Bubonic Plague

Throughout history there were many illnesses and diseases reported; many of them incurable and killed a chunk of the world's population. One of these worldly devastations was the Bubonic plague which took place in the 1300s during the time of the middle ages. This terrible plague had spread from Asia, Europe, to Northern Africa from 1347-1352. An astrologer by the name of Simon de Covinus from Belgium, was the first to write a poem in Latin about the epidemic which he called "mors nogra" meaning Black Death (2004, Byrne, Pg.1).

During the mid-1300s, the bubonic plague first appeared in Asia. A Japanese student by the name of Shibasaburo Kitasato had experimented with the germ accountable for the plague and named it pasteurella pestis. This germ was found among the rodents (black rats) and probably spread by fleas which bit the humans (Byrne, Pg.16). In October of 1347, Italian merchants were sailing to the Black Sea from a trade route in China. The shipmates were struck by the plague and soon it had spread throughout Europe (The Middle Ages, 2006). Many scholars have suggested that merchants and army men had rats in grain sacks or fleas on clothing which is how the plague moved from the Silk Road to Europe (Byrne, Pg.6).

An individual who becomes diagnosed with this epidemic didn't live that long because there was no cure such as antibiotics until the 1940s. The first stage of the bubonic plague produced flu like symptoms following a high fever. In the second stage, black bulges (buboes) emerge near the armpit and black spots appear all over the hands and feet. Other symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, and coughing up blood. Reports showed that there were some individuals who developed the buboes internally and can only be seen after an autopsy. The third and most devastating stage takes form of pneumonia; the patients die within a week (2001, Cantor, Pg.12). In an essay on the pestilence, author Al-Wardi had quoted "There the plague sat like a King on a thrown and swayed with power, killing daily 1,000 or more decimating the population. It destroyed mankind with its pustules" (Al-Wadi, Pg.174). In this quote, the author did a splendid job in summarizing how the plague affected the world.

In the time of the plague, many medieval doctors of that time came up with different types of so-called treatments and daily restrictions which would prevent or cure someone from the epidemic. First thing a person did was breathe in different aromatic scents, but some doctors preferred stronger smells such as breathing in deeply the scent of urine. Many other physicians or healers during that time thought swallowing gold and pearls (drinkable form) would purify the poison in the body because it contained the power of the sun. The most certain thing doctors didn't want was a person's body to become moist or warm. Hot baths, exercise, and sexual intercourse were restricted because it makes the body heat up and pores will begin to open, leaving an individual vulnerable (Byrne, Pg.47-48).

During the 1400s, the matter of the plague had gotten worse. Jewish people in many regions were prosecuted and blamed for poisoning the wells which they thought was the reason for individuals getting sick. The Christians created a flagellant movement; they went into towns dressed in white robes with red crosses whipping themselves because they think the plague is God's punishment and attacked the Jews also since they were the "so-called" cause of the plague. Some of the Jewish people killed themselves rather than being tormented by the flagellants. Many of the towns didn't give fair trials to the Jewish people. From the Meditarranean to Germany, the Jews were burned or stoned to death. In Avignon, the Jewish people