The Black Plague One epidemic that changed history; it goes by many names, such as the Black Plague, the Red Death, and the Bubonic Plague. People back in the late 1300’s and early 1400’s didn’t know what caused this deadly disease, but today scientists know everything about it. This includes the cause of the disease and the effect that it had on the people after it was over. The Black Plague swept through the Western world from 1347-1351, coming in waves many more times after that. It was the result of the bacteria, Yersinia pestis, being introduced to the human body. This usually occurred when rats, carrying infected fleas, came into highly human populated areas, by land or by sea, and died. The fleas would then jump to a secondary host,
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The final result of all these symptoms was death, unless it was treated. Even after the treatment the patient still had little chance to survive because the doctors at the time didn’t really know what to do. They tried bloodletting, boil-lancing, and herb burning to try and cure the disease, and sometimes the patient would get better, as long as they didn’t catch an infection from the boil-lancing and bloodletting.
The Black Death had many results, some both positive and negative. While this epidemic prowled through Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa it did massive amounts of damage. Which was pointed out by the History Channel 's website,”... the mysterious Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe…”(History.com staff). The high death toll lead people into a mass panic. Citizens were fleeing from cities, doctors refused to treat people from fear of becoming sick, and priests refused to visit the sick and dieing to perform their last …show more content…
Also due to the lack of medical help during the plague the medical field was forced to expand and modernize after the first big wave of the epidemic. Doctors stopped using bloodletting and herb burning and switch to using science. They started making the medical textbooks in all different languages instead of Latin so everyone who wanted to could become a doctor. The Black Death even resulted in the first ever public safety boards. Their job was to report any outbreaks and quarantine their district.
The Bubonic Plague also made developments in the economy and the arts of the Middle Ages. The working class was just starting to make higher wages, which allowed them to purchase higher end goods. The lines of social classes were blurred so commoners had a chance to move up in the ranks, even if the current nobles didn’t want to acknowledge it. The plague gave rise to different forms of art and writing. All with a more macabre and morbid feel to them, like the works of Geoffrey
The final result of all these symptoms was death, unless it was treated. Even after the treatment the patient still had little chance to survive because the doctors at the time didn’t really know what to do. They tried bloodletting, boil-lancing, and herb burning to try and cure the disease, and sometimes the patient would get better, as long as they didn’t catch an infection from the boil-lancing and bloodletting.
The Black Death had many results, some both positive and negative. While this epidemic prowled through Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa it did massive amounts of damage. Which was pointed out by the History Channel 's website,”... the mysterious Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe…”(History.com staff). The high death toll lead people into a mass panic. Citizens were fleeing from cities, doctors refused to treat people from fear of becoming sick, and priests refused to visit the sick and dieing to perform their last …show more content…
Also due to the lack of medical help during the plague the medical field was forced to expand and modernize after the first big wave of the epidemic. Doctors stopped using bloodletting and herb burning and switch to using science. They started making the medical textbooks in all different languages instead of Latin so everyone who wanted to could become a doctor. The Black Death even resulted in the first ever public safety boards. Their job was to report any outbreaks and quarantine their district.
The Bubonic Plague also made developments in the economy and the arts of the Middle Ages. The working class was just starting to make higher wages, which allowed them to purchase higher end goods. The lines of social classes were blurred so commoners had a chance to move up in the ranks, even if the current nobles didn’t want to acknowledge it. The plague gave rise to different forms of art and writing. All with a more macabre and morbid feel to them, like the works of Geoffrey