Bizarre Cures
They whipped themselves until it really hurt, so God knew they were sorry, the king ordered all the streets and cities to be cleaned and all the animal dung as well! They lit fires and spread perfumes in the air so the bad smells would go away. They made a candle as tall as a man. Or even big enough to encircle a village, and burned it all night and day.
The Rats carried the disease and the rats roamed around the streets spreading it about. And they climbed aboard on ships and other counties go it too. But the rats actually died too! Because they only had the disease because of the fleas. The rats died like because they had the disease as well.
Symptoms
The plague produces several different symptoms in its victims. Bubonic, the most common form of the plague, produces fist-sized swellings, called bulboes, at the site of flea bites - usually in the groin, armpits, or neck. The swellings are intensely painful, and the victims die in 2-6 days. The buboes are red at first, but later turn a dark purple, or black. This black colouring gives the "Black Death" its name. Pneumonic plague occurs when the infection enters the lungs, causing the victim to vomit blood. Infected pneumonic people can spread the disease through the air by coughing, sneezing, or just breathing! In Septicemic plague the bacteria enters the person's bloodstream, causing death within a day.
The speed with which the disease could kill was terrifying to inhabitants of the medieval world. The Italian author Boccaccio claimed that the plague victims "ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise."
Black Death in England
The summer of 1348 was abnormally wet. Grain lay rotting in the fields due to the nearly constant rains. With the harvest so adversely affected it seemed certain that there would be food shortages. But a far worse enemy was set to appear.
It isn't clear exactly when or where the Black Death reached England. Some reports at the time pointed to Bristol, others to Dorset. The disease may have appeared as early as late June or as late as August 4. We do know that in mid-summer the Channel Islands were reeling under an outbreak of the plague. From this simple beginning the disease spread throughout England with dizzying speed and fatal consequences.
