1. Bubonic Plague and the Middle Ages
The Black Death
Bubonic Plague and the Middle Ages

2. Triumph of Death
painted c by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It currently hangs in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.

3.  The Black Death was one of the worst natural disasters in history.
In 1347 A.D., a great plague swept over Europe and ravaged cities causing  widespread  hysteria and death.
One third of the population of Europe died.
The primary culprits in transmitting this disease were Oriental Rat Fleas carried on the back of black rats.

4. The Black Death,
1348

5. Dead littered the streets everywhere.
Cattle and livestock roamed the country unattended.
Brother deserted brother.

6. The Plague occurred in 3 Forms
D e a t h
The Plague occurred in 3 Forms
PNEUMONIC PHASE
Attacked the Lungs
Caused fierce coughing & sneezing fits
Chest pain, Bloody sputum
SEPTICEMIC PHASE
Rarest and Deadliest
Traveled thru bloodstream
Black spots beneath skin
Victims choked on own blood, Excruciating Pain!
BUBONIC PHASE
Most Common
Egg-sized swellings (buboes)
Neck, armpits, groin (dark blisters)
Headaches, Weakness, Nausea/Vomiting
Severe Fever and Delirium

10. Myth or Fact? (Song)
Ring around the rosie, A pocket full of posies, Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down!

11. Ring around the rosy: rosary beads give you God's help.
A pocket full of posies: used to stop the odor of rotting bodies which was at one point thought to cause the plague, it was also used widely by doctors to protect them from the infected plague patients.
Ashes, ashes: the church burned the dead when burying them became to laborious.
We all fall down: dead.

12. HARVEST OF DEATH
DEPICTION OF THE PLUBONIC PLAGUE

13. WHY? Ignorance Surrounded Cause and Cure Europeans were Frantic Blames
Alignment of Planets
Infected Clothing, Humans
God’s Wrath aimed at Sin
Jews
Cures/Remedies
Pomanders
Mixture of Molasses & Chopped Snake
Repentance
Flagellants

14. The Flagellant Brahren
Singing hymns and sobbing, the men beat themselves with scourges studded with iron spikes. Blood gushes from their many wounds, and the spikes embed themselves in the torn flesh. The ritual is performed in public twice each day.
Such exhibitions are highly influential. The establishment may focus their attacks on church corruption and their promotion of a wave of savage anti-Semitism, but the masses worship the flagellants as living martyrs. Their deeds are to be admired and their commands to be carried out.
Many Followers massacred Jews believing they had poisoned society.

15. The burning of Jews in 1349 (from a European chronicle written on the Black Death between 1349 and 1352)

16. Black Death
Carried by Ships throughout Europe
Rats infested the goods on board

19. Origins Originated in Mongolia’s Gobi desert
Moved along the Silk Road to Black Sea
Bacteria carried by fleas, lived on black rats
Major trade/commercial cities were good hosts
Sicily in 1347, England 1348, culminating in Russia 1352
Unstoppable Force
“Victims ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise."

20. Emperor, your sword won’t help you out
Her keyser euch hilft nicht das swert
Czeptir vnd crone sint hy nicht wert
Ich habe euch bey der hand genomen
Ir must an meynen reyen komen
Emperor, your sword won’t help you out
Sceptre and crown are worthless here
I’ve taken you by the hand
For you must come to my dance
At the bottom end of the Totentanz Death calls e.g. the peasant to dance and he answers:
Ich habe gehabt [vil arbeit gross]
Der sweis mir du[rch die haut floss]
Noch wolde ich ger[n dem tod empfliehen]
Zo habe ich des glu[cks nit hie]
I had to work very much and very hard
The sweat was running down my skin
I’d like to escape death nontheless
But here I won’t have any luck
Michael Wolgemut

21. Effect on Europe Civilization

22. Effects of the Black Death on Europe
1/3 of the population of Europe died.
In all, 2.5 million people died from the plague.
Art, science, and literature stopped being created.
People were only worried about their survival.

23. 25 million people died in just under five years between 1347 and 1352.
DISASTER STRIKES
Estimated population of Europe from 1000 to 1352.
million
million
million
million
million
million
25 million people died in just under five years between 1347 and 1352.

24. THE TRUE CAUSE OF THE PLAGUE
The Swiss scientist Alexandre Yersin discovered the true cause of plague.
The bubonic plague, an infectious disease, are caused by microbes that
invade the human body.
The microbes that cause the plague are a type of bacteria known as the
Yersinia pestis.
The bubonic plague, however, does not start in humans.
Instead it infects only rats and cannot be spread directly from rats to
humans.
Fleas, which live on the rats for food, abandon the rat when the rat dies.
If these fleas then find a human the, Yersinia pestis is injected into the
bloodstream.
Then the disease can spread from man to man.

25. The Rat Flea Fleas are blood sucking parasites.
They have the potential of spreading dangerous diseases to humans and other animals.

26. How it was Transmitted                                                                                                                                           
Yersinia pestis seen at 2000x magnification. This bacterium, carried and spread by fleas, is the cause of the various forms of the disease plague

27. Flea which carries the yersinia pestis

28. Bubonic plague
The bubonic plague was the most commonly seen form of the Black Death. The mortality rate was 30-75%. The symptoms were enlarged and inflamed lymph nodes (around arm pits, neck and groin).
Victims were subject to headaches, nausea, aching joints, fever of degrees, vomiting, and a general feeling of illness.
Symptoms took from 1-7 days to appear.

29. History of Plague
Justinian’s Plague ( ) killed ¼ pop. of Mediterranean
6th & 8th C. breakouts
16th, 17th, 18th C. Pandemics
Italian, London, Vienna, Marseilles, Russia
3rd Pandemic (Asian Plague) – 19th, 20th C.
~15 million dead (India, China, Russia)
Biological Weapon (Japanese, WWII)
Looked at Medieval Styles of Catapulting Infected Bodies into Castles
Released Infected Fleas in China, Manchuria
Studied Live Subject, Dissecting
What Next?

31. SYMPTOMS
~painful swellings called buboes which commonly  appeared in armpits  and groin area ~dark blisters and purple blotches appeared on skin ~fever ~severe headaches
~increasing weakness
SYMPTOMS

32. Pneumonic Plague
The pneumonic plague was the second most commonly seen form of the Black Death. The mortality rate for the pneumonic plague was 90-95% (if treated today the mortality rate would be 5-10%).
The pneumonic plague infected the lungs. Symptoms included slimy sputum tinted with blood. Sputum is saliva mixed with mucus exerted from the respiratory system.
As the disease progressed, the sputum became free flowing and bright red. Symptoms took 1-7 days to appear.

33. The septicemic plague was the most rare form of all
The septicemic plague was the most rare form of all. The mortality was close to 100% (even today there is no treatment). Symptoms were a high fever and skin turning deep shades of purple.
The black death got its name from the “deep purple, almost black discoloration." Victims usually died the same day symptoms appeared. In some cities, as many as 800 people died every day.
The Septicemic Plague