The Black Death

Question 1

What were the symptoms of the Black Death (The Bubonic Plague)?

Answer 1

1. Began with a fever
2. Swellings (buboes) would appear in armpits and groins
3. Blisters all over the body
4. High fever causing unconsciousness and death
5. Pneumonic plague often came with the Black Death, which caused patients to cough up blood and struggle to breathe.

Question 2

When did the Black Death occur?

Answer 2

1348

Question 3

What was the actual cause of the Black Death?

Answer 3

Fleas that were carried by rats, mice, cats and dogs

Question 4

What was believed to be the cause of the Black Death?

Answer 4

1. Evil humours
2. “seeds of terrible pestilence”
3. Miasma
4. Punishment from God
5. Jews poisoning wells and springs
6. Unlucky alignment of the planets

Question 5

What were the suggested treatments for the Black Death?

Answer 5

1. Burning barrels of tar to drive away bad air
2. Smelling even worse smells
3. Smelling nice smells
4. Flagellation- people would walk through towns beating themselves to show God how sorry they were
5. Go to Church and pray regularly
6. In some parts of Europe, Jews were massacred
7. Bleeding or purging
8. No solution for the unlucky alignment of the planets
9. Herbal remedies
10. Strapping toads, pigeons and chickens to the buboes

Question 6

What were the believed preventions for the Black Death?

Answer 6

1. Prayer
2. Burying the dead (actually worked)
3. Flagellation
4. Carrying charms
5. Quarantine (actually worked)
6. Burning barrels of tar
7. Smelling worse or better smells

Question 7

Why was quarantine an effective method to prevent the spread or the contraction of the Black Death

Answer 7

It stopped the spread of the disease and the fleas that the rats were carrying.

Question 8

Why was burying the dead an effective way to prevent the Black Death?

Answer 8

It stopped the rats, cats and dogs feeding off the dead bodies. The lack of food meant there would be less animals in the streets. Therefore, there would be less fleas that caused the disease circulating the streets and the towns. The spread of disease would slow and eventually stop.

Question 9

What were hospitals like in the Middle Ages?

Answer 9

1350: run by monks and nuns/ mainly focused on praying for souls of patients/ no trained medical staff present so they did not admit infectious or incurable patients
1350-1750: dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1500s had huge impact on how hospitals were run/ local charities, people and town councils paid for hospitals to be opened
By 1750: Hospitals run by trained physicians and nurses who had no medical training/ hospitals in big cities admitted infectious patients/ herbal remedies and minor surgeries were commonplace/ prayer was still heavily featured.