In Zieglers' book The Black Death, he talks about the origins and nature of the bubonic plague. There was another factor in the Black Death. Not only was bubonic plague present, but also primary pneumonic or pulmonary plague which is more lethal. He discussed the fact that the bubonic plague was carried by fleas travelling on rats and that the pulmonary plague was spread through the air. This gave the medieval doctor a lot of trouble because, they didn't realize they were dealing with two different forms. Therefore, they did not know how to begin to prevent or cure it.
The plague was preceded by many natural disasters and met a population that had bred too fast without providing itself with the resources to sustain themselves. The Black Death reduced the population of England to more easily manageable proportions. True tha
t the plague found awaiting in Europe a population that was not equipped to deal with such an illness. They had been distracted by wars, malnutrition, and land that was inadequate to provide its people.
The church declared that it was God's wrath against all those who sinned. But, church officials as well were struck. Others blamed the Jews and accused them of poisoning wells, but they too were hit by the plague. No one could explain this wild phenomenon.
He brings to light the sheer terror of the plague at that point in time. Even though he himself is not a historian, he adequately researches the subject to bring about the facts. Although he uses statistics, he doesn't rely heavily on them to convey to massive proportion of the population that died. He recognizes that these statistics could be slightly exaggerated but he doesn't downplay the fact that there was mass destruction to the population. At least for me he broadened my knowledge, not only of the course
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