![]() ![]() Their bite transmits the plague from infected rat to man. When this happens, the rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis, which normally feeds on rodent hosts, turns to people instead. Occasionally, however, the disease becomes endemic, killing off large numbers of rats. Named for Alexander Yersin, the nineteenth-century scientist who first isolated it, the bacillus is found naturally in rodent populations, among which a small number of cases at any given time is common. Plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, is usually a disease of rats, not of man. ![]() This scientific observation, in fact, is one reason that the epidemic is often cited as a turning point from the medieval era to the Renaissance. Its rapid spread gave rise to the medical theory of contagion. In the long term, the Black Death may have increased economic opportunities and promoted a higher standard of living for those who survived. Its impact was enormous, not only because of the tremendous loss of life, but because of the pessimism, fear, suspicion, and even persecution of Jews (who were blamed for the disease) that followed. During these years, plague affected the lives of all Europeans, and killed nearly half of them. ![]() The pandemic of bubonic plague that swept across Europe between 13 is known today as the Black Death, though contemporaries called it the "Great Pestilence," and the disease itself was generally known as peste. ![]()
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