Black+Death

Type in the content of your new page __ The Black Death  __ Jack Cassidy The medicine of the Medieval Times was much different then today. There were no real medical treatments. Some people, when they got sick, would move to a different country so they would not infect others. Many died from lack of proper care and treatment. This was the medicine of the Middle Ages. There was a great plague called The Black Death in the Middle Ages. Historians think the plague originated in central Asia. The plague was a bubonic and pneumonic plague. Disease was thought to have began in Boulair, a city in Central Asia. It spread all over land and over sea trade routes from place to place. It came to London much differently, though. There was a war between France and England during that time, and the soldiers who went to France would catch the plague and sometimes they would bring it back to England. Then it went from person to person through busy streets in London and spread further. London was hit with both types of the plague. Bubonic and pneumonic plague. Either type of the plague would kill you about three days. The first and most deadly plague was killing the lower and middle class. The lower lived near the rats with the plague in their huts and the middle class merchants were on the streets. It spread across Europe and Asia in the mid 1300. The Black Death reached the sea port of Caffs in 1347. The Hundred Year’s War between England and France was going on at the same time. Plague would still continue. Other diseases can be the plague, too. It was one of the worst natural disasters ever. It was terrible because it spread across Europe and Asia and killed all in its path. Black spots appeared on victim’s skin. The symptoms were high fever and swelling of the lymph glands which caused tumors on the victims. Millions got infected with plague. Rats carried the disease, then gave it to fleas that bit humans or other rats that then got the plague. Only a few survived because there was no treatment. Two in ten victims survived The Black Death. Almost half of Western Europe died of The Black Death. Bubonic plague created swelling of the lymph nodes. Pneumonic plague effected the lungs and bloodstream. Did not know why The Black Death started? Physicians did not know cause of plague. They were not able to prevent the spread of plague. They didn’t know which rats carried the plague. There was no effective treatment for disease. __Source's__ Joseph P. Byrne “The Black Death” World Book Online Encyclopedia. April 21, 2008  http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Article?id=ar062340&st=the+black+death J. Bolten “the world upside down” April 19, 2008   http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/black_01.shtml Phyllis Corzine “The Black Death” World History Series April 21 2008 **__ The Black Death __**  By Alexandra Patrylak During the 1300s a horrible sickness called The Black Death swept Asia and Europe. Other names for this time period are “The Great Mortality” or “The Great Pestilence.” The disease had all started in Asia, in a town in Crimea, called Caffa. In order understand how the plague left Asia, one has to look at the trading happening in this time period.

China was a key trade line on the Black Sea. China and Italy traded luxury goods by ship. Unfortunately, when China traded with Italy over sea they didn’t just exchange goods they also shared the plague. It started with a little bacterium called Pasteurella pestis. Fleas infested rats and spreading the disease. The fleas infected human by biting people. In Europe, the plague started in Sicily, Italy a busy port. It soon reached every city in Europe. In December, 1347 the plague broke out in Marseilles, France. It was easy to get the plague. Humans would spread it to each other through germ, causing them to get sick and die. It spread to Britain in 1348. In 1665, the epidemic broke out in England. Five years later it had killed over 25 million people. 8/10ths of the people who had The Black Death died. It killed so many people that there were fewer people to work on the land. Nobles were forced to offer wages to all the peasants who worked on land. This changed the relationship between nobles and peasants. The symptoms of the plague were chills, fever, vomiting, and black boils on a person’s neck and armpits. Some germs could spread to a person’s lungs, filling them up with blood. Physicians tried many times to find cures. Most methods made no difference and some made the illness worse. At first, cures were very unpleasant. Physicians often cut the patient open or gave them herbs. Cures often were not effective. No matter how hard they tried, they failed to find treatment. Some thought that God had sent the plague to punish people for their wickedness. They would pray to God for forgiveness. Some even beat themselves to show God how sorry they were. Today people still today get the Black Death, but doctors have found cures for the plague. Even with these medicines, people still die, though not as often as in Medieval Times.

**Sources:**

**"Black Death**." World Book Kids. 2008. 21 April 2008 http://www.worldbookonline.com/kids/Article?id=ar832621 >. “**Middle Ages** ." __Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia__. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 23 Apr. 2008 < http://school.eb.com/elementary/article?articleId=353464 >.  “**Case file: Mystery of the Black Death.”** __Secrets of the Dead.__ 21 April 2008  < [|http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_plague/index.html] >    Day, James. __The Black Death Great Disasters.__ New York: The Bookwright Press, 1989.  Dawson, Ian. The History of Medicine: Medicine in the Middle Ages. New York: Hoodder Wayland, 2005.