The_Bubonic_Plague

The Bubonic Plague THE BLACK DEATH During the fourteenth century a horrible plague spread across Asia, Europe, and Great Britain. This plague is referred to as the black death. Many people are not quite sure why the disease was given the name. The most popular reason why it might be called the black death is because it left purplish, blackish blotches on the bodies of the sick. 'But if the name of the epidemic had been derived primarily from the appearance of its victims, one would have expected it to have been used at the time. Of this there is no evidence.'(Zeiger 17). Step by step, I am going to take you on the journey the black death took, from where it started, what it did, and when it ended. Bacillus yersinia pestis is the bacteria that lived in the blood streams of medieval rats and their fleas. Some time in the late 1340's the bacteria made its way from rats to warm blooded mammals like humans. Due to earthquakes and other environmental occurrences, medieval rats were forced to cross the paths of humans. They first got on board of ships at ports, then headed to cities where they spread the disease. It death, black, plague, rats, disease, way, spread, people, out, humans, form, body, been, bacteria, yersinia, victims, tried, time, step, started, ships, population, pestis, one, name, medieval, made, located, italy, florence, fleas, estimated, epidemic, england, died, called