"The plague presented itself in three interrelated forms. The bubonic variant (the most common) derives its name from the swellings or buboes that appeared on a victim's neck, armpits or groin. These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple. Although some survived The Plague's Progress the painful ordeal, the manifestation of these lesions usually signaled the victim had a life expectancy of up to a week. Infected fleas that attached themselves to rats and then to humans spread this bubonic type of the plague. A second variation - pneumonia plague - attacked the respiratory system and was spread by merely breathing the exhaled air of a victim. It was much more virulent than its bubonic cousin - life expectancy was measured in one or two days. Finally, the septicemic version of the disease attacked the blood system." (source)
The Black Death killed more people than any other disease not because it was more deadly than any other but because of the conditions that Europe was in at the time and because of the way it attacked and caught on to people. Whenever one person would get it, they had no way of knowing or gettting rid of it; then once they had it, before they knew it their friends and family had it.(source)
Some of the medical measures of The Plague were "when the government acts to prevent or control a calamity, but the calamity persists, people turn to other cures. Many believed that the disease was transmitted upon the air, probably because the smell from the dead and dying was so awful. So, the living turned to scents to ward off the deadly vapors.People burned all manner of incense: juniper, laurel, pine, beech, lemon leaves, rosemary, camphor, sulpher and others. Handkerchiefs were dipped in aromatic oils, to cover the face when going out.The cure of sound was another remedy. Towns rang church bells to drive the plague away, for the ringing of town bells was done in crises of all kinds. Other towns fired cannons, which were new and which made comfortingly loud din.And there was no end of talismans, charms and spells that could be purchased from the local wise woman or apothecary. People were desperate for a cure and would try anything, no matter how outlandish or strange."(source)
"Scientists and historians are still unsure about the origins of plague. Medieval European writers believed that it began in China, which they considered to be a land of almost magical happenings. Chroniclers wrote that it began with earthquakes, fire falling from the sky, and plagues of vermin. Like medieval travel literature, these accounts are based on a number of myths about life in areas outside of Europe. It now seems most probable that infected rodents migrated from the Middle East into southern Russia, the region between the Black and Caspian seas. Plague was then spread west along trade routes. There were epidemics among the Tartars in southern Russia in 1346. Plague was passed from them to colonies of Italians living in towns along the Black Sea. Merchants probably carried the disease from there to Alexandria in Egypt in 1347; it then moved to Damascus and Libya in 1348, and Upper Egypt in 1349. Venetian and Genoese sailors are known to have brought the plague to Europe. Plague moved quickly along the major trade routes. From Pisa, where it had arrived early in 1348, it traveled to Florence and then on to Rome and Bologna; from Venice it moved into southern Germany and Austria; and from Genoa it crossed the Tyrhennian Sea to Barcelona in Spain and Marseilles in France. It continued through the towns of southern France, reaching Paris by early June 1348. From there the contagion spread to England by late June 1348 and the Low Countries by the summer of 1349."(source)
When someone caught the plague the symtoms "started with a headache. Then chills and fever, which left him exhausted and prostrate. Maybe he experienced nausea, vomiting, back pain, soreness in his arms and legs. Perhaps bright light was too bright to stand.Within a day or two, the swellings appeared. They were hard, painful, burning lumps on his neck, under his arms, on his inner thighs. Soon they turned black, split open, and began to ooze pus and blood. They may have grown to the size of an orange.Maybe he recovered. It was possible to recover. But more than likely, death would come quickly. Yet... perhaps not quickly enough. Because after the lumps appeared he would start to bleed internally. There would be blood in his urine, blood in his stool, and blood puddling under his skin, resulting in black boils and spots all over his body. Everything that came out of his body smelled utterly revolting. He would suffer great pain before he breathed his last. And he would die barely a week after he first contracted the disease.The swellings, called buboes, were the victim's lymph nodes, and they gave the Bubonic Plague its name. But the bubonic form of the disease was only one manifestation of the horrible pandemic that swept Europe in the 1340s. Another form was Pneumonic Plague. The victims of Pneumonic Plague had no buboes, but they suffered severe chest pains, sweated heavily, and coughed up blood. Virtually no one survived the pneumonic form.The third manifestation was Septicemic Plague. This sickness would befall when the contagion poisoned the victim's bloodstream. Victims of Septicemic Plague died the most swiftly, often before any notable symptoms had a chance to develop. Another form, Enteric Plague, attacked the victim's digestive system, but it too killed the patient too swiftly for diagnosis of any kind." (source)
"In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kill 1.5 million people out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350. No medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease. After 1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century. Understandably, peasants were terrified at the news that the Black Death might be approaching their village or town."(source)
Book 1- Frederick F. Cartwright, DISEASE AND HISTORY, Dorset Press, New York, 1991, p. 142
Book 2
