The Black Plague Batted .500 Its Rookie Year 74
ElDuderino44137 writes "Hey, kids, got the summer blues? The CIA isn't the only one with a kids' page to keep you busy. The Centers for Disease Control have the full set of collectible infectious disease trading cards. Mix 'em, match 'em, trade 'em, recoil in abject horror from 'em."
Pet Peeve (Score:3, Informative)
There is the Black Death, referring to a specific pandemic of Bubonic Plague in Europe in 1347-1350.
Re:huh? (Score:3, Informative)
It's even factually correct. (Score:5, Informative)
More or less. The Black Death wiped out one-third to one-half of [any given European / West Asian / Middle Eastern geographical area], with the exceptions of Poland and Scotland, which didn't get touched.
Something to tell the next kid you find singing "ring around the rosey," a nursery rhyme about the Plague. :-)
Yersinia pestis is a contender. (Score:2, Informative)
While there is some new-ish research [newscientist.com] that might indicate otherwise, my understanding is that the research and its findings are not being very well received.
Still very interesting.
-John
Re:Yersinia pestis is a contender. (Score:5, Informative)
As for a hemorragic fever being responsible, it is of course possible but highly unlikely. It would have to be an extremely exotic fever as no known hemo fever can survive through the cold european winter.
Europe also was coming out of a time of extreme famine just prior to the onset of the Black Death, so its likely that many individuals were chronically malnourished with weakened immune systems. So, it wouldn't take anything more exotic than a foreign plague bacillus to really wreak havoc.
Re:Pet Peeve (Score:2, Informative)
I saw a program where they explained why the black plague of late middle ages couldn't have been the bubonic plague.
The black plague simptoms and "modus operandi" was far more related to the haemorrhagic plague than bubonic plague.
A fast google search rendered these items:
Black Death blamed on man, not rats [guardian.co.uk]
Bubonic plague didn't cause the Black Death [theanswerbank.co.uk]
But im sure that if you look further, you will find more info.
Re:Some major-leaguer's are missing (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Pet Peeve (Score:2, Informative)
(proving that the black death was not the bubonic plague that is)
Re:It's even factually correct. (Score:4, Informative)
check it out [snopes.com]
Re:It's even factually correct. (Score:4, Informative)
Snopes. Snopes. Snopes, snopes, snopes, snopes, snopes.
Who do you check before posting a dubious "fact?"
SNOPES! [snopes.com]
Fascinations (Score:3, Informative)
Children quickly become fascinated with things that are a part (and sometimes a horrible part) of their lives. One could say that the purpose for children is to go forth and gather diseases from schools so that they might infect their parents. And so do adults, as in the case of the Black Death and the pandemics of bubonic plague that swept Europe.
A prime case of this type of fascination is in the art of the time, such as that of Hieronymus Bosch [floridaimaging.com] and others who began drawing images of intense suffering and disease.
The death caused by these pandemics may also be seen as beneficent, as it gave rise to increased rights for the peasantry, the creation of a "middle class" and the concept of general human rights, which lead to the end of the feudal system of governments. The nobility could no longer compel peasants to work their land just for their protection and the peasantry demanded actual pay for work.
This also gave rise to the general usage of sirnames that stuck throughout generations, as the kings would tax their noblemen on the basis of the potential in numbers of persons on their lands, instead of only on the size of their holdings. When the kings revenue collectors were faced with seventeen "Johns" they would assign names to them on basis of their employment, where they lived, or how they looked instead of who their father or master was.
One can usually find the etymology of one's sirname in the common tongue of this period.
and a Fun Game! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Infectious Disease? (Score:4, Informative)
Since the discovery of Helicobacter pylori [nih.gov], which indeed causes ulcers.
The link I gave doesn't say so, but as far as I know it is strongly suspected that it is indeed contagiuous.