The Black Death

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The Black Death
1347 - 1351
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Objective To make the students aware of the
devastating diseases of the past and their
possible reoccurrence in the future.
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Crisis in Europe

• By 1300 Europeans were farming almost all the
  land they could cultivate.
• A population crisis developed.
• Climate changes in Europe produced three years of
  crop failures between 1315-17 because of
  excessive rain.
• As many as 15 of the peasants in some English
  villages died.
• One consequence ofstarvation povertywas
  susceptibility todisease.

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Perceived Causes

• Vapors from a volcano
• Jews poisoned the Gentiles
• Blood imbalances
• Gods wrath

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The Real Culprits
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The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood that carries the
bacteria.
Bacteria multiply in fleas gut.
Human is infected!
Fleas gut cloggedwith bacteria.
Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into
human wound.
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1347 Plague Reaches Europe!
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Symptoms of the Plague

• Painful swellings in armpits, neck, and groin
  called buboes (boo-bows).
• High fever
• Blood vessels burst under skin turning it black.
• Untreated mortality rate- 75

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The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemia Formalmost 100 mortality rate.
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Medieval Art the Plague
An obsession with death.
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Medieval Art the Plague
Bring out your dead!
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Medieval Art the Plague
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
Leeching
A Doctors Robe
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
FlagellantSelf-inflicted penance for our sins!
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
Pogroms against the Jews
Golden Circle obligatory badge
Jew hat
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Methods of treatment

• Bathing in human urine
• Placing dead animals in the home
• Amputation

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• Tools Used for Amputation

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Lancing a Buboe
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Many priests, who cared for the sick, caught the
disease from their patients and died.
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Effects of the Plague

• Government halted
• Loss of labor force
• Manufacturing suffered
• Loss of family members
• Trade was disrupted
• Religious beliefs altered
• Prices increased

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A Little Macabre Ditty
A sickly season, the merchant said,The town I
left was filled with dead,and everywhere these
queer red fliescrawled upon the corpses
eyes,eating them away.Fair make you sick,
the merchant said,They crawled upon the wine
and bread.Pale priests with oil and
books,bulging eyes and crazy looks,dropping
like the flies.
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The Mortality Rate
35 - 70
25,000,000 dead !!!
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What were thepolitical,economic,and social
effectsof the Black Death??
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Could it Happen Again?

• The conditions present in the 14th century
  provided an ideal situation for the development
  of this devastating epidemic.
• Discuss, what environmental, social,
  scientific, and sanitary changes have been made
  in our present society that would limit the
  possibility of a modern outbreak of the plague ?

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ANSWER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Use of antibiotics
• Improvements in the medical profession
• Increased knowledge of communicable disease
• Quarantine procedures on imports of food and
  animals

• Control of rat population
• Use of insecticides
• Sanitary disposal of garbage and waste
• Improved personal hygiene