The Famine of 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 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: Bubonic Plague The Black Plague started in China in the 1330’s. Originally it only affected rodents, however it quickly spread to humans. Caused painful swelling of the Buboes and caused spots on the skin that turned black.
The Black Death Three Forms: The Bubonic, Pneumonic, and Septicemic. Each killed people in different ways. Bubonic Plague: Mortality Rate: %. Symptoms: Enlarged or inflamed lymph nodes (Arm Pit, Neck and Groin).
The Symptoms Bulbous Septicemic Form: almost 100% mortality rate.
What were the symptoms of the plague?
In October of 1347, several Italian merchant ships returned from the Black Sea. Docked in Sicily, many sailors were already dying of the plague. Within days the disease spread to the city. That was the beginning of the end!
How Did It Affect So Many People?
What is the prognosis? A person suffering from the Bubonic Plague most likely would die within 4 to 7 days of first showing symptoms. The plague killed 50% to 75% of its victims. 9
Cures? Different beliefs about the plague led to some strange attempts at escaping the plague and some even stranger cures. Some blamed invisible particles in the air. Some blamed poisoned wells. Many inevitably and unfairly blamed the Jews.
Cures? Medieval people did not know about germs causing disease. They did not understand that plague was spread by rats and fleas. They thought that people’s bodies were poisoned. If the swellings burst and the poison came out people sometimes survived. It seemed sensible to draw out the poison.
Medieval cure number 1 The swellings should be softened with figs and cooked onions. The onions should be mixed with yeast and butter. Then open the swellings with a knife.
Medieval cure number 2 Take a live frog and put its belly on the plague sore. The frog will swell up and burst. Keep doing this with further frogs until they stop bursting. Some people say that a dried toad will do the job better.
Other Medieval Cures Rub the body with melted butter. Tie a small bag of garlic around your neck. The smell would keep the plague away. Go to church and ask for forgiveness. Avoid breathing in the same air as a plague victim. Sit next to a blazing hot fire. Brick or board up houses with the sick inside. 14
The Flagellant Brahren 50 to 500 men in a group singing hymns and sobbing, the men beat themselves with scourges studded with iron spikes. Blood gushes from their many wounds, and the spikes embed themselves in the torn flesh. The ritual was performed in public twice a day!
The Oriental Rat Flea Flea’s Mouth has two functions: one for squirting saliva or partly digested blood into the bite, and one for sucking up blood from the host. This poses a problem!
The Mortality Rate 35% - 70% 25,000,000 dead !!!