In the year 1346, war broke out in Kaffa between the Christian Italian merchants and the Muslim citizens in the area. The Muslims asked their Khan for help in expelling the Christians from the city. Yersinia pestis found the ideal situation to spread itself among the population. Rats lived among humans in close proximi

The Black Death develops very rapidly when it invades a human. Large, painful swelling in the lymph nodes in the groin and armpits are often substantial enough to distend the body. High fever always accompanies the plague, often with temperatures of between 102 to 105 degrees. Black blotches that are the result of internal or epidermal haemorrhaging and thirst are also present. The buboes, or swellings, grow larger as the disease progresses. This painful swelling continues until the buboes burst. It has been reported that oftentimes even unconscious patients were "roused to an agonized frenzy when the buboes burst."

ty. The thatch roofs of the dwellings and poor sanitation of the time caused a dramatic increase of the rat population. Ceratophyllus fasciatus, the fleas that carry Yersinia pestis, migrated easily from rat to stock to human, so that by the end of a year of siege, the plague erupted among the forces of the Muslim army. The Mongol Prince, Janiberg, recognized that the disease that afflicted his forces was extremely infectious, and ordered the dead from his army be catapulted over the walls of the city and into the opposing army. This early example of germ warfare was well documented by Gabriele de' Mussis, who wrote:

Primary Pneumonic Plague incubates in about two to three days and is followed by typically acute symptoms; fever, chills, severe headache, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath and cough. The cough generally produces mucoid sputum followed later by frothy pink or red sputum. Rapid prostration, respiratory distress, and death are common symptoms of this disease.

"Those of both sexes who were in health, and in no fear of death, were struck by four savage blows to the flesh. First, out of the blue, a kind of chilly stiffness troubled their bodies. They felt a tingling sensation, as if they were pricked by the points of arrows. The next stage was a fearsome attack which took the form of an extremely hard, solid boil. In some people this developed under the armpit and in others in the groin between the scrotum and the body. As it grew more solid, its burning heat caused the patients to fall into an acute and putrid fever, with severe headaches. As it intensified its extreme bitterness could have varied effects. In some cases it gave rise to an intolerable stench. In others it brought vomiting of blood, or swellings near the place from which the corrupt humour arose: on the back, across the chest, near the thigh. Some people lay as if in a drunken stupor and could not be roused."

It would be five hundred years before the bacilli that caused the Black Death would be identified. Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943), was a Swiss-French bacteriologist discovered the rod-shaped bacteria in 1894, the year of the last epidemic in China of the Plague. It was not until this last outbreak of the plague that it was discovered that the primary carriers of the plague bacillus are rats and fleas.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2086
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)