Plague

Summary: The blacked death reached the shores of Italy in 1348. This caused many deaths across Europe. The epidemic lasted three years killing anywhere between 25% - 50% of Europe’s population. There were three types of the Black Death; bubonic variant (most common), pneumatic plague, and the septicemic plague. The bubonic plague derives its name from the swellings and buboes that appeared all over the victim’s body. It was spread through fleas that attached themselves to rats then to humans. Pneumatic plague attacked the respiratory system and was spread by merely breathing in the exhaled air of the victim. Septicemic plague attacked the blood system. Having no defense against the Black Death men, women, and children were devastated by the affects. The signs of death were different depending on location. In the east a gush of blood from the nose was a sign of inevitable death. Everywhere else tumors over the body meant death. There was no medicine ever found to treat the plague. Such was the multitude of corpses brought to the churches every day and almost every hour that there was not enough consecrated ground to give them burial, especially since they wanted to bury each person in the family grave, according to the old custom. Although the cemeteries were full they were forced to dig huge trenches, where they buried the bodies by hundreds. Here they stowed them away like bales in the hold of a ship and covered them with a little earth, until the whole trench was full.