Black Death Plague Essay

There have been many plagues throughout history that have taken a toll on this world, but few have been as bad as the infamous Black Death. This plague took millions of people 's lives throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. It was so devastating that it is still spoken of today as a reminder to use proper sanitation. The Black Death, a deadly disease, terrorized the people of Europe and was so devastating it changed people 's outlook on life. Before the black death ever struck Europe it was in China, India, Persia, Syria, and Egypt (Black Death). Europe was actually in a pretty good state of affairs during the thirteen hundreds before the start of the plague. There was an agricultural boom and the people were making money, but all good …show more content…
They wore long bird like masks filled with herbs and spices to prevent themselves from getting the plague; these masks also had glass eyes to protect the wearer, a leather hat to identify themselves as doctors, a gown that was covered with wax, gloves to protect themselves from touching those that were infected, and he would carry a wooden stick to drive people who came to close away from him(The Stuarts - The Plague Doctor). These people believed that the plague was spread by miasma, otherwise known as bad air(White, Frances). Although their name may suggest that they were healers most did not heal people, some really did try though, the main purpose of the plague doctors was to count how many people were dying because they simply were not able to heal the sick and dying with their limited medical knowledge. Many of the doctors would prescribe methods or tonics to help ward off and fight the plague. Most of the time these methods did nothing but sometimes they could actually do more harm than good. These are a few things that the plague doctors told people to do. People were supposed to take a large amount of laxatives so that they could empty their bowels and rid themselves of the disease sadly this did not work and people would just die from dehydration(The Stuarts - The Plague Doctor). The doctors would also use leeches to try and bleed the victim of their bad blood, but this did nothing for the person(The Stuarts - The Plague Doctor). Carrying flowers or wearing strong perfume was supposed to ward off the disease but did nothing to deter it(The Stuarts - The Plague Doctor). Hot drinks were supposed to make the victim sweat out the disease but did nothing(The Stuarts - The Plague Doctor). The last method that was used to try and cure the disease was to coat the infected with mercury and place them in an oven the