Sanitation during the black death

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Print this page The Plague The first outbreak of plague swept across England in It seems to have travelled across the south in bubonic form during the summer months ofbefore mutating into the even more frightening pneumonic form with the onset of winter.

It hit London in Septemberand spread into East Anglia all along the coast early during the new year. By springit was ravaging Wales and the Midlands, and by late summer, it had made the leap across the Irish Sea and had penetrated the north.

Whether they caught the plague by this action, or whether it found its way north via other means, it was taking its revenge on Scotland by It would be fair to say that the onset of the plague created panic the length and breadth of Britain. It is very difficult for us to imagine the impact of plague on these small rural communities, where a village might have no more than or inhabitants.

Few settlements were totally depopulated, but in most others whole families must have been wiped out, and few can have been spared some loss, since the plague killed indiscriminately, striking at rich and poor alike. One of the sailors had brought with him from Gascony the seeds of the terrible pestilence, and through him the men of that town of Melcombe were the first in England to be infected.

Within it lived upwards of 10, souls, tightly packed together in conditions that were not altogether sanitary. People had a tendency to empty their chamberpots out of their windows into the street.

Many houses owned their own pigs, which were supposed to be grazed outside the city walls, but were often allowed to roam the streets in search of food. Most townsfolk drew their water from the river, which was also used for industrial purposes by the local brewers, who were heavily regulated to prevent their fouling the water.

The Black Death was to flourish in these conditions. Contemporary writers give an apocalyptic account of its effects. At this period the grass grew several inches high in the High St and in Broad St; it raged at first chiefly in the centre of the city.

From there it passed into Devonshire and Somersetshire, even unto Bristol, and raged in such sort that the Gloucestershire men would not suffer the Bristol men to have access to them by any means. But at length it came to Gloucester, yea even to Oxford and to London, and finally it spread over all England and so wasted the people that scarce the tenth person of any sort was left alive.

It grew so powerful that between Candlemass and Easter [2nd Febth April] more than corpses were buried almost every day in the new burial ground made next to Smithfield, and this was in addition to the bodies buried in other graveyards in the city. Excavation of the East Smithfield cemeteries, revealed that the dead were neatly stacked five deep in the mass graves cf.

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The Thames was a polluted mess and cesspits within the city were a constant source of contamination. Attempts to alleviate the sanitation problem were not helped by the Black Death itself. Inthe King remonstrated with the town council about the state of the streets. The council replied that it could do nothing on account of the fact that all of its street cleaners had died of the plague.

Top London death toll What made things worse was the fact that London was almost certainly hit by a combined attack of pneumonic and bubonic plague. Robert of Avesbury says that: It showed favour to no-one, except a very few of the wealthy.

On the same day, 20, 40 or 60 bodies, and on many occasions many more, might be committed for burial together in the same pit. A large black slab in the southern cloister of Westminster Abbey probably covers the remains of the Abbot of Westminster and 27 of his monks who were also taken by the plague.

It raged in London until springand is generally assumed to have killed between one third and one half of the populace. Spread of the Plague: And thus the Scots, believing that the English were overwhelmed by the terrible vengeance of God, gathered in the forest of Selkirk with the intention of invading the whole realm of England.

The fierce mortality came upon them, and the sudden cruelty of a monstrous death winnowed the Scots.

Within a short space of time, around of them had died, and the rest, weak and strong alike, decided to retreat to their own country. It seems to have been checked by the Scottish winter, but broke out with renewed virulence in the spring of So great a plague has never been heard of from the beginning of the world to the present day, or been recorded in books.The Sanitation Problems of the Black Death The bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that is considered one of the most lethal in history.

Recorded pandemics of the plague reach back to A.D. and minor epidemics can still be found around the world (Plague). WHO World Water Day Report.

The report is also available in one complete file (Acrobat PDF format, MB). Table of Contents. Sanitation During the Black Death Words | 8 Pages. The Sanitation Problems of the Black Death The bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that is considered one of the most lethal in history.

The Black Death _ Europe’s Great Plague. Nearly half of the people of Europe died during the fourteenth century in a great plague.

A plague is a widespread illness. The Sanitation Problems of the Black Death The bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that is considered one of the most lethal in history - Sanitation During the Black Death Essay introduction.

BRIA 26 2 The Black Death A Catastrophe in Medieval Europe - Constitutional Rights Foundation

Recorded pandemics of the plague reach back to A. D. and minor . CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION Bill of Rights in Action WINTER (Volume 26, No. 2) Population Perils.

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