Transcript The Black Death

The Culprits
The Famine of 1315-1317
 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 of
starvation & poverty
was susceptibility to
disease.
Wasn’t the Silk Road supposed to give
us goods we needed? So what did the
Silk Road give us?
The silk road gave us: Wealth/trade, Spread
of ideas/religion, and Bubonic Plague!!!
The fall of Constantinople and the Bubonic
Plague ended the Silk Road trade.
The Black Death was the most devastating
disease of its time and had no cure!!!
1347: Plague Reaches
Constantinople!
The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood
that carries the
bacteria.
Bacteria
multiply in
flea’s gut.
Human is infected!
Flea bites human and
regurgitates blood
into human wound.
Flea’s gut clogged
with bacteria.
What were the symptoms of the
plague?
It came from China where it was carried by
fleas and rats from traders.
It was so deadly because it was spread
without physical contact.
Any positives?
1.) Population Control
2.) Decrease in population brought increase
demand for workers and higher pay also.
3.) Awareness of hygiene and knowledge
medicine increase.
Negatives???
1.) People fled the cities and towns for the
countryside.
2.) Government had less money because
fewer people paid taxes.
3.) Less people needed food and farmers
income became low.
4.) About 50 to 75% of Europe died from the
disease (25,000,000)
Cures?
• Medieval people did not know about
germs causing disease. They did not
understand that plague was spread by
rats and fleas. They thought that
people’s bodies were poisoned.
• If the swellings burst and the poison
came out people sometimes survived.
It seemed sensible to draw out the
poison.
Medieval cure number 1
The swellings should be softened with figs
and cooked onions. The onions should be
mixed with yeast and butter. Then open
the swellings with a knife.
Medieval cure number 2
Take a live frog and put its belly on the
plague sore. The frog will swell up and
burst. Keep doing this with further frogs
until they stop bursting. Some people say
that a dried toad will do the job better.c
Medieval Art & the Plague
Medieval Art & the Plague
Bring out your dead!
Attempts to Stop the Plague
A Doctor’s
Robe
“Leeching”
Attempts to Stop the Plague
Flagellanti:
Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins!
First Hand Account of The Black
Death (resident from Siena, Italy)
And so they died. And nobody could be found to
bury the dead for money or for friendship…And
in many places in Siena huge pits were dug and
piled deep with great heaps of the dead…And I
buried my five children with my own hands and
many others did likewise. And there were many
corpses about the city who were so sparsely
covered with earth that dogs dragged them out
and devourded their bodies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=EVvttY0BcHI