1. The Black Death

3. What is the Black Death?

4. Where did the Black Death come from?

5. What caused the plague?
The question that you are probably thinking is this;
Q: Who or what caused the Black Death?
A: This is your answer!
The Oriental Rat Flea!

7. What were the symptoms of the plague?

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

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

12. Lancing a Buboe

13. Impact of the Death on Religion

14. Impact of the Death on Population

15. Impact of the Black Death
Decline in population
Scarcity of labor
Towns freed from feudal obligations
Decline of church influence
Disruption of trade

16. Medieval Art & the Plague An obsession with death.

17. Boccaccio¹s Decameron
Written around 1350 during an outbreak of the Plague in Florence, the Decameron is a fictional account of 10 young people who flee to a country manor, and begin telling stories to keep themselves occupied and diverted from the tragedy they have fled.

18. Where does the plague exist today?

19. The Plague Today
In 2006, 13 human plague cases were reported in the United States
Recent outbreaks of the plague have occurred in Vietnam, in India, and in 2006 from the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Plague
Treated
Untreated
Bubonic
1-15%
40-60%
Septicemic
40%
100%
Pneumonic
100% if not treated within 24 hours