bubonic plague
...ulfur. Many others believed that noise would drive the plague away, for the ringing of town bells was done in crises of all kinds (Cartwright). Other towns fired cannons, which was new and made a comfortingly loud ding. There we no ends to talismans' charms and spells that could be purchased from local wise women or apothecary. Many people knew of someone's friend or cousin who had drank elderberry everyday, or who had worn a jade necklace, and they had survived the dreaded disease. Many countries began their own rituals for warding off the Plague (Cartwright). In Milan, city officials immediately walled up houses found to have the Plague, isolating the healthy in them along with the sick (Cartwright). Venice took sophisticated and stringent quarantine and health measures, including isolating all incoming ships on a separate island (Cartwright). Pope Clement 5, living at Avignon, sat between two large fires to breath pure air. The Plague could actually be destroyed by heat, so this was one of the few truly effective measures that were taken by affected countries (Cartwright). Many historical methods were used to also try to ward off the Plague. Plague was believed to travel by air, so therefore to escape the Plague the air must be purified. This was best done by means of large, blazing fires of odoriferous wood (Nardo 69). Quarantines set by the unaffected cities were very cruel (Nardo 68). Anti-Plague ordinances were formed to keep Plague from striking unaffected areas (Nardo 60). Used clothing, specifically linen rather than wool, was barred from city trade and articles confiscated from violators were to be publicly burned (Nardo 60). The isolations of healthy individuals from their goods was a prolonged cycle in order to halt the extension of infection (Nardo 68). Some believed that the sun and stars caused the Plague; therefore they would work to get rid of it. They would cause the rays of the sun to put forth fire and break through the mist (Nardo 58). Within ten days the mist would be turned into a “stinking dexterous rain” which would fall until July 17th (Nardo 59). The procedure would continue till the Earth was day again. People were advised not to sleep or bathe because open pores would let the disease into their bodies (Nardo 59). Gentile da Foligno believed that Plague was the result of a “putrid corruption of the blood and lungs and in the heart, which was occasioned by the pestilence atmosphere, and was forthwith communicated to the whole body” (Nardo 60). Ludovico Gonzaga ruled that any Mantuan who passed through a place where the great mortality raged could not then reenter the city. Although Bubonic Plague never again claimed as many victims as the 14th century, it had by no means vanished from the Earth (Giblin 46). Medicine was primitive and unable to remedy an illness the modern technology might have cured (Giblin 48). Therefore, Europeans were susceptible to disease because they lived in crowded surrounds with very poor sanitary conditions (Giblin 37). In 1664 it struck the city of London with such ferocity that the outbreak became known as the "Great Plague" (Giblin 46). Servants dismissed by employers who had left London were hired by the city to drive the "dead carts" that carried the bodies of the Plague's victims to cemeteries (Giblin 47). The Lord Mayor of London ordered all dogs and cats in the city to be killed because it was thought that they were spreading the disease (Giblin 47). The society structure began to change giving formally poor laborers more say (Cartwright). Peasants and Artisans demanded higher wages (Cartwright). However, the biggest problem was that valuable Artisan skills disappeared when large numbers of the working class died (Cartwright). In the late fall of 1665, the death rate from Plague in London declined abruptly. As many as 4, 929 people had lost their lives by September, and the toll dropped to 900 a week in November (Giblin 48). People began returning to the city (Giblin 48). By 1750, Bubonic Plague had gradually faded out in Western Europe (Giblin 49). For the next 100 years, only scattered cases of Plague were reported in the Western region of Europe (Giblin 49). However, it still remains a threat in the Western region of America. At least 121 cases were reported in San Francisco, California between 19...