The Black Death 1347 - 1351

The Culprits

The Famine of 1315-1317 By 1300 Europeans were farming almost all the land they could cultivate. A population crisis developed. Climate changes in Europe produced three years of crop failures between 1315-17 because of excessive rain. As many as 15% of the peasants in some English villages died. One consequence of starvation & poverty was susceptibility to disease.

The Black Death Three Forms: The Bubonic, Pneumonic, and Septicemia. Each killed people in different ways. Bubonic Plague: Mortality Rate: >67% Symptoms: Enlarged or inflamed lymph nodes (Arm Pit, Neck and Groin).

The Pneumonic Plague was the second most commonly seen form of the Black Death. Mortality Rate: 90-95% It infected the lungs, and the symptoms included slimy snot tinted with blood! Many times victims choked to death on their own blood (ew, gross).

Septicemic Plague Most Rare form of all, blood was infected! Mortality rate was close to 100%(Even today there is no treatment) Symptoms: High Fever and skin turning deep shades of purple! Victims usually died the same day the symptoms appeared.

The Disease Cycle Human is infected! Flea drinks rat blood that carries the bacteria. Bacteria multiply in flea’s gut. Human is infected! Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound. Flea’s gut clogged with bacteria.

Medieval Art & the Plague

Attempts to Stop the Plague Leeching and Lancing A Doctor’s Robe

Attempts to Stop the Plague Flagellanti: Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins!

More than a third of the European population is now gone… The Mortality Rate More than a third of the European population is now gone… …over 25,000,000 dead.