The plague presented itself in three
interrelated forms. The bubonic variant (the most common) derives its name from
the swellings or buboes that appeared on a victim's neck, armpits or groin.
These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple.
Although some survived
the painful ordeal, the manifestation of these
lesions usually signaled the victim had a life expectancy of up to a week.
Infected fleas that attached themselves to rats and then to humans spread this
bubonic type of the plague. A second variation - pneumonic plague - attacked the
respiratory system and was spread by merely breathing the exhaled air of a
victim. It was much more virulent than its bubonic cousin - life expectancy was
measured in one or two days. Finally, the septicemic version of the disease
attacked the blood system
No doctor's advice, no medicine could
overcome or alleviate this disease, An enormous number of ignorant men and women
set up as doctors in addition to those who were trained. Either the disease was
such that no treatment was possible or the doctors were so ignorant that they
did not know what caused it, and consequently could not administer the proper
remedy. In any case very few recovered; most people died within about three days
of the appearance of the tumours described above, most of them without any fever
or other symptoms
During the period of the Black Death
and the Great Plague of London, plague doctors visited victims of the
plague.
A plague doctor's duties were often
limited to visiting victims to verify whether they had been afflicted or not.
Most urban plague doctors were essentially volunteers, since the real doctors
would have fled to the countryside, knowing they could do nothing for those
affected
What I
am about to say is incredible to hear, and if I and others had not witnessed it
with our own eyes, I should not dare believe it (let alone write about it), no
matter how trustworthy a person I might have heard it from
This
pestilence was so powerful that it was communicated to the healthy by contact
with the sick, the way a fire close to dry or oily things will set them aflame.
And the evil of the plague went even further: not only did talking to or being
around the sick bring infection and a common death, but also touching the
clothes of the sick or anything touched or used by them seemed to communicate
this very disease in the person involved.
It
swallowed up many of the good things of civilization and wiped them
out...Civilization decreased with the decrease of mankind. Cities and buildings
were laid waste. Roads and way signs were obliterated, settlements and mansions
became empty, dynasties and tribes grew weak. The entire inhabited world
changed...It was as if the voice of existence in the world had called out for
oblivion and restriction, and the world responded to its call.
As the
graveyards did not suffice, fields were chosen for the burial of the dead...A
countless number of common people and a host of monks and nuns and clerics as
well, known to God alone, passed away
Hysterical people,
of course, do not think clearly. Jews were getting sick less frequently because
they lived apart from the rest of the population. But, as Boccaccio points out
in the Decameron's Introduction, other people were living apart too. And they
were still getting sick. Why not the Jews?
On Valentine's Day, 1349,
about 2,000 Jews were massacred in Strasbourg. (Six hundred years later, Jews
were killed in Strasbourg again - this time by the Nazis.) The town council had
resisted arresting them. What proof did anyone have of Jewish "evil" doings? But
the town council was "deposed," on February 9-10, clearing the way for massive
arrests on Friday the 13th.
On
Saturday - that was St. Valentine's Day - they burnt the Jews on a wooden
platform in their cemetery.
Nostradamus was most famous Plague Doctor during
Black Death years
Michel de Nostredame was probably the most
renowned Plague Doctor – he is widely known as Nostradamus. He recommended his
patients to drink only boiled water, to sleep in clean beds and to leave
infected towns as soon as it was possible.
Nostradamus can indisputably be
said to have been ahead of his time, at least in terms of medical practice. His
treatment of the Black Death involved removal of the infected corpses, fresh air
and unpolluted water for the healthy, a herbal preparation rich in Vitamin C,
and (in contravention of contemporary medical practise) not bleeding his
patients.
Nostradamus was successful in
lessening the impact of the Black Death in the capital of Provence, Aix. The
grateful citizens gave him a stipend for life.
Nostradamus is said to have predicted his own
death. When his assistant wished him goodnight on July 1, 1566, Nostradamus
reputedly pronounced, "You will not find me alive at sunrise." He was found dead
on July 2, 1566.
Nostradamus was interred standing upright in the
Church of the Cordeliers of Salon. However, his story does not end
there
The man who opens the tomb when it is found
And who does not close
it immediately,
Evil will come to him
That no one will be able to
prove.
Reputedly, the soldiers who desecrated his tomb for the final time
were ambushed on their way back to base and killed to the last man.
"Mr. Robson was one of my strongest
witnesses in Michael Jackson's criminal trial," Mesereau said. "I
called him to the stand at the beginning of the defense case and he was adamant
that he had never been improperly touched or molested. This
makes no sense."
