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• Crowd diseases: – Parasites, e.g. schistosomiasis– Contagious diseases, e.g. measles
• Epidemics
• Domesticated animals
Types of Plague - 2
• Primary bacteraemic (septicaemic)
• Secondary bacteraemic
• Primary pneumonic• Secondary pneumonic
– Transmitted by air-borne droplets
– Not too infectious
The Black Death
• Origins in Central Asia, ca. 1331-1332
• Slow rate of spread
• Importance of Mongol Empire
• Spreads from Tatars to Genoese colony of Caffa
• From there to Europe in September 1347
How Many People Died?
Death Rates of English Parish Priests
Diocese
York Lichfield
Bath/W
ells
Ely E
xeterWinchesterNorw
ich
Pe
rcen
tag
e
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Burials at Givry, 1334-1348
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
1335
1337
1339
1341
1343
1345
1347
Year
Bur
ials
How Many People Died?: Conclusion
• Ca. one-half of population dies
• Population declines until ca. 1425, when stabilizes at one-third level of that of 1300
• Remains at this low level until ca. 1475
• Returns to level of 1300 around 1600
But Was It Plague?
• Two types of rat needed
• Rattus norvegicus (brown rat) did not reach England until 1700s
But was it plague?
• Plague a disease of open steppes, and/or warm countries, but
• Spreads to Iceland and Greenland
Or a Viral Hemorrhagic Fever?
• Characterized by bleeding and vomiting of blood
• Generalized necrosis• Affected domestic
animals• Spread from human to
human
Consequences
• Western Europe: “Golden Age” of the Peasantry– Rents decline– Wages rise– Serfdom disappears in W. Europe