Plague

In the thirteen hundreds Europe was hit with the worst epidemic the world has ever seen. It was called the black plague. This disease was spread throughout the continent in less then 4 years. The amount of death this disease caused formed severe mental damage on the people who lived around it at that time. Some historians believe that the plague was so bad that Europe is still recovering from it today.

Due to the lack of technology at that time to battle the disease the black plague spread without and signs of slowing. The "doctors" of their time did their best to combat its spread but without knowing the cause they assumed that it was god punishing them for impure deeds and therefore used many holistic medicines that had often caused it to spread faster yet.

Because of the vast amount of death and pain that was experienced during the plague it had a profound effect on the society. In doing so it also affected religion as well as art. During this time art was almost lost and showed no growth. Understanding the effects of the "black death" on society is key when learning about British literature today.

The first sign of this disease occurred in 430 B.C. However, the epidemic first struck Europe in 1347 and ended in 1351. It hit today's England the hardest of all and it took over 400 years to regain the same population before the plague.

The most memorizing part of the black plague is how quickly the disease was spread throughout the world. The epidemic was spread by infected rats. Fleas would then bite these rats and eat the infected blood. However they would then need to regurgitate this blood into their next host which is of course humans. There are actually three different strains of the plague.

The first and most common of these is the bubonic plague. Some of the symptoms of this disease are enlarged lymph nodes, head aches, nausea, aching, vomiting, and a fever ranging from 100-105. These symptoms would take up to 7 days to first appear.

The second most common version is the pneumonic plague. This strain has a 90-95% death rate. It mainly affected the lungs and gave symptoms such as slimy suptum (saliva) that is tinted with blood.

Finally, the last strain is septicemic which is the rarest of all. This is mainly because the host dies before having a chance to spread the disease. The death rate for this disease is nearly one hundred percent. To date, there is no treatment for this strain of the plague. Some of the symptoms for this disease is that skin turns a shade of purple. Often, people will die the same day that they are infected with the disease. There are however antibiotics for these disease today, with the exception of the septicemic strain. These drugs are called streptomycin and they cause a preventative effect.

The plague is still seen in part of Asia on occasion but there have been no outbreaks with its original strength seen in Europe. The last major outbreak took place in 1722 and currently there are only 2500 cases of the plague seen per year.

Because of the devastating effects explained above, Europe suffered greatly not only in a physical aspect but also economically. Because people were sure that they were going to die anyway often times people stopped working so that they could live there life to the fullest while they still could. The plague had hit Europe when they were already in the middle of a food shortage and this lack of incoming supplies leads to greater loss. In fact it is believed that the effects of the plague were so strong that Europe today is just finally getting over it financially. Also, today's prices are lower because there was a period without any growth in Europe. There was however a positive to the plagues economic effects. It had single handedly ended feudalism. This is because farmers were now a precious commodity; the few healthy and willing workers were in short supply and could leave their land and go into the cities and still find work. Also, they demanded higher wages for their work and had a livable wage.

This disease also had adverse effects on people mentally. Often times people would look for reasons to laugh because everything around them was so miserable all the time. One such example is that they used to make mock funerals and just make fun of the deceased person. Also, the disease had lead to much prejudice. They used to blame the handicapped that were banished on the outskirts of there town for the creation of the disease and used them as scape goats for their anger and aggression. The people were often stoned or injured in some way. Worst of all, the children were deeply mentally effected and became disturbed due to their seeing so much death and nudity at a developmental age in their lives. Also, children were often abandoned at a young age due to the fact that the parents did not want to develop the disease from their children. Often times it would only be the girls that were abandoned because boys were favored over the girls in society at that time. The population also dwindled because people stopped having kids. They believed that they were more trouble then they are worth because they were just going to suffer and die from the disease anyway. One piece of evidence of children's suffering the nursery rhyme "ring around the rosy." Its lyrics are actually meant to depict the effects of the plague.

One of the scariest parts of the plague its self is that no one know how it came about or how to cure it. Doctors often fled because they were afraid that they would contract the disease from there patients. There were several ideas at the time about what