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Causes And Effects Of The Black Death

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The Black Death
Imagine, swollen painful red lymph nodes on the neck, legs, and armpits, but the red did not last long and before the victim knew it the swollen glands were turning black and then busting open causing lesions. Then comes the fever, vomiting, muscle pains and bleeding of the lungs. Yet people had no clue why this is happening or what caused it. The Black Death swept through Europe claiming lives left and right.
It took physicians of the middle ages many years to figure out what was actually causing this horrific plague. At the time there was no cure, but the doctors would use many herbs to relieve the victims of pain. “Headaches were relieved by rose, lavender, sage and bay. Sickness or nausea was treated with wormwood, mint, and balm. Lung problems were treated with liquorice and comfrey”(Black Death). Since, the doctors could not pinpoint the disease’s origin it was often believed that it was “transmitted through a physical contact, via clothes and bed linen” (Sudakov). The physicians often wore attire, which scared a person more than the disease, that contained a beak like mask, a leather hat and, a thick coat, the purpose of “the bird beak and the leather hat - was supposed to make a person look like an Egyptian divinity to scare off the disease. The beak, however, was actually a protective device to save the doctor from the unbearable infected stench. The beak was filled with medical herbs to ease the breathing process. The mask had two vent holes and

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