shakespeareinyourface.blogspot.com: Dawson on the Plague of 1665

The Plague of 1665 Dawson Furnish

The Great Plague of 1665 was one of the final and most destructive outbreaks of bubonic plague England had faced. The bubonic plague, known as The Black Death, was not new to the English; in 1347 the epidemic emerged and lasted until 1351 and killed around what is estimated from 75 to 200 million people. Many believe the plague originated in China and spread throughout Europe through various trade routes. After 1351 the plague was always present among the English with many smaller outbreaks happening throughout the years. The plague had a final outbreak in 1665 killing around 200 million London residents, a quarter of its population. The plague is a bubonic disease caused by the bacteria called Yersinia pestis. Symptoms of this disease would be fevers, headaches, coughing, and vomiting to name a few. The most known symptom of the plague would be the large black buboes or boils that would form around the lymph nodes of the body. The great plague of 1665 started the summer before where the disease would start running rampant in the heat. The sickness was spread through the many rats that inhabited the city; furthermore, the plague would never be transmitted by the actual rat but the fleas that would travel on the back of rats. Once the plague started spreading, many of the wealthier inhabitants would leave the city while the lower classes had no choice but to stay. Many policies were enforced in order to contain the plague. For example, once a person was discovered to have the plague, the city would force them and the ones living with the diseased to stay inside their homes at all times and paint a red cross on their front door. Another method used to contain the plague was the city would collect the dead infected at night and burry them in mass graves. As the winter came, the plague had slowed down due to the colder weather and was less contagious. A major factor of the sickness ceasing to spread was the fire that occurred the year after burning many of the houses within London and any possible remanence of the plague with them.