The Spread Of Death In Chicago

During the Middle Ages, medicine was limited. This was critical because in 1348-1350 the Black Death killed millions, nearly one third of the population. Physicians had no idea what was causing diseases or how to stop them ("Medicine in the Middle"). The Catholic Church told its people the illness was punishment from God for their sins (Gates 9). Some of the only procedures doctors could perform was letting blood by using leeches, and mix ‘medicines’ using herbs, spices, and resins (Rooney 106-107). Other medicine was administered by drinks, ointments, poultices, baths, and purges (Rooney 120). One hundred years later, when Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, many scholars moved to Italy, where they freely exchanged ideas. With them

Life was very busy for me in 1300’s, I travelled through many countries and continents following the trail of dead bodies. I am death. I have lived forever. I will live until no human lives no more. I will continue collecting the souls of the deceased on earth and taking them to rest in the light blue place beyond. I lived through the Black Death watching on as the world experienced the disastrous effects.

In the year 1348 the world changed forever. The Black Death, which is another name for the Bubonic Plague, laid havoc on the entire world. “The plague chases the screaming without pity and does not accept a treasure for a ransom. Its engine is far-reaching. The plague enters into the house and swears it will not leave except with all of its inhabitants…” (Al-Wardi, #29, 113). The plague did not care if the people were rich, poor, white, black, Muslim or Catholic, it would kill whomever it could. The plague brought out the worst in people because people acted selfishly, people were completely inhumane, and there was no peace.

The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in history. The disease ravaged Europe, Western Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa between 1346 and 1353 (Horrox 1994). It is difficult to understand the reality of such a devastating event, especially given the fact that science during the middle ages was severely underdeveloped. No one knew about bacteria, viruses, or other microbial agents of disease (Benedictow 2004). They had no way of protecting themselves during that time and no one was safe from the effects of the plague. Those who wrote chronicles claimed that only a tenth of the population had survived, while others claimed that half to a third of the population was left alive (Horrox 1994). In 1351, agents for Pope Clement VI predicted the number of deaths in Europe to be 23,840,000 (Gottfried 1983). Obviously, not all regions experienced the same mortality rates, but modern estimates of the death rate in England give the first outbreak a mortality rate of about forty-eight percent (Horrox 1994). That is, England lost half of its population in about a year and a half. Clearly the chroniclers ' who claimed that ninety percent of the population had died were overstating the magnitude of the plague, but this overemphasis demonstrates how terrifying the pandemic was to those who experienced it (Horrox 1994). The Black Death had huge consequences on the lives of those who were impacted directly, as well as major religious and cultural effects that came afterward.

The plague, otherwise known as “the Black Death”, brought on much turmoil and suffering for the habitants of Pistoia. Numerous ordinances were put into effect with the primary goal of limiting the spread of the plague as well as to keep the city as healthy as possible. These ordinances typically focused on confinement, i.e. no one goes to Pisa and Luca and no one from Pisa and Luca is allowed to enter Pistoia (ordinance 1), how death and burials are to be processed (ordinances 3-12), and how butchers were to handle their animals and animal carcasses (ordinances 13-19). Essentially, confinement was targeted in hopes of stopping the spread of the infection while keeping the city isolated. Secondly, how the bodies of plague victims and their

the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were still alive were gravely ill. They were

From 1347 to 1352 a string of the bubonic plague lay waste to western Europe, killing millions. In Italy, nearly a third of the population died; in England, half. The plague was a looming presence, always in the back of people’s minds. The symptoms of the Black Death caused great strife for westerners. Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer and poet, described the symptoms he saw during the first outbreak of the plague: “Not such were they as in the East, where an issue of blood from the nose was a manifest sign of inevitable death; but in men a women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumors in the groin or the armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg, some more, some less, which the common folk called gavoccioli.” Both Italy and England desperately searched for answers, claiming that the Black Death was the cause of a higher force, but realising that the squalor of their countries also played a part in spreading the illness. Although Italy and England both had a common explanation for the cause of the plague and they both implemented better public health standards, they adopted different public health practices after the plague.

According to Pioneers West website, it states that the diseases proved to be the biggest killer of emigrants in the West. Smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, "mountain fever," and a host of other sicknesses frequently struck down settlers, who had little or no medical expertise. Imagine having to travel with someone who has contracted the disease, and you can’t help the person out because there is no medicine that could treat him or her. The only option is to wait patiently until they have passed away and find somewhere to bury them. The people who died on the road were put into holes. When they dug up the graves they would mark the graves, some would even try to camouflage the graves to keep animals and even people

Illnesses, epidemics, and pandemics derive from the living conditions and the social stratification of a society. Poverty tends to increase an individual’s possibility of getting sick due to deficient housing conditions, malnutrition, pressure, etc. Research supports that impoverished individuals experience higher death rates due to the insufficient medical care and nutritious food available to them. “An estimated 25 million Americans do not have enough money to feed themselves adequately and, as a result, suffer from serious nutritional deficiencies that can lead to illness and death” (Tischler 383). In effect, this contributes to the overall high mortality rates among groups of social classes. Those that live in poverty experience high levels

The Progressive Era began in the year 1890 through 1920; During this time many things in the country were evolving such as Social Justice, Government Efficiency, Suffrage Movements, Prohibition, and the list continues. Jane Adams being a fighter and standing up for what she believed in was described as being “bold as a lion” (20 yr) growing up and, through her adult years when initiating change in the way the government and society assist with the impoverished. Adams established the Hull House with Ellen Gates Star “on the 18th of September, 1889”(20 yr.). This started the movement that is know as the Settlement House Movement. “The purpose of the Hull House as stated in its character was “to provide a center for a higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago”(Addams, 1910, p. 89)”(Jane addams and social reform a role model for the 1990s). Although Jane Adams was mainly known for her work in the Hull House and being the 'mother of social work ', she also caused many reforms that affected the entity of the way the United States went about reforming.

Sickness times a thousand equals the Black Death. In our world, many disasters have occurred, causing terrible damage emotionally, physically, and mentally. However, I believe that the Black Death is the worst disaster to have occurred throughout our world’s history. It all started in 1348, when trading ships from different countries around Europe settled at the port of Messina, Sicily. Once the ship dropped their anchor many of their sailors were found dead, and the few surviving carried with them the deadly disease so dangerous that it would quickly lead to death. Scientists researched and concluded that the disease started from Central Asia (Mongolia), when fleas on rats boarded the many ships from Europe. The fleas got on the sailors’ skin and started killing them instantly. However, many thought that the disease had originated from the Far East and was spread along many major trade routes. When the people of Sicily finally started finding out what was causing the death, they closed their port and trading system with other countries. (Wikipedia) The ships were forced to anchor somewhere else in other countries, which allowed the disease to spread even more quickly. I believe that the Black Plague was a disastrous event that affected all aspects and the future of European and Central Asian society, their political and economic environment, and their future advancement to medicine.

Of the 22,200 people killed during the war, it is estimated that ¾ died of something other than a bullet would (MILITARY). Illnesses like dysentery, typhoid or “lake” fever, pneumonia, malaria, measles and smallpox were all present in the camps of soldiers (MILITARY). People were dying so fast in fact, that the hospital tents would be forced to hold dead bodies as many camps were facing coffin shortages (Newfield). The amount of people packed together in such a small space and the fact that the hospitals, the place they sent sick and wounded, were storing bodies, both added to the problem of spreading disease. Observers of this horror, like Capt.

First the Black Death also known as plague was an extremely contagious and deadly disease that virtually wiped out the entire nation of Europe. The Black Death originated in China and quickly spread to Europe. Due to traders and travelers this disease easily spread on. The people with the disease would give it to whoever was with them no matter who they are. The Black Death symptoms were very obvious. It started with a lump called a tumor under the armpit, but as time moved on so did the tumors. The tumors came all over your body in black and purple lumps and in about three days you would be dead.There was no medicine that could help you with this disease.

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.

The American Plague, Molly Caldwell Crosby’s nonfiction novel, accounts the journey of yellow fever from an African virus to the remarkably deadly epidemic that shaped American history in an often overlooked way. Crosby’s novel aims to give insight to the historical impact of yellow fever in the Americas, especially the United States. The novel guides through the history of the titular “American Plague”, yellow fever, in three main parts: its height epidemic in the United States, specifically in Memphis, the Commission to find the cause and vaccine for it, in Cuba, and the effects and presence the epidemic has in the present.