Bubonic Plague?!
Question: I have to write a small paper on the plague. nothing major. it just has to include some facts about it. or if theres anything really strange or interesting I'm soposed to include that.
so it's basiaclly just a summary.
is there any particular facts you think I should include? or was there anything really interesting to you about it?
Answers: I have to write a small paper on the plague. nothing major. it just has to include some facts about it. or if theres anything really strange or interesting I'm soposed to include that.
so it's basiaclly just a summary.
is there any particular facts you think I should include? or was there anything really interesting to you about it?
I read a lot about infectious disease. Before it hit Europe, it was in China. The Chinese actually used to vaccinate themselves against it by snorting crushed dried up pus/scabs from those who had it. Gross, I know, and whether or not it worked I can't remember...
By the way, one of my pet rats is named Yersinia after the disease... just a little humor, even though I suppose it would have been more appropriate to get a flea and name it that...
Oh, and lots of Children's nursery rhymes are actually about the plague. Ring around the roses is about the plague. They use to drape the victims with flowers (like roses) and stuff their pockets with flowers (like posies) to try and erradicate the stench of death... the stench was unbearable when they burned the bodies (ashes, ashes, we all fall down)... yeah... pretty gross when you think about small children playing a game to the tune of the plague. Also, a popular folk song "Scarbourough Fair" is about the plague. I can't remember the exact particulars about how that one relates, so you'll have to look it up!
I believe it was named after a sore the infected person would get called "bubo's"
Make sure you include that the Mongols supposedly introduced it into Europe by catapulting bodies of their own plague ridden dead soldiers into a city they were beseiging.
Also, there was a very interesting religious movement in Germany to try to rid the world of plague. I don't remember the group's specific name but they would travel around and self-flagellate and stage performances of Christ carrying the cross, etc. They also got heavily into blaming Jews for poisoning wells and causing the disease, so many were burned at the stake or chased into Poland. It was said the Polish king had fallen in love with a Jewish woman and so to show his love for her welcomed the Jews into his land.
If you want more info please let me know, I enjoy history and I'm a microbiologist so double the fun for me!
P.S. The bubos are actually the swollen, blackened lymph nodes, since the bacteria migrate to the lymphatic system, stick in the lymph nodes and proliferate until they become greatly swollen and painful.
I believe Edgar Allen Poe's "Fall of the house of Usher" is about it also. The Black Death is really a fascinating subject. The Great Fire of London actually saved the rest of the city from the plague because it killed the rats. There is a haunted house in York, England; haunted by a child. When a house was marked as a plague house, the inhabitants were bricked up inside so not to spread it & this child did not have plague & starved to death & people hear her calling for help. (I did not hear her).
There are some great reading books on this topic.