History 2812E Lecture 5: Lecture 5: The Black Death
13 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
1347 1352, was the second pandemic. Black death term first used 16th century, common usage in 19th century. 14th century referred to it as great plague" or great pestilence" or great sickness". Plague as pandemic occurs to several continents. Procopius plague of justinian: clear he actually lived through it, gives number, details (numbers always questionable) 3 forms of plague bubonic (most common), pneumonic (less common), septicemic (rare) Yersinia pestis bacteria that caused the plague. Flea from black rat transferring to humans (flea regurgitates bacteria to rat which then dies causing it to seek a new host) Bacteria pools in lymph nodes, produces buboes (swellings) that give bubonic plague its name. Pneumonic plague kills in 2-3 days and is 100% mortality rate. Between 10% - 40% of the infected survived. Disease travels with armies and trade routes. Origin somewhere in the east, brought with mongolian army. Cyclical, no city or region suffered from it for the whole 7 years.
