Disease In The 19th Century Essay

The life-span of many victims that were infected was about twenty-four hours and if this disease was not treated they usually died. Certain anti-bodies can be used to help the disease go away but this did not usually work. Usually people diagnosed with the plague must be isolated so that others can’t get infected and potentially cause more deaths. Without treatment, about fifty percent of people with the Black Death die. Treatment reduces the death ratio by fifty percent (Dugale). Some remedies of this disease are the vinegar and water treatment, which was that the person be put to bed and washed with vinegar and rose water. Another form of treatment was to lance the buboes, which were the large swollen lymph nodes that cause this disease, and in doing this the swellings associated should be cut open to let disease leave body, and certain stuff be put on the flesh wound. The last form of treatment was to watch the victims diet and what foods they ate because some foods enhance the disease (Cures For the Black Death). States and cities tried frantically to prevent this disease from spreading by preventing new travelers from coming in because they might carry the disease (Merriman

The victims of this plague suffered from delusions, nightmares, fevers and swellings in the groin, armpits and behind their ears. Some of the sufferers went into comas while others reported being highly delusional. At the time period this was going on there wasn't any medicine that they have tried to cure this plague. This plague ended up being contained in 750 CE it took 208 years for this plague to pass because they couldn't find a cure for it because they didn't have a strong medical field this plague spread exponentially. They couldn't find a way to actually cure this disease because it was combined with the Black Death so they were killing all their skilled doctors before they could even begin to start on a cure for this disease. One historian by the name of Procopius has reported that 10,000 people per day have been

There were also many symptoms that seemed non-life threatening, but would soon be. These symptoms were “swelling in the neck and armpit, dark patches, and by death, people would start to cough up blood” (Causes 2). Who ever suffered with these symptoms could have known it was the Black Plague, or could have thought it was the common flu, just worse. Treatment was the cause of the death. This is because, “the Black Plague had no treatment, so if someone got infected, there would be no chance for that person, so they would die 4-5 days later” (Gilbin 7). Due to there being no medical treatment, more and more people would die. There were some things that people believed would help them. There were, “many treatments that the people thought would do good for them. First, they would drain the puss filled blisters. Also, they would drink wine and become lighthearted, to make them not feel as much pain. Finally an outrageous treatment was that the people would tie I live chicken to themselves, to try to get rid of the disease” (Clark 5). These treatments were bound to work, since people believed in it, but they would never work, and when they got sick, they would still die within 4-5 days. These types of symptoms and treatments would either kill or just make someone suffer to

The Changes In Medicine In The Nineteenth Century The nineteenth century was one of the most important eras in the history of medicine as many new cures and technologies were discovered. At the beginning, many poor people still lived in houses without proper sanitation, worked in dangerous factories and drank water from polluted rivers. By the end of the century, social conditions had improved, medicine was more complex, treatments were more widely offered and technology was more advanced along with many other improvements. But why did these changes occur?

The general health and wellbeing of the Middle Ages was very poor, mostly as a result of the Black Death. The Black Death, also commonly known as the Black Plague or the Plague, was a widespread disease that killed an estimated 17 to 30 million people between the years of 1346 through 1353. It is widely thought to have originated in Central Asia and eventually made its way to Europe. The symptoms of the Plague appeared in the first few days of infection. At first it starts with flu-like symptoms, such as headache, a fever, chills, nausea, and vomiting. Also, the victim may experience back pain,muscle soreness, and sensitivity to light. After the second or third day, buboes appear. Buboes are swollen lymph nodes which look similar to a large

When the plague first infected a person, it began with swellings in the groin and armpit (Document 2). Some of the swellings could be the size of an apple or an egg (ibid.)! After the first swellings appeared, the whole body would soon be covered in dark and bluish grey spots (ibid.). Soon after these spots covered the body, death would be upon the infected person within days (ibid.). Many doctors tried to cure people of these symptoms, but many failed (ibid.) This was because of the nature of the illness or the ignorance of the doctors’ (ibid.). The doctors didn’t know enough about the disease to be able to effectively treat their patients’

The first and foremost action taken was praying, as people originally believed that the Plague was a punishment from God, so they relied heavily on him saving them. But as the death numbers grew, people began to realize that the church could not explain the Plague, or help them survive. People began to try and experiment, with bazaar remedies. Doctors encouraged patients to carry sweet smelling posies, suffice the nursery rhyme, ‘Ring a Ring a rosy’, a rhyme about the Black Plague. Some people would eat rotten treacle, others would live in sewers, believing that the Plague was only in the air. Eating crushed emeralds, was an expensive yet popular remedy. But worst of all remedies, were the urine bath and the poo paste. These particular remedies involved bathing in human urine, and rubbing a poo paste into the infected buboes. It just goes to show how desperate people were during these times, although unfortunately none of these remedies worked, and symptoms continued to show. For the bubonic Plague, this included fever, weakness, shocks and chills. The main symptom, buboes, often grew around the armpits or

The first major European outbreak of the plague occurred 1347 in Italy. The plague is a bacterium carried by fleas. It likely originated in Asia, but shipboard rats carried diseased fleas to Europe where the densely populated and unsanitary conditions made it catastrophic. The most common bubonic plague results in dark colored buboes (swollen lymph glands in the armpits and groin). These black or dark spots led to the name Black Death because most people who had the swollen dark spots died. The medicine available to people during this time was of no affect. In fact in his popular book, In The Wake of The

In the early 1330s, an outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in Europe. The bubonic plague mainly affected rodents, but fleas were also able to transmit the disease to people. Once people were infected, they quickly infected others, which meant the disease spread very rapidly among the population. The plague caused fever and a painful swelling of the lymph glands called buboes. The disease also caused spots on the skin that started out red and eventually turned black, which is where “The Black Death” got its name. (The Black Death: Bubonic Plague) During the 14th century, there seemed to be no rational explanation for what was happening. No one knew exactly how the Black Death was transmitted from one patient to another and no one knew

(where and when specifically the spread happened) People who were infected got fever, black spots on their skin as well as painful swelling of their lymph nodes. As lymph nodes are known as bubo, the disease was later identified to be probably bubonic plague. People who caught the disease often died within days and thus the disease killed a huge proportion of the population. The “Black Death” usually

The pandemic known to history as the Black Death was one of the world’s worst natural disasters in history. It was a critical time for many as the plague hit Europe and “devastated the Western world from 1347 to 1351, killing 25%-50% of Europe’s population and causing or accelerating marked political, economic, social, and cultural changes.” The plague made an unforgettable impact on the history of the West. It is believed to have originated somewhere in the steppes of central Asia in the 1330s and then spread westwards along the caravan routes. It spread over Europe like a wildfire and left a devastating mark wherever it passed. In its first few weeks in Europe, it killed between 100 and 200 people per day. Furthermore, as the weather became colder, the plague worsened, escalating the mortality rate to as high as 750 deaths per day. By the spring of 1348, the death toll may have reached 1000 a day. One of the main reasons the plague spread so quickly and had such a devastating effect on Europe was ultimately due to the lack of medical knowledge during the medieval time period.

How did Tuberculosis impact the U.S in the 19th century? While people were worried about the Spanish Flu, and other illnesses in the 1900’s, bacteria was building up in people's lungs. If their immune system couldn’t get rid of the bacteria, it began to multiply and caused Tuberculosis. In the U.S one out of every seven people got Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis impacted the U.S in the 19th century dramatically.

Due the population pressure, diseases such as tuberculosis, smallpox, typhus etc. The population become vulnerable to the outbreaks since they were poor living in unsanitary housing and unable to get medical assistance. In 1848 the Public Health Act formed a health board to investigate the sanitation conditions and they were to give the recommendations to the general board. (Robinson)

The great plague came in three different forms. The types of illness differed in symptoms, spread and sufferings. The bubonic plague was the diseases most common form. It was named this due to swelling called “buboes” of the victim’s lymph nodes. “These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple” (The Black Death). The longest expectancy with this form of illness didn’t often exceed one week. The second variation of plague was known as the “pneumatic

The Middle Ages were tough times when it came to disease and medicine. There were numerous types of sickness and disease that flooded Europe during the Middle Ages. Not helping the situation, the medicinal knowledge of the people of Europe of the time was not up to par. Some of the diseases and illness that were running rampant during these times were pneumonia, leprosy, and the plague. The middle ages were a time of great suffering and death because of the abundant disease and lack of knowledge of the spread and treatments.