The Black Plague
... which was given to the Plague because of the appearance of black blood beneath the skin. This disease became associated with the term "plague" because of the widespread fatalities that it caused throughout history (Platt 10-11). The people of the fourteenth century were uneducated and susceptible to superstitions. Some of the early treatments for the plague were the wearing of excrement and bathing in human urine. Other precautions were the use of leeches and the placing of dead animals in infested homes (Zeigler 35). As plagues occurred regularly after the 1350's, preventive measures began to grow. Plague patients were placed in pesthouses, isolated from the general population. Ships coming in from areas where plague had broken out were forced to stay out of the port for forty days. This stopped plague infested individuals from bringing the plague ashore, and if the plague was present on the ship, it would die out during the forty day quarantine. Doctors wore protective gear to prevent themselves from being infected (Nardor 53). Among the most vivid accounts of the Black Plague's origins and symptoms are those of its earliest survivors. The early symptoms of the plague include: shivering, headache, vomiting, intolerance to light, pain in the back and limbs, and a white coating on the tongue. The more vivid symptom in men and women was the appearance of certain swellings in the groin and armpit area. These swellings, called buboes, were very painful swollen lymph nodes. From the two areas mentioned, the deadly swellings would begin to spread and within a short period of time they would appear at random all over the body. These swellings, to anyone unfortunate enough to contract them, were definite signs that they would soon die (Bunson 93). Another common symptom of the Black Plague is the appearance of black blood under the skin after death. Severe hemorrhage takes place under the skin after death causing the body to look black. This is where the plague received one of its many names, The Black Death (Platt 101). To this day, there is a popular nursery rhyme that arose from the plague "Ring around the rosy" refers to the rosary beads that people used to pray to protect themselves from the disease. The smell of death was so strong, that people would carry flowers (poseys) in their pockets to help hide the stench. "Ashes, ashes" is a reference to the funeral pyres that were used to burn the infected bodies, and "we all fall down" is a direct reference to all the deaths. Ring around the rosy, Pocket full of poseys, Ashes, ashes, We all fall down. There are two ways of transmitting the Black Plague. An infected flea from a rodent who in turn transmits the disease to humans is one way. Another way is inhaling the germ that has been coughed out by a human or animal plague victim (Gregg 109). The plague's death toll was one hundred thirty seven million victims, and at its worst it killed two million people a year. Traders from the Italian city of Genoa carried the plague to their homeland and in the next few years it spread with alarming speed across Europe. In the first complete week of July it claimed seven hundred twenty five lives; in the second week, one thousand eighty nine lives; the third week...