Skip to main content

Home/ History with Holman/ Group items tagged Plague

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Garth Holman

Doctor's Review | Doctors of the Black Death - 0 views

  • Public service, plague-style Presumably, their principal task of the plague doctors was to help treat and cure plague victims, and some did give it their best shot. In actual fact, however, the plague doctors’ duties were far more actuarial than medical. Most did a lot more counting than curing, keeping track of the number of casualties and recorded the deaths in log books. Plague doctors were sometimes requested to take part in autopsies, and were often called upon to testify and witness wills and other important documents for the dead and dying. Not surprisingly, many a dishonest doc took advantage of bereaved families, holding out false hope for cures and charging extra fees (even though they were supposed to be paid by the government and not their patients). Then, as now, it seems a life of public service was occasionally at odds with the ambitions of some medically minded entrepreneurs. Whatever their intentions, whatever their failings, plague doctors were thought of as brave and highly valued; some were even kidnapped and held for ransom.
  • Creepy costume By the 1600s, the plague doctor was a terror to behold, thanks to his costume — perhaps the most potent symbol of the Black Death. The protective garment was created by the 17th-century physician Charles de l’Orme (1584-1678). De l’Orme had been the physician of choice for several French kings (one Henri and a Louis or two), and was also a favourite of the Medici family in Italy. In 1619 — as a carefully considered way to protect himself from having to visit powerful, plague-infested patients he couldn’t say no to — de l’Orme created the iconic uniform. Its dramatic flair certainly made it seem like a good idea, and the costume quickly became all the rage among plague doctors throughout Europe. Made of a canvas outer garment coated in wax, as well as waxed leather pants, gloves, boots and hat, the costume became downright scary from the neck up. A dark leather hood and mask were held onto the face with leather bands and gathered tightly at the neck so as to not let in any noxious, plague-causing miasmas that might poison the wearer. Eyeholes were cut into the leather and fitted with glass domes. As if this head-to-toe shroud of foreboding wasn’t enough, from the front protruded a grotesque curved beak designed to hold the fragrant compounds believed to keep “plague air” at bay. Favourite scents included camphor, floral concoctions, mint, cloves, myrrh and basically anything that smelled nice and strong. In some French versions of the costume, compounds were actually set to smolder within the beak, in the hopes that the smoke would add an extra layer of protection. A wooden stick completed the look, which the plague doctor used to lift the clothing and bed sheets of infected patients to get a better look without actually making skin-to-skin contact.
Cameron G.

TED Cast Study BUBONIC - 1 views

  • Between 1339 and 1351 AD, a pandemic of plague traveled from China to Europe, known in Western history as The Black Death
  • The Black Death was actually a combination of three different types of plague: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicaemic, with bubonic being the most common
  • The initial symptom is a blackish pustule forming over the point of the bite, followed by swollen lymph nodes near that bite.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • bruise-like purple blotches, called buboes, on the victim's skin. It is from this word, buboe, that the bubonic plague takes its name. The hemorrhaging causes an intoxication of the nervous system, which produces neurological and psychological disorders, including insomnia, delirium, and stupor
  • Septicaemic plague is, like the bubonic plague, carried by insects. Its distinguishing feature is its rapidity - death occurs within a day of infection, even before buboes have had time to form. This form of the plague is the rarest rare, but is almost always fatal
  • victims suffer a sharp drop in body temperature, which is followed by sever coughing and discharge of a bloody sputum
  • airborne transmission.
  • None of these plagues are native to Europe.
  • bacteria normally resides in Central Asia, Yunan China, Arabia, East Africa, and limited areas of Iran and Libya.
  • Their spread to Europe from these areas has always been through global commerce - trade which carried with it plague- bearing rats and fleas.
  • From China, the plague is known to have been carried along the Silk Road into Central Asia, where there are records of outbreaks in 1339.
  •  
    Information on the spread of the Black Plague with highlights
Shira H

No. 123: The Black Death - 0 views

shared by Shira H on 07 Apr 12 - No Cached
    • Shira H
       
      Great website for quest 10. Lots of information. 
  • Now rats carried this disease off ships in Genoa. In just four years it killed off 40 percent of the people in Europe. It took three forms: "bubonic" plague hit the lymph system, "pneumonic" plague attacked the lungs, and "septicemic" plague assaulted the blood. But the words "Black Death" encompassed it all.
  • The Church-centered world before the plague had been oddly timeless. Now people worked long hours, chasing capital gain, in a life that could end at any moment. The first new technology of the plague years was time-keeping -- mechanical clocks and hourglasses. Medicine had been a function of the Church before the plague. Physicians were well-paid, highly-respected scholars. They spun dialectic arguments far away from unwholesome sick people -- not unlike some of today's specialists. 13th-century medicine, like the 13th-century Church, had failed miserably in coping with the plague. Both medical and religious practice now shifted toward the laity. Medicine was redirected into experimentation and practical pharmacology. Medical books were now being written -- not in Latin -- but in the vernacular, and by a whole new breed of people.
Garth Holman

BBC News - 'Gerbils replace rats' as main cause of Black Death - 3 views

  • If we're right, we'll have to rewrite that part of history."
  • The Black Death, which originated in Asia, arrived in Europe in 1347 and caused one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history.
  • It had been thought that black rats were responsible for allowing the plague to establish in Europe, with new outbreaks occurring when fleas jumped from infected rodents to humans.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • They compared tree-ring records from Europe with 7,711 historical plague outbreaks to see if the weather conditions would have been optimum for a rat-driven outbreak.
  • "We show that wherever there were good conditions for gerbils and fleas in central Asia, some years later the bacteria shows up in harbour cities in Europe and then spreads across the continent," Prof Stenseth said. He said that a wet spring followed by a warm summer would cause gerbil numbers to boom.
  • And because this was a period when trade between the East and West was at a peak, the plague was most likely brought to Europe along the silk road, Prof Stenseth explained.
  • "Suddenly we could sort out a problem. Why did we have these waves of plagues in Europe?
  • The team now plans to analyse plague bacteria DNA taken from ancient skeletons across Europe. If the genetic material shows a large amount of variation, it would suggest the team's theory is correct.
  •  
    This article calls into question how the plague was moved from Asia to Europe..not fleas, but Gerbils:) 
dcs-armstrong

Medieval "Black Death" Was Airborne, Scientists Say - History in the Headlines - 0 views

  • w, analysis of skeletal remains found by construction workers digging railway tunnels in central London has led scientists to a stunning new conclusion: The Black Death was not transmitted through flea bites at all, but was an airborne plague spread through the coughs, sneezes and breath of infected human victims.
    • dcs-armstrong
       
      New studies on the Black Death... Scientists say it was airborne
  • stumbled on a plague cemetery
  • cientists extracted DNA from one of the largest teeth in each of 12 skeletons
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • he bacterium that causes the plague, which confirmed that the individuals buried underneath the square had likely been exposed to—and died from—the Black Death.
  • Testing showed evidence of Yersinia pestis,
  • Currently, the plague still infects several thousand people every year around the world,
  • The medieval strain was no stronger than the recent one;
  • quickly and killed so many victims with such devastating speed, it would have to have been airborne
  • rather than bubonic plague, which is transmitted to humans through bites from infected rat fleas, they concluded that this must have been a pneumatic plague that made its way into the lungs of the infected and spread through coughs and sneezes.
  • 60 percent of Londoners were wiped out by the Black Death from the autumn of 1348 to spring of 1349.
  • omparable rate of destruction would today kill some 5 million people.
  • transmission by rat fleas as an explanation for the Black Death “simply isn’t good enough. It cannot spread fast enough from one household to the next to cause the huge number of cases that we saw during the Black Death epidemics.
  • mostly poor people who suffered from general ill health.
  • Archaeological analysi
  • ndividuals buried
  • malnutrition,
  • Another interesting finding was that the remains in the square appeared to come from three different periods: not only from the original Black Death epidemic in 1348-1350, but from later outbreaks in 1361 and the 1430s.
  • Archaeologists planning another dig in the area this summer estimate that thousands of bodies are left to be found underneath Charterhouse Square.
dcs-armstrong

Rats and fleas off the hook: humans passed Black Death to each other | News | The Week UK - 1 views

  • The Bubonic Plague of 1348 was actually a pneumonic plague, say scientists studying skeletons dug up in London
  • RATS and fleas have been unfairly implicated in the spread of the Black Death, according to scientists studying the remains of Londoners who died in the 14th century.
  • scientists now believe that a death rate of such magnitude would only have been possible if the plague had been airborne.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Around 60 per cent of people living in the capital died
  • thought, this was courtesy of fleas carried by the black rat.
  • However
  • now believe the only way that the Black Death could have killed so many people in 1348 was if it was actually a pneumonic plague – an airborne version of the disease which can be spread from person to person through coughing
  • Speaking of rats and fleas, Dr Brooks told the Guardian:
  • Rats and fleas off the hook: humans p
Garth Holman

History Channel - The Plague part 1 - YouTube - 2 views

  •  
    Part one of the Plague.  It is broken into many parts, so If you want to watch it all go part by part.  This is a great story. 
Garth Holman

Biological Warfare at the 1346 Siege of Caffa - Volume 8, Number 9-September 2002 - Eme... - 0 views

  •  
    "that the Mongol army hurled plague-infected cadavers into the besieged Crimean city of Caffa, thereby transmitting the disease to the inhabitants; and that fleeing survivors of the siege spread plague from Caffa to the Mediterranean Basin."
Garth Holman

Bubonic Plague, the Black Death - 1 views

  •  
    First person accounts of the Plague.
Garth Holman

The Siege of Kaffa and the Black Death - History in an HourHistory in an Hour - 0 views

  • Between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death raged through Medieval Europe. Historians and biologists have traced the origins of this deadly pandemic to the remote steppes of Central Asia. Plague had certainly erupted there by 1331 but how exactly did it spread from East to West? After ravaging Central Asia, the plague descended on China, India and Persia. In China alone, the plague killed around half of the human population. Despite such destruction, commercial activities continued unabated. This meant that the traders, their vessels and the rats aboard became the agents of infection. As they travelled along the established trade routes of the medieval world, they unwittingly carried the plague with them.
  • For several years, the Mongols had allowed a group of merchants from Genoa to control Kaffa, a bustling seaport on the Crimean Peninsula. This was highly advantageous for the Mongols as it provided a direct link to Italy’s largest commercial centre and encouraged trade across all corners of their vast empire. Tensions and disagreements, however, were a common feature of this commercial relationship, arising primarily from their religious differences; the Italians were devoutly Christian and the Mongols had been practising Muslims since the 1200s.
  • ‘This Pestilential Disease’
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • “Whereupon the Tartars (Mongols), worn out by this pestilential disease, and falling on all sides as if thunderstruck, and seeing that they were perishing hopelessly, ordered the corpses to be placed upon their engines and thrown into the city of Kaffa. Accordingly were the bodies of the dead hurled over the walls, so that the Christians were not able to hide or protect themselves from this danger, although they carried away as many as possible and threw them into the sea.”
  • summer of 1347, the Italian merchants headed to their ships and the fled the city of Kaffa. En route, however, the Italians stopped at Constantinople, inadvertently infecting the city. Thousands of people were killed, including Andronikos, the son of the Greek Emperor, John VI Cantacuzenos. Those who were able fled the city, many not realising that they were already infected. By the autumn, the western coast of Asia Minor was experiencing the full force of the Black Death and it would not be long before returned home to infect their native Italy.
  •  
    Mongols, Kaffa, trade and the Black Death .
mukul g

The Black Death of 1348 to 1350 - 4 views

    • mukul g
       
      Mr.Holman you said that the people had some fever and then died right?
  • "The first signs of the plague were lumps in the groin or armpits. After this, livid black spots appeared on the arms and thighs and other parts of the body. Few recovered. Almost all died within three days, usually without any fever."
  • The Black Death had a huge impact on society. Fields went unploughed as the men who usually did this were victims of the disease. Harvests would not have been brought in as the manpower did not exist. Animals would have been lost as the people in a village would not have been around to tend them.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • Those who survived the Black Death believed that there was something special about them – almost as if God had protected them. Therefore, they took the opportunity offered by the disease to improve their lifestyle.
  • Peasants could demand higher wages as they knew that a lord was desperate to get in his harvest.
  • To curb peasants roaming around the countryside looking for better pay, the government introduced the Statute of Labourers in 1351 that stated: No peasants could be paid more than the wages paid in 1346. No lord or master should offer more wages than paid in 1346. No peasants could leave the village they belonged to.
  • Though some peasants decided to ignore the statute, many knew that disobedience would lead to serious punishment. This created great anger amongst the peasants which was to boil over in 1381 with the Peasants Revolt. Hence, it can be argued that the Black Death was to lead to the Peasants Revolt.
  • Why did the bubonic plague spread so quickly?
  • In towns and cities people lived very close together and they knew nothing about contagious diseases.
  • 1.5 million people
  • In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kil
  • out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350
  • The Black Death is the name given to a disease called the bubonic plague which was rampant during the Fourteenth Century. In fact, the bubonic plague affected England more than once in that century but its impact on English society from 1348 to 1350 was terrible.
  • It symptoms were described in 1348 by a man called Boccaccio who lived in Florence, Italy:
  • ck Death was caused by fleas carried by rats that were very common in towns and cities
  • The Bla
Garth Holman

http://edsitement.neh.gov/sites/edsitement.neh.gov/files/Black_Death.swf - 0 views

  •  
    Interactive map that shows spread of the Plague.
cglosser c

Black Death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

    • cglosser c
       
      The black death was a bio-hazard.
  • The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover
  • The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching the Crimea by 1346
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1348–50 CE.
  • The plague disease, generally thought to be caused by Yersinia pestis, is enzootic (commonly present) in populations of fleas carried by ground rodents, including marmots, in various areas including Central Asia, Kurdistan, Western Asia, Norther
  • India and Uganda
  • The plague reached Sicily in October 1347
  •  
    This is a wikipedia article on the black death
Shira H

The Middle Ages for Kids - the Plague, the Black Death - 1 views

    • Shira H
       
      Great site for quest 10. 
  • Even before the plague, what is amazing really is that anyone lived. The truth is, only the very strong survived. But the strong had no defense against the Black Death. No one was safe. And millions of people died.
  • Women died in childbirth from ignorance.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • People handled cattle and then directly handled food. 
  • he peasants slept and worked in the same clothes for days and even weeks at a time without washing themselves or their clothes. The nobles were not much better. Soap was made of lye, which was very rough on the skin. There was no toothpaste or toothbrushes. People used watered spices on their lips and teeth, but all that did was briefly hide the smell of rotting teeth. Peasants died young from malnutrition and the simplest of diseases.
dcs-armstrong

Scientists Blame Gerbils (Not Rats) for the Black Death - History in the Headlines - 2 views

  • Scientists Blame Gerbils (Not Rats) for the Black Death
    • dcs-armstrong
       
      Scientists Blame Gerbils for the Spread of the Black Death
  • team of researchers now claims that blame may have been misplaced
  • researchers from the University of Oslo analyzed climate data going back to the 14th century
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • 7,711 historical plague outbreaks
  • Instead, they say, outbreaks of the Black Death seem to correspond with weather patterns in Asia, not Europe itself
  • plague outbreaks in Europe can be linked to the years that central Asia experienced wet springs followed by warm summe
  • such conditions would have been terrible for black rats, the scientists point out, they would have created ideal breeding conditions for another plague-bearing rodent: the gerbil.
Garth Holman

The past, present and future of the bubonic plague - Sharon N. DeWitte - YouTube - 0 views

  •  
    TED Talk EDU for kids animated story of black death
Shira H

The Black Death: Bubonic Plague - 1 views

    • Shira H
       
      Great site for quest 10. Lots of info. 
Livi E

Silk Road - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

shared by Livi E on 15 Mar 12 - Cached
  • refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world
  • Extending 4,000 miles (6,500 km), the Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade along it,
  • silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies, as well as the bubonic plague (the "Black Death"), also traveled along the Silk Routes. Some of the other goods traded included luxuries such as silk, satin, hemp and other fine fabrics, musk, other perfumes, spices, medicines, jewels, glassware, and even rhubarb, as well as slaves.[4] China traded silk, teas, and porcelain; while India traded spices, ivory, textiles, precious stones, and pepper; and the Roman Empire exported gold, silver, fine glassware, wine, carpets, and jewels.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The Mongol expansion throughout the Asian continent from around 1207 to 1360 helped bring political stability and re-establish the Silk Road (via Karakorum). It also brought an end to the Islamic Caliphate's monopoly over world trade. Since the Mongol had dominated the trade routes, it allowed more trade to come in and out of the region. Merchandise that did not seem valuable to the Mongols was often seen as very valuable by the west. As a result, the Mongol received in return a large amount of luxurious goods from the West.
  • The 13th century also saw attempts at a Franco-Mongol alliance, with exchange of ambassadors and (failed) attempts at military collaboration in the Holy Land during the later Crusades,
  • Some research studies indicate that the Black Death, which devastated Europe in the late 1340s, may have reached from Central Asia (or China) to Europe along the trade routes of the Mongol Empire.[28]
    • Shira H
       
      Great site for quest 10 . Lots of information.
    • Shira H
       
      Has lots of information . Great site for quest 10 .  China trade silk and teas and porcelain. 
    • Livi E
       
      this paragraph says a lot of the answers for question 3
Garth Holman

Effects of the Black Death - How the Black Death Worked | HowStuffWorks - 12 views

    • Garth Holman
       
      How would the peasants that survived the Black Death, react to the huge increase in wages in the cities? 
    • Nitzan Omer
       
      The people that survived were very hurt because they had seen so many people die, but they were also so happy that they were alive.They had a dance Macabre as a dance to talk to people that have died, and they celebrate being alive
    • Arielle Epstein
       
      The pesants who survived the black death, started to have better lives because of the increase in wages. Peasants started to eat nicer foods and made more money from working.
  • The Black Death reared its head sporadically in Europe over the next few centuries.
  • The workforce had been destroyed -- farms were abandoned and buildings crumbled. The price of labor skyrocketed in the face of worker shortage, and the cost of goods rose. The price of food, though, didn't go up, perhaps because the population had declined so much.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The Black Death did set the stage for more modern medicine and spurred changes in public health and hospital management. Frustrated with Black Death diagnoses that revolved around astrology and superstition, educators began placing greater emphasis on clinical medicine, based on physical science.
  • generally suffered a communal crisis of faith.
  • They had turned to the church for an answer to the plague, and the church had been able to offer no help.
  • celebrate being alive.
  • The danse macabre, or dance of death, is an allegorical concept that was expressed in drama, poetry, music and visual art.
  • The range of figures shown is meant to show that death will come for everyone, and the various activities depicted are a reminder that death could always be right around the corner.
1 - 20 of 29 Next ›
Showing 20 items per page