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Black Death - Was it the Bubonic Plague?
By Joy J. Fine
For centuries the assumption has been that the Black Death that killed so many in Medieval times was the bubonic plague. Yet, in the last decade researchers have questioned this assumption after having gathered evidence that the disease was not what it was originally thought to be. Anthropologists have been researching this for some time and come to the conclusion that although the symptoms were similar there may be other answers to what killed half the population of Europe in the middle thirteen hundreds.
Although it seemed clear from the symptoms, the high fevers, coughing or vomiting of blood, bad breath, and horrible body odor that this was the bubonic plague, the swollen lymph glands, bruising and skin hemorrhaging are also signs of other diseases. This is where the questions began. It was with church records that they continued. Though the records were not often clear or well kept there was enough information there to question the high mortality rate and the speed at which this plague was killing those who became infected. It seemed to be too fast for a disease that was spread by flea covered rats. That in itself brought up another question about the Black Death.
In modern times the bubonic plague has had a different pattern and this in itself adds to the questions. Normally the pattern includes the dying off of a large portion of the rat population as the epidemic crosses over to the human population. This is one observation that is absent from the reports of the events of the time. After searching records the researchers found there to be no reports that mention dead rats lying in the streets of European cities. This in itself adds to the mystery. As does the fact that records of the deaths show that fifty percent of the deaths occurred in the winter when the fleas would be dormant on the rats and so not be spreading any disease.
This is a vital piece of information in the transmission of the Middle Ages Black Death of the middle thirteen hundreds since it leaves few alternatives in the way the disease must of spread. The feeling now is that it must have been transmitted from person to person not unlike the way the flu or the common cold is spread. This is also shown in the way the disease travelled from village to village. It travelled along roadways, and down rivers just like it would if it spread from person to person It did not suffer a slowing down as it would based on how rats travel and how their travelling would be limited by distance and water.
Black Death Causes
Researchers have not as of yet identified what Black Death causes were. It may have been an ancestor of what we know as the bubonic plague or it may have been a completely different disease. Over the centuries many unknown, but devastating, outbreaks of disease have been called bubonic plague for lack of a better answer. Studies have confirmed actual cases of the modern version of the plague back only as far as the late seventeen hundreds. So, the question remains; what was the Black Death caused by?
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