When infected, the body experiences high temperatures and painful swelling of the lymph nodes called buboes. Eventually, the lymph nodes of the neck, groin, and armpit areas swell and turn black; hence the name “Black Death” (Benedictow). The lymph nodes are located in various parts of our body, some which can be felt underneath the skin, and “they hold special cells that destroy bacteria and viruses that get into our body.” An infected lymph node may swell up to the size of an apple or an egg, and discharge dark purple blood (Ceffrey). The Black Death arose when rodents, more commonly black rats, become infected. The black rats like to live close to humans because of how much food and shelter they get from humans, the only quality which make them incredibly dangerous to beings. Although, the majority think that the rats bring this disease, they don’t. The fleas on the rats were the ones that first infect the rats with the bacterium Yersinia Pestis. The bacterium circulates among areas where rodents live in great numbers known as “plague focus” or “plague reservoir” (Gale). Before finding new human hosts for the fleas to infect, they take ten to fourteen days to kill off and contaminate most of the rat colony. After three days of fasting, hungry rat fleas turn on humans. From the bite site, “the contagion drains to a lymph node that consequently swells to …show more content…
During the Dark Ages, the doctors, or so called “Plague doctors”, were called on for during miserable times hoping the patient would get the best out of the visit. The Plague doctors wore a long black robe up to their knees which folded on top of their black boots. They also wore a large bird like mask, the mask had glass openings for the eyes and a curved beak shaped nose which was filled with herbs to filter out the bad air (Ceffrey). Little did they know plague doctors many times didn’t have any medical training and were referred to as “empirics” – and even in one case he was just a fruit-seller beforehand (The Bubonic Plague). The treatments at the time were ridiculous and did not soothe the infectant in anyway, hence “bleeding, for example, remained a popular cure for plague victims, though it was no more effective for the Black Death than it was for any other malady,” while other doctors suggested “poking open the swellings on the plague sufferers’ bodies to let out the pus” (Currie). In the interim of the Medieval Times while medical knowledge was still egregious, Plague doctors had no affirmative explanation that could account for the Black Death. Nor were they of the time trained to “think critically about disease; rather they relied on writings of medical practitioners from the classical era, whether those