The Bubonic Plague by Robert Mead

Do you have a harsh itch on your arm? Does your arm reveal a red ring? If you said “yes” to any of these questions, you might have the most deadly disease of the 14th century- The Black Death. The Bubonic Plague has been accounted for killing nearly “1.5 million people out of an estimated 4.0 million people” in England (Trueman). To be sure you are not the next victim, you need to stay clear of these symptoms: “enlarged lymph nodes, chills, headaches, fever, and weakness” (Stoppler).

History

To begin, many people think that the Black Death was the only wave of plague that existed. But the truth is that:

 The Black Death was the middle of three great waves of plague. The first strain appeared in the sixth century during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. That plague is thought by historians to have peaked in the 14th century and killed up to a third of the population of Europe. The third wave of plague began in China in the late 19th century, spreading along shipping lines from Hong Kong and hitting San Francisco in 1900. (Shanghai)

The first wave began in Italy where a Byzantine Empire was fighting for the realignment of Rome. They fought on behalf of Justinian, The eastern Emperor, which had dreams of a reunited Roman Empire but an unknown killer was making its way to Constantinople with enough firepower to wipe out the entire continent, this killer was the Bubonic Plague (“Black Death”).

The plague’s place of origin is a mystery, but it arrived in Constantinople's cargo ships. It was carried by infected fleas which hid in the fur of rats which came with the imported goods. During May 542, the first victims became ill at the coast line (“Black Derath”). Within four months, it had affected nearly one half of the city, including the Emperor Justinian (4). When all was said and done, up to one half of the emperor’s population (one hundred million people) was affected by the plague, and his dreams of an aligned Europe fell with him and his country (4).

Even though the war for Rome was over, the Bubonic Plague was only beginning. Fast forward to 1346 where we begin to see the Bubonic Plague reach its peak (“Black Death”). This wave of the plague was by far the worst amongst the three. In the matter of five years the Bubonic Plague took the lives of twenty five million people (4). Now that nearly all of Eastern Europe was infected, it then took on all of Europe. Geographically, this makes sense because since it was in one specific location, it spreading to its neighboring civilizations is very feasible. Just like the wave in the Byzantine Empire, the Bubonic Plague came in from flea infested rats. But, this time, it was different due to another factor, people. Since the Bubonic Plague was in more human bodies, the spreading of the disease escalated. Family by family, the disease only got worse with numbers.

With the Bubonic Plague reaching numbers of nearly one hundred and fifty deaths, it wasn’t stopping any time soon. Just as we have seen in the previous cases, the infested cargo ships have made its way to a new location. Its next victim was six thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean in Central China.

The main reason why China was hit so hard by the Bubonic Plague was due to their need for imported goods. At the time, China relied heavily on imported goods because that was a huge way to make money during that time period. One huge aspect to their trading lifestyle was the Silk Road. “The Silk Road was a network of trade routes, formally established during the Han Dynasty of China, which linked the regions of the ancient world in commerce” (“Black Death” ). While being a big aspect to China’s trading, the Silk Road was also a catalyst of the Bubonic Plague spreading across the country.

This was terrible for the country because they would seek goods from all over the globe, including the Bubonic Plague infested Europe. With nearly all of Europe having the disease, it would spread to the goods on the cargo ships that would be given to China. Once European Cargo ships ported at docks in China, it was too late. The disease would now be all over China due to rats from the cargo ship, infested goods and contaminated people. And, once the goods went into the Silk Road, whoever was the recipient of those goods would now have the most deadly epidemic known today.

Causes

The cause of this epidemic came from a bacterium called Yersinia Pestis (“Black Death”). This deadly bacterium lives in rats. But, how could this disease spread from rats if it so deadly? Why would it not just kill the rats? The rats would not die from Yersinia Pestis because overtime their bodies became immune to it. So, since the rats do not die from the disease, it is then living in their bodies waiting to spread.

From the rats, the Yersinia Pestis bacterium was then sucked up from flies that would feed off their blood. But, once again, we have the questions, why didn’t the flies just die off from the disease? Why did the deadly bacterium continue to spread? This failed to happen because “a toxin produced by Yersinia Pestis blocks the abdomen of the flea, so it can not actually swallow the contaminated blood from the rats” (“Black Death”). Therefore, the flies do not technically get affected by the bacterium, while remaining to be a host of it.

Now, imagine one contaminated flee flying around a European civilization. Once the flee lands on one human and vomits the Yersinia Pestis contaminated blood, the first human victim of the plague has been created. To put this into perspective, picture a European civilization in the fourteenth century. Overall, the living space would not be very clean, which would attract rats and flies, the two main catalysts that spread Yersinia Pestis. Also, remember the fact that “flies vomit nearly every time they land on an object” (“Black Death”). So, when these contained flies land on a human, it is basically guaranteed that they will vomit and spread the Yersinia Pestis bacterium.

Examples

The plague was beginning to take a heavy toll on the European society. It was hard to prevent because by the time everyone started to notice the symptoms of the plague it was too late. In the matter of seconds, an entire house could be contaminated by the plague. It was spreading easily because all it took was a cough, sneeze, or blood interaction with someone and they would have the disease. When this would happen, the victim would begin to notice symptoms such as: “enlarged lymph nodes, chills, headaches, fever, and weakness” (2). But, what could this victim expect next? Throughout time, historical documents revealed horrific invoices of life with the plague:

It started with a headache...chills and fever...exhausted…nausea, vomiting, back

pain, soreness in his arms and legs. Perhaps bright light was too bright to

stand…swellings appeared. They were hard, painful, burning lumps on his neck,

under his arms, on his inner thighs…they turned black, split open, and began to

ooze pus and blood…grown to the size of an orange… he would start to bleed

internally...blood in his urine, blood in his stool, and blood puddling under his

skin…black boils and spots all over his body. Everything that came out of his body

smelled utterly revolting. He would suffer great pain before he breathed his last.

And he would die barely a week after he first contracted the disease. (“Black Death”)

Boccaccio, a gifted poet, gave very vivid descriptions of what it was like to have the Black Plague at the time.

  Mothers would care for their sick children and get coughed on, and the mother in the matter of seconds would be infested with the plague. That same mother would then carry on everyday activities such as grocery shopping and talking to loved ones. Every time she opened her mouth, she put everyone around her at risk of getting the disease, and they didn’t even know it.

Solutions

            “The reality of having the plague in the fourteenth century was if you sneezed on your daughter you just killed her” (“Black Death”). While this may seem absurd to the modern day reader, it is true. During the time of the fourteenth century plague, there was not a cure for the epidemic. But, according to Forensic Medical Investigator, Shiya Ribowsky, there were some solutions to the epidemic.

            The first solution that Ribowsky mentioned was isolation. According to Ribowsky and his research as a Forensic Medical Investigator on the Black Death, isolation was one of the most promising solutions. In isolation, the Europeans would have the civilians with the disease cut off from the rest of the town. Doing this they would have the people that were sick live miles from the town. Here they would have to fight for their own food and water just to survive from a virus that was going to kill them shortly after.  This was affective because when the sick would leave the town, they would take away the risk of passing the virus to healthy people. And since this isolated group was already infected, they would be of no risk to each other since they were all already infected with the Black Death. On the other hand, this solution had a flaw, and this was that healthy family members of the isolated group would drop off food packages for their family members and would come back to the town with the virus.

            The second solution mentioned by Ribowsky was traveling. This sounds similar to isolation, but it differed because healthy victims would leave the infected areas, traveling to a more promising location. But where would this be exactly? According to research conducted by Ribowsky himself, he states that “Europeans would move to the countryside” (“Black Death”). Doing this, the travelers would pack their belongings and leave home to go to a virus-free environment. The countryside was a reliable place to move to “because it was away from the coastline, where the Black Death would come in from the boats” (“Black Death”). While this solution did work for several years, the Black Death would later spread to “over 60% of the country” (“Black Death”), including the countryside.

Conclusion

The Black Death killed “50 million people in the 14th century” (Benedictow) alone. No one that encountered the disease was immune from it, and in today’s time diseases spread even more rapidly than ever before. Even though fearing such is an epidemic is on the cross-bridge of absurdity, we must face the reality that diseases, such as the Bubonic Plague, are inescapable and still linger today. This means we as a society are at possible risk of another epidemic.

Works cited

Benedictow, Ole J. "The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever." The Black Death: The

Greatest Catastrophe Ever | History Today. N.p., 3 Mar. 2005. Web. 09 Apr. 2017.

History.com Staff. "Black Death." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 27 Feb.

2017.

Shanghai, Malcolm Moore in. "Black Death May Have Originated in China." The Telegraph.

Telegraph Media Group, 01 Nov. 2010. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

Stöppler, MD Melissa Conrad. "Plague: Symptoms and History of the Black Death."

MedicineNet. N.p.,n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

Trueman C N "The Black Death Of 1348 To 1350"historylearningsite.co.uk. The History

Learning Site, 5 Mar 2015. 20 Oct 2016