![]() Turning Away Ships: Regulations to Control the Spread of Disease But it was also the herald for waves of lesser plague outbreaks that appeared regularly until well into the 1700s. For the Black Death should not be seen in isolation. But amid the chaos, the pandemic prompted more useful responses – early public health measures to be expanded and then refined in the coming decades. Nor did carrying sweet-smelling flowers and herbs or ornate pomanders to purify the air. Strapping live chickens around plague buboes or drinking potions laced with mercury, arsenic or ground horn from the mythical unicorn did not help. Less disturbing, if equally useless, were the numerous plague ‘cures’. A Public Health Response to the Black Death In mainland Europe outsiders and religious minorities – especially Jews – were subject to violent and vicious abuse. But violence could also be directed outwards. They travelled from town to town, ritually flagellating themselves in public acts of repentance to a God who was clearly very angry. Others, turning to religion for protection, formed themselves into wandering groups of penitents. Indeed, under Islamic doctrine, plague – being the will of God – was to be endured and fleeing was forbidden. With no accurate knowledge about the disease and the way it was spread, what could be done in the face of such horror? While many followed Hippocratic advice and fled, others waited. How People Dealt with the plague: the Use of Religion Besides death, the disease brought fear, panic and very often a complete breakdown of society. Europe may have lost a third of its people, China perhaps half. Present in bubonic, pneumonic and septicaemic forms, the Black Death had killed millions by the time it finally declined. It erupted out of central Asia to create a pandemic greater even than the Plague of Justinian 800 years earlier. The International Effects of Black Deathĭeath and disease were familiar features of life in the Middle Ages, but previous epidemics were dwarfed by the arrival of the Black Death. When it came to plague, they offered similar guidance, rendered in Latin as ‘Cito, Longe, Tarde,’ which translates as ‘Leave quickly, go far away and come back slowly.’ When the Black Death swept over much of Asia, Europe and parts of Africa in the mid-1300s, such advice was about as good as it got. Hippocrates and Galen are colossal figures in the history of medicine, renowned for their wise and innovative advice on medical matters. With no accurate knowledge about the disease and the way it was spread, what could be done in the face of such horror? ![]() 1562 it was inspired by the waves of the Black Death plaguing the 14th century. The Triumph of Death is a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted c.
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