Europe did not have the best of luck when it came to good health in the 19th century and it was mainly due to poor hygiene; some of the deadliest diseases were bubonic plague, scarlet fever, typhus, influenza, and cholera. Each of these known diseases killed thousands of innocent people who believed that they were doing what needed to be done to protect themselves of any one of these diseases; fortunately, yet unfortunately (depending on whose side you took during wars), disease was used as a partially successful weapon. These diseases also helped improve hygienic standards of modern day, improve medical research and medical technology we have in use to this day. Even though disease is dispiriting, it can create exceptional opportunity …show more content…
This plague has many nicknames, such as, “black death, black plague, the blue sickness, and the great mortality,” and those nicknames came mainly from the visual effects of this disease. The physical side effects are, “painful and enlarged or swollen lymph nodes (an enlarged lymph node due to plague is called a bubo), chills, headache, fever, and weakness,” described by Dr. Melissa Conrad Stöppler. The symptoms occur within 2 days to a week of being affected and caused a 60% population decrease in Europe due to inaccurate treatment methods. Treatments were reasonably ill-advised and unorthodox; one highly unorthodox treatment is when people would live in sewers because they thought that the stench of the sewer would protect them from this airborne virus, however, it failed completely. A few other methods that were attempted, but ended in ultimate failure, was aromatherapy, asking God for forgiveness, eating rotten treacle, rubbing wounds with live chicken, cutting open their skin to release “toxic” blood, bathing in urine, cutting open the sores and applying human feces and flower root, and to kill the Jews. Bubonic plague had no known cure during this
The general health and wellbeing of the Middle Ages was very poor, mostly as a result of the Black Death. The Black Death, also commonly known as the Black Plague or the Plague, was a widespread disease that killed an estimated 17 to 30 million people between the years of 1346 through 1353. It is widely thought to have originated in Central Asia and eventually made its way to Europe. The symptoms of the Plague appeared in the first few days of infection. At first it starts with flu-like symptoms, such as headache, a fever, chills, nausea, and vomiting. Also, the victim may experience back pain,muscle soreness, and sensitivity to light. After the second or third day, buboes appear. Buboes are swollen lymph nodes which look similar to a large
The symptoms of the Black Plague included fever, vomiting, egg sized swellings or bumps, bleeding, and fierce coughing. (TeachTci). As a result of bleeding and giant egg sized wounds, the Black Plague victim would start to feel nauseous and they would start to bleed from places that you don’t normally bleed from such as, their pores, feet, necks, underarms, legs, inside leg, out of everywhere. Eventually, “people were overcome with fever, they were unable to do simple tasks such as keeping food down and they were delirious from the burning pain.” Strangest of all, they ended up being covered with these gigantic black boils that oozed blood and
The great plague came in three different forms. The types of illness differed in symptoms, spread and sufferings. The bubonic plague was the diseases most common form. It was named this due to swelling called “buboes” of the victim’s lymph nodes. “These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple” (The Black Death). The longest expectancy with this form of illness didn’t often exceed one week. The second variation of plague was known as the “pneumatic
(where and when specifically the spread happened) People who were infected got fever, black spots on their skin as well as painful swelling of their lymph nodes. As lymph nodes are known as bubo, the disease was later identified to be probably bubonic plague. People who caught the disease often died within days and thus the disease killed a huge proportion of the population. The “Black Death” usually
In the early 1330s, an outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in Europe. The bubonic plague mainly affected rodents, but fleas were also able to transmit the disease to people. Once people were infected, they quickly infected others, which meant the disease spread very rapidly among the population. The plague caused fever and a painful swelling of the lymph glands called buboes. The disease also caused spots on the skin that started out red and eventually turned black, which is where “The Black Death” got its name. (The Black Death: Bubonic Plague) During the 14th century, there seemed to be no rational explanation for what was happening. No one knew exactly how the Black Death was transmitted from one patient to another and no one knew
The Black Death was a powerful plague that started in the 14th century that took the life of 25 - 30 million people in Europe (30% - 50% of Europe). The Black Death was spread by fleas and rats that infested carts and ships going through trading routes. Symptoms of the plague usually appear within two to seven days and can include fevers, headaches, muscle pain, dizziness and seizures. But that's not the worst part, people also started to experience painful, swollen black balls called buboes (source 1). The Black Death caused many social, political and economic changes in medieval Europe.
The first and foremost action taken was praying, as people originally believed that the Plague was a punishment from God, so they relied heavily on him saving them. But as the death numbers grew, people began to realize that the church could not explain the Plague, or help them survive. People began to try and experiment, with bazaar remedies. Doctors encouraged patients to carry sweet smelling posies, suffice the nursery rhyme, ‘Ring a Ring a rosy’, a rhyme about the Black Plague. Some people would eat rotten treacle, others would live in sewers, believing that the Plague was only in the air. Eating crushed emeralds, was an expensive yet popular remedy. But worst of all remedies, were the urine bath and the poo paste. These particular remedies involved bathing in human urine, and rubbing a poo paste into the infected buboes. It just goes to show how desperate people were during these times, although unfortunately none of these remedies worked, and symptoms continued to show. For the bubonic Plague, this included fever, weakness, shocks and chills. The main symptom, buboes, often grew around the armpits or
In my fifteen years of living, I have been vaccinated numerous times for all types of diseases; Polio, Measles, Mumps, and a few others. Immunization
Epidemics of the 19th century were faced without the improved medical technologies that made the 20th and 21st-century epidemics rare and less lethal. It was in the 18th century that micro-organisms (viruses and bacteria) were discovered, but it was not until the late 19th century that the experiments of Lazzaro Spallanzani and Louis Pasteur disagreed with the spontaneous generation argument conclusively, crediting the germ theory and Robert Koch 's discovery of micro-organisms as the cause of disease transmission. Therefore, throughout the majority of the 19th century, there was only the most basic, understanding of the causes, amelioration and treatment of epidemic disease.
The victims of this plague suffered from delusions, nightmares, fevers and swellings in the groin, armpits and behind their ears. Some of the sufferers went into comas while others reported being highly delusional. At the time period this was going on there wasn't any medicine that they have tried to cure this plague. This plague ended up being contained in 750 CE it took 208 years for this plague to pass because they couldn't find a cure for it because they didn't have a strong medical field this plague spread exponentially. They couldn't find a way to actually cure this disease because it was combined with the Black Death so they were killing all their skilled doctors before they could even begin to start on a cure for this disease. One historian by the name of Procopius has reported that 10,000 people per day have been
Trends come and go, but some can stay buried in history. Especially the ones we have in the list. We found the worst trends that ever caught on, and compiled them into a fun little adventure for you. Don’t try to start any of the up again, because they are by far the worst trends that were ever started.
How did Tuberculosis impact the U.S in the 19th century? While people were worried about the Spanish Flu, and other illnesses in the 1900’s, bacteria was building up in people's lungs. If their immune system couldn’t get rid of the bacteria, it began to multiply and caused Tuberculosis. In the U.S one out of every seven people got Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis impacted the U.S in the 19th century dramatically.
The Middle Ages were tough times when it came to disease and medicine. There were numerous types of sickness and disease that flooded Europe during the Middle Ages. Not helping the situation, the medicinal knowledge of the people of Europe of the time was not up to par. Some of the diseases and illness that were running rampant during these times were pneumonia, leprosy, and the plague. The middle ages were a time of great suffering and death because of the abundant disease and lack of knowledge of the spread and treatments.
Due the population pressure, diseases such as tuberculosis, smallpox, typhus etc. The population become vulnerable to the outbreaks since they were poor living in unsanitary housing and unable to get medical assistance. In 1848 the Public Health Act formed a health board to investigate the sanitation conditions and they were to give the recommendations to the general board. (Robinson)
The Changes In Medicine In The Nineteenth Century The nineteenth century was one of the most important eras in the history of medicine as many new cures and technologies were discovered. At the beginning, many poor people still lived in houses without proper sanitation, worked in dangerous factories and drank water from polluted rivers. By the end of the century, social conditions had improved, medicine was more complex, treatments were more widely offered and technology was more advanced along with many other improvements. But why did these changes occur?