The Black Death

• The Black Death was caused by the yesinia pestis bacteria transmitted by bites from fleas carried by the black rat
• Types of plague caused by the Black Death

  • Bubonic
  • Pneumonic
  • Septicemic
• Bubonic plague


  Causes bubos or swellings
• Pneumonic plague

  Attacks the lungs
• Septicemic plague


  Poisons the blood
• Septicemic plague is the most deadly
• The Black Death was a pandemic that traveled along trade routes from Asia into the Middle East, Africa, and then into Europe via the Mediterranean
• Pandemic


  A disease that affects the majority of the world
• The Black Death arrived in England


  1348
• Estimates suggest that as much as 50% or more of Europe's population may have died from the Black Death
• Medieval people had no effective cures for the Black Death
• Progression of the disease in most victims

  1. Day 1: Painful swellings called bubos appear in victims' armpits

  2. Day 2: Victim becomes very ill and vomits all the time

  3. Day 3: Bleeding under the skin causing dark blotches

  4. Day 5: Boils burst, and a foul-smelling black liquid oozes out
• Victims of the Black Death might fall down in convulsions and die horribly
• Main symptoms of the Black Death include fever, aching joints, bubos, vomiting blood, blackening of fingertips and toes, coma, loss of consciousness, and death
• Medieval people had theories about both natural and supernatural causes of the Black Death
• Types of causes

  • Natural causes
  • Supernatural causes
• Natural causes are common sense and observable causes but they're not necessarily correct ones
• Supernatural causes might be magical, religious, or superstitious causes that relied on an element of faith to work
• Supernatural causes of the Black Death

  • God's punishment for people's sins
  • Effects of the planets
  • Belief in evil spirits
  • Blaming Jewish people for poisoning wells
  • Banning pointed shoes
  • Blocked digestive system
  • Theory of the four humors
  • Miasma theory
  • Contact with the infected
• Edward the third banned pointed shoes believing that they were reflective of people's lack of morals and maybe bringing on God's punishment
• There was a belief in a blocked digestive system related vaguely to the theory of the four humors
• Miasma theory was also a popular theory attributing bad smells and poisoned air to blame, as well as the body's humors being out of balance
• It was believed that contact with the infected could bring on the disease
• In rare circumstances, someone with mnemonic plague could breathe out droplets that might be infectious, but the majority caught the disease from flea bites
• Letter to the bishop of London (1345): 'Terrible is God towards the sons of men. He often allows plague, miserable famines, conflicts, wars, and other forms of suffering. He uses these to terrify and torment men and so drive out their sins'
• Account of a French doctor (1349): 'This epidemic kills almost instantly as soon as the airy spirit leaving the eyes of the sick man has struck the eye of a healthy bystander looking at him, for then the poisonous nature passes from one eye to the other'
• Writings of John of Burgundy (1365): 'Many people have been killed, especially those stuffed full of evil humors. As Galen says in his book on fevers, the body does not become sick unless it already contains evil humors'
• Four humors were believed to cause sickness unless the body already contained evil humors
• Source 4: A 15th-century Swedish Bishop mentioned that sickness could come from bad smells and poisoned air, known as the theory of miasma
• Source 5: French doctor Gida Shoreliak in the 1300s attributed the Black Death to the close position of the three great planets Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, based on astrological beliefs
• Medieval flagellants whipped themselves as a form of God's punishment, hoping to prevent the Black Death
• Supernatural methods of preventing the Black Death included public whipping, making human-sized candles, going on pilgrimage, and praying
• Listening to cheerful music was believed to affect one's mood and balance the humors in the Middle Ages
• Regimen sanitatis, avoiding overeating, and fearing bathing to prevent the entry of miasma were methods to prevent disease
• Avoiding the infected, clearing filth from streets, carrying sweet herb posies, implementing quarantine laws, and banning crowds were attempted preventive measures during the Black Death
• It may have done some good but probably not a lot after all like I say it was spread by the rats
• Without knowing what caused the Black Death, it was virtually impossible to stop it
• Supernatural treatments for the Black Death

  Prayer, confessing sins, hoping that it might make God take away the disease, leaving it to God's will
• Natural treatments for the Black Death

  Trying to balance the humors through bloodletting and purging, using strong smelling herbs and oils like aloe and myrrh, lighting fires, boiling vinegar, cutting open the bubos
• Physicians soon found that bloodletting didn't work and actually weakened people and made them die more quickly