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History

All the citizens did little else except to carry dead bodies to be buried [...] At every church they dug deep pits down to the water-table; and thus those who were poor who died during the night were bundled up quickly and thrown into the pit. In the morning when a large number of bodies were found in the pit, they took some earth and shovelled it down on top of them; and later others were placed on top of them and then another layer of earth, just as one makes lasagne with layers of pasta and cheese. -Florentine chronicler 

 

... in many places in Siena great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead [...] And there were also those who were so sparsely covered with earth that the dogs dragged them forth and devoured many bodies throughout the city. -Agnolo di Tura ‘the Fat’

The Black Death was a terrible plague that ravished throughout Europe and spread to Northern Africa, Eurasia, and the Middle East. It was greatest natural disaster in European history as it brought great distress among millions.  Loss of life was catastrophic and depopulation was rapid as Europe loss between 25%- 50% of its population. The Black Death was “a combination of bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemia”. However the cause of these diseases resulted in the Y.pestis bacteria. Fleas that lived on black rats carried this bacteria. Whenever a rat or secondary host was unable to provide an environment for the fleas, the fleas would leech on to a human being. Humans were “not a preferred host for Y.Pestis, but rather the victims” (Gottfried, 7) of it. The Y. Pestis bacteria can bring about three diseases: bubonic, pneumonic, and seticaemic. The Bubonic Plague was the most common. It was transmitted through insert bites. “The initial symptom” of bubonic was “a blackish, often gangrenous pustile at the point of the bite, is followed by an enlargement of lymph nodes in the armpits, groin, or neck, depending on the place of the flea bite.” (Gottfried, 8). Pneumonic plague was transmitted directly from the interaction of people. This plague causes a massive drop in body temperature and a severe cough. It had a death rate of 95% to 100%. The septicaemic plague is very rare and transmitted through the human fleas. “A rash forms within hours and death occurs within a day, before the buboes even have time to form” (Gottfried, 8).

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