The black death

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Raven
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The black death

Post by Raven »

In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kill 1.5 million people out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350. No medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease. After 1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century. Understandably, peasants were terrified at the news that the Black Death might be approaching their village or town.

The Black Death is the name given to a disease called the bubonic plague which was rampant during the Fourteenth Century. In fact, the bubonic plague affected England more than once in that century but its impact on English society from 1348 to 1350 was terrible. No amount of medical knowledge could help England when the bubonic plague struck. It was also to have a major impact on England’s social structure which lead to the Peasants Revolt of 1381.

The Black Death was caused by fleas carried by rats that were very common in towns and cities. The fleas bit into their victims literally injecting them with the disease. Death could be very quick for the weaker victims.

It symptoms were described in 1348 by a man called Boccaccio who lived in Florence, Italy:

"The first signs of the plague were lumps in the groin or armpits. After this, livid black spots appeared on the arms and thighs and other parts of the body. Few recovered. Almost all died within three days, usually without any fever."
Written evidence from the time indicates that nearly all the victims died within three days though a small number did last for four days.

Why did the bubonic plague spread so quickly?

In towns and cities people lived very close together and they knew nothing about contagious diseases. Also the disposal of bodies was very crude and helped to spread the disease still further as those who handled the dead bodies did not protect themselves in any way.

The filth that littered streets gave rats the perfect environment to breed and increase their number. It is commonly thought that it was the rats that caused the disease. This is not true – the fleas did this. However, it was the rats that enabled the disease to spread very quickly and the filth in the streets of our towns and cities did not help to stop the spread of the disease.

Lack of medical knowledge meant that people tried anything to help them escape the disease. One of the more extreme was the flagellants. These people wanted to show their love of God by whipping themselves, hoping that God would forgive them their sins and that they would be spared the Black Death.

The Black Death had a huge impact on society. Fields went unploughed as the men who usually did this were victims of the disease. Harvests would not have been brought in as the manpower did not exist. Animals would have been lost as the people in a village would not have been around to tend them.

Therefore whole villages would have faced starvation. Towns and cities would have faced food shortages as the villages that surrounded them could not provide them with enough food. Those lords who lost their manpower to the disease, turned to sheep farming as this required less people to work on the land. Grain farming became less popular – this, again, kept towns and cities short of such basics as bread. One consequence of the Black Death was inflation – the price of food went up creating more hardship for the poor. In some parts of England, food prices went up by four times.

How did peasants respond?

Those who survived the Black Death believed that there was something special about them – almost as if God had protected them. Therefore, they took the opportunity offered by the disease to improve their lifestyle.

Feudal law stated that peasants could only leave their village if they had their lord’s permission. Now many lords were short of desperately needed labour for the land that they owned. After the Black Death, lords actively encouraged peasants to leave the village where they lived to come to work for them. When peasants did this, the lord refused to return them to their original village.

Peasants could demand higher wages as they knew that a lord was desperate to get in his harvest.

So the government faced the prospect of peasants leaving their villages to find a better ‘deal’ from a lord thus upsetting the whole idea of the Feudal System which had been introduced to tie peasants to the land. Ironically, this movement by the peasants was encouraged by the lords who were meant to benefit from the Feudal System.



To curb peasants roaming around the countryside looking for better pay, the government introduced the Statute of Labourers in 1351 that stated:


No peasants could be paid more than the wages paid in 1346.

No lord or master should offer more wages than paid in 1346.

No peasants could leave the village they belonged to.
Though some peasants decided to ignore the statute, many knew that disobedience would lead to serious punishment. This created great anger amongst the peasants which was to boil over in 1381 with the Peasants Revolt. Hence, it can be argued that the Black Death was to lead to the Peasants Revolt.



This could sooooooooooooooooo easily happen again! Check out the current medical treatment we have to this! Basically it's no better than what THEY had!
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chonsigirl
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The black death

Post by chonsigirl »

The bubonic plague still occurs today, there are usually 6-10 cases/year in Southern California. It's all the durn ground squirrels fault!:)
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Raven
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The black death

Post by Raven »

They are saying the house cat is a good carrier now too! :eek: I've got two!
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stewartcumming
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The black death

Post by stewartcumming »

Raven wrote: They are saying the house cat is a good carrier now too! :eek: I've got two!


But on the plus side, there are a couple of cats in Austria that have caught bird flu and made full recoveries, so our little lazy furry friends may lead us to an antidote?
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The black death

Post by spot »

Raven wrote: Check out the current medical treatment we have to this! Basically it's no better than what THEY had!Why do you think that, Raven?

"Without diagnosis and treatment, the infection can be fatal in one to six days; mortality in untreated cases may be as high as 95%. The disease can be effectively treated with antibiotics." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubonic_plague

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic428.htm has more information than any sane person would wish to acquire about it.
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Raven
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The black death

Post by Raven »

A) There are three forms of bubonic plague. Bubonic, septocemic and pneumonic. Pneumonic being the most contagious.

B) Treatment has to begin within a VERY short time of catching it.

C) Doctors today, (especially in Britain) would mistake the symptoms for something else until a really sharp one (probably a student) caught on that it somehow may have happened before! Thats why! :p



http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic428.htm
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spot
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The black death

Post by spot »

I do apologise, I'd assumed we were talking about an epidemic.
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Raven
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The black death

Post by Raven »

You dont think it could? Really?

Being a respiratory nurse myself, I really do!

Especially with all the new construction around London these days!

LOL! Have you BEEN to a nhs hospital lately?

Most of the doctors are foreign. They have no interest in the history of this place. They wouldnt know plague from the pox!
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spot
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The black death

Post by spot »

Well, yes, Raven, I spent several months in an NHS hospital at the start of last year. You started by talking of how extensive an epidemic might be. I agree that the occasional one-off case might be misdiagnosed by clinicians, but an epidemic would, I'd have thought, bring the likelihood of immediate diagnosis and proper treatment to the fore.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
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chonsigirl
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The black death

Post by chonsigirl »

There are always sporadic cases, like Spot said. Bubonic Plague is not considered a pandemic anymore, but with all the attention given to the latest bird flu and the cycle of flu pandemics the last century, there could potentially be another crisis.
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Bez
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The black death

Post by Bez »

Have you been to the London Dungeons Raven ? It's pretty creepy !!



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Raven
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The black death

Post by Raven »

spot wrote: Well, yes, Raven, I spent several months in an NHS hospital at the start of last year. You started by talking of how extensive an epidemic might be. I agree that the occasional one-off case might be misdiagnosed by clinicians, but an epidemic would, I'd have thought, bring the likelihood of immediate diagnosis and proper treatment to the fore.
I know this is all conjecture, but with the tb and flu bugs, not to mention the staph bugs all mutating into giants that resist our current courses of anti-biotics, I feel this could happen to the plague bacteria as well.

The fact remains that the last thing we could effectively cure was polio.

You have all heard of MRSA by now. Well there is another common one even worse. VRE. Vacomycin resistant enterococcus. Vancomycin is the silver bullet of anti-biotics. We have nothing stronger. And now we have bacteria it wont touch.
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Raven
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The black death

Post by Raven »

Bez wrote: Have you been to the London Dungeons Raven ? It's pretty creepy !!



http://www.thedungeons.com/dungeon-home ... -index.htm


I'm seriously into medieval Britain. I havent been there yet but it's high on the 'to do' list!:-4
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Bez
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The black death

Post by Bez »

It's not that far from the Tower of London Raven. The south side of the river near London Bridge Station.
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spot
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The black death

Post by spot »

chonsigirl wrote: There are always sporadic cases, like Spot said. Bubonic Plague is not considered a pandemic anymore, but with all the attention given to the latest bird flu and the cycle of flu pandemics the last century, there could potentially be another crisis.From http://www.nbc4.tv/news/8801513/detail.html :

A woman from the Country Club Park area contracted a case of bubonic plague, the first human case in Los Angeles County since 1984, county health officials said Tuesday.

The woman, who has not been identified, came down with symptoms last week and remains hospitalized.

Health officials said they believe the woman was exposed to fleas in the area around her house, although an investigation is continuing. Maybe Raven's got something after all.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
weeder
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The black death

Post by weeder »



There was a movie made about this called The Mask of the Red Death. Vincent Price was the primary character. They seemed to portray the motion that it was cholera. Same plague?? It was horrible.
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The black death

Post by Nomad »

It must have been hard to pick up chicks if you had the black death
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Bez
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The black death

Post by Bez »

Did anyone in the UK watch Dr Who on Saturday....there were loads of 'plague riddled' characters 'zombying' around.
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