. Another symptom of the plague were imposthumes opening with a discharge of offensive matter ( Hecker, pg 5).

    Read More

  • Causes and Lasting Effects of the Black Death

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Black Death was an infectious disease that spread through medieval Europe and Asia. In medieval times from the 5th to the 15 century, most cities did not have a board of health so the streets were filled with garbage, waste and sewage. People lived in close, cramped houses surrounded by dirt roads. There were no hospitals, the old and sickly were brought into wooden huts with no doctors or medicine or anything. When the Black Death hit it was a catastrophe. People had never seen anything like it. People went delirious and within 8 days they were dead. In some towns more than half the people were killed. It was estimated that anywhere between 30 and 60 percent of the population died. Over 75 million people were killed in all. There are many causes and lasting effects of the Black Death, one of the causes was the fleas. Some lasting effects were new inventions and it took Europe out of the middle ages.

    Read More

  • The Black Death

    2054 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Black Death came in 3 forms: the bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Each different from of the plague killed people in a vicious way. All forms were caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis.

    Read More

  • The Causes And Effects Of The Black Death

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Black Death was associated with three types of plague, which were all caused by Yersinia Pestis. The bubonic plague had a mortality rate of 80 percent. It was “spread through the bite of a flea” (The Black Death, 23). The most noticeable symptom is swelling of the lymph nodes. After the outbreak of the symptoms, death would occur within three to six days. Yet, ten to forty percent of people affected by the bubonic plague would recover. The second type was the pneumonic plague and it had a mortality rate of 90% to 95%. The pneumonic plague it is transferred by “respiratory fluids” (The Black Death, 23). The plague kills its victims in a period of two to three days. The third type is the septicemic plague and it had a mortality rate of nearly 100%. This plague “spread through a direct invasion or poisoning of the blood” (The Black Death,

    Read More

  • The Plague - The Black Death

    1428 Words  | 3 Pages

    The plague was spread by fleas, which were not effected by the disease. Fleas first infected the rats, which lived off garbage and sewage. The rats then spread the infection to the humans. Rats were a common sight in the cities, due to the poor sanitary conditions, so no one suspected them (www.tartans.com). In the winter the plague seemed to disappear, but only because fleas were dormant then. Each spring, the plague attacked again, killing new victims (www.byu.edu). The effects of the plague were devastating. After just five years, twenty-five million people were dead - one third of Europe's population. Once people were infected they infected others very rapidly. As a result, in order to avoid the disease, many fled to the countryside where the lower population density helped to decrease the speed at which the disease spread (www.tartans.com). From a person's time of infection to his or her death was less than one week (www.home.nycap.rr.com). The plague became known as "The Black Death" because of the discoloration of the skin and black enlarged lymph nodes that appeared on the second day of contracting the disease. The term "The Black Death" was not invented until after 1800. Contemporaries called it "the pestilence" (Cantor 7).

    Read More

  • The Black Death

    1757 Words  | 4 Pages

    ​The Black Death is still known today as one of the worst disasters to ever sweep across Europe. Its effects were felt in almost every inch of Europe. The plague affected every aspect of Europe from its economy to its population. Most noticeably it knocked out about one-third of Europe’s entire population. It was absolutely devastating, some would consider it to be the worst outbreak ever and the few that do not, have no idea what it did to Europe.

    Read More

  • How Did The Black Death Affect Medieval European Society

    858 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Black Death was a dark period of human history, approximately 60% of European died. Black Death also known as the bubonic plague, it happened during 1346-1353. The plague spread during the crusades along the ships, and it was originated from a mice from Asia. It is a irremediable disease. The plague made so many negative influence on society, as well as positive effects on human population, such as social, medical and economical effects.

    Read More

  • The Black Death.

    933 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine living in a time filled with nothing but fear. The thing you fear cannot be touched or seen but will put you to a slow miserable death. In the 1300s people were struck with a great plague, which has now been named “The Black Death”. The Black Death killed off populations with just one sweep. Historians call this the biggest tragedy of all time. The question is what caused this plague and how does something like this happen? Overtime historians have boiled it down to 2 and some may say 3 explanations, which are religion, science, and humans. With the help of a book The Black Death by Rosemary Horrox I was able to find explanations of them all. Who may know which is the correct reason for such a thing but what your think caused it is for you to decide.

    Read More

  • Death And Disaster In The 14th Century

    1284 Words  | 3 Pages

    This affected more than just Europe, it really hurt countries in the Middle East and China. The Black Death was spread by the Mongols and passed into Europe through black rats and fleas. Ships were known to arrive in Europe with many dead bodies and only rats living. Symptoms of the Black Death included puss filled abscesses that ended up turning your whole body black. It is believed that after receiving symptoms of the deadly disease people would only survive a few days. It was feared that the entire population would be wiped out by this devastating plague. People of this age believed the plague had meaning and was related to God, there were different perceptions of why the Bubonic plague happened, although some believed God caused it, others strongly believed that it was not possible for God to commit an act that would cause so many issues to the world and its society. The population that survived the Black Death were traumatized by the events and also affected negatively economically. An effect of the plague was a shortage of labor which caused a shortage of supply and increase in demand of workers and laborers. The whole of Europe had changed because of this event and things such as revolts. Protests, and up rise started to occur in cities all over Europe. The Black Death changed the attitudes and thinking of the people of Europe

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On The Black Death

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    It was a bubonic plague that came from Asia and spread by black rats infested with fleas. The plague spread like a wildfire because people who lived in high populated areas were living very close to each other and had no idea what was the cause of the disease or how to cure it. The signs of the “inevitable death” where blood from the nose, fever, aching and swellings big as an “apple” in the groin or under the armpits. From there the disease spread through the body in different directions and soon after it changed into black spots that appeared on the arms and thighs. Due to the lack of medical knowledge, no doctors manage to find a remedy. Furthermore a large number of people without any kind of medical experience tried to help the sick but most of them failed “...there was now a multitude both of men and of women who practiced without having received the slightest tincture of medical science - and, being in ignorance of its source, failed to apply the proper remedies…” (Boccaccio). The plague was so deadly that it was enough for a person to get infected by only touching the close of the

    Read More

  • An Essay On The Bubonic Plague

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Bubonic Plague, otherwise known as the Black Death, is a raging disease. Most people think of it as the physical Grim Reaper of their town or community. The disease lasted about six years, 1347 to 1352. The Bubonic Plague was a travesty that has traveled throughout Europe and has raged and decimated both large and small towns, putting Europe through a lot. The disease spreads through a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis.

    Read More

More about The Plague

Open Document