Causation of the Black Death: Then and Now

Throughout history, one of the most devastating pandemics to have ever encountered the human race was the Black Death, which peaked in Europe between 1348 and 1350 ¹ . In London, the pandemic reached promptly during the fall of 1348 and took a heavy toll on its victims. According to reports of those times, London experienced a catastrophic death toll of close to 200 bodies per day for almost three months. Commonly believed to be the bubonic plague, this pandemic established its killer disposition in the number of people it took: at least one in three Europeans, representing more than a third of the population. However, 650 years onwards, this phenomenon, which was apocalyptic in nature, is not clear-cut. Modern plagues do not nearly match the devastation and rapid morbidity and mortality rates that the Black Death inflicted. According to Sharon DeWitte, a researcher and assistant anthropology professor at the University of South Carolina, the literature on the Black Death reveal numerous causes; the first suspect being Yersinia Pestis. This paper discusses an in-depth outlook on the causation of the Black Death as understood during its occurrence, and at present.

This great pestilence is said to have come from the East, three years prior to its effects on mainland Europe. History indicates that the progress of the disease commenced from the ports of the Black Sea, and quite presumably those of the Mediterranean Sea ² . These access points were bustling with various commercial activities, as they represented a crossing point between traders from Asiatic countries ferrying goods for easy conveyance to the West. Recent scientific research indicates that the cause of this pestilence was the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, an argument filled with a great debate among scientific scholars. Estimations indicate that this pandemic resulted in the death of 30-60 percent of the population in Europe, markedly reducing the overall population of the world by close to 100 million from 450 million to between 375 and 350 million by 1400 ³ . During this time, Europe underwent a series of upheavals in its social, religious, and economic settings, which in turn brought about major alterations on the course of European history.

During the middle ages, medical advancement had heavily stagnated and most scholars did not bring forth authoritative accounts as to the cause of the Black Death. However, at the time, the most influential account came from the Medical Faculty in Paris through a report to the King of France. Owing to the fact that there were no advanced equipment and proper methodologies of research, the conjecture at the time was blame on the heavens and aggregation of three planets in 1345, which resulted in a “great pestilence in the air.” ⁴ During this time of the Black Death, the circulation of this report greatly transpired primarily as a consolation to sufferers and an advice to them of their condition. To date, as understood in various historical accounts, sufferers of this condition blamed “bad air” and accepted it as a theory of causation of the Black Death. Up until the nineteenth century, hygiene – whether personal or public – was of little to no concern. As such, during the time of the Black Death, it was commonplace to see various kinds of filth and animals on the streets. Moreover, this filth extended to the point whereby human remains, ticks, and flees were an abounding scenery. Such conditions fostered the outbreak and rapid spread of the Black Death.

The most widely accepted scientific explanation for the Black Death is through the analysis of the plague theory. This theory attributes the outbreak of the plague to pathogens that were responsible for a disease pandemic, which commenced in China in 1865, ultimately reaching India. During this time, while the epidemic devastated Hong Kong in 1894, Alexander Yersin identified the Y. pestis bacterium, which he later associated it with the pestilence that spread across Europe. By 1898, Paul-Louis Simond had identified the mechanisms of spread to be bites from fleas. Such rodents, while infected with the bacterium after feeding on several infected hosts experienced gut blockage and tried to alleviate this condition through regurgitation, further flushing millions of bacterium on the feeding site. Moreover, the mechanism of the bubonic plague was found to be dependent on two pertinent rodent population: one that lacks resistance and dies, and the other that is resistant, thereby making the disease endemic. Causation also happens in the sense that those rats lacking resistance eventually die, leaving the fleas to move from one host to another including individuals, which results in the creation of a human epidemic ⁵ . Historian Francis Aidan Gasquet, who was the author of “the great pestilence” in 1893, brought forth the suggestion that the Black Death appeared to be a form of bubonic plague from the east and was able to use the bubonic plague epidemiology to implicate rats and fleas as causative agents.

Presently, the bubonic plague has an immense mortality rate of forty to seventy percent and its major symptoms include headaches, fever, nausea and vomiting, and an overall feeling of the malady. Untreated victims usually have an 80 percent chance of dying within a week. Numerous modern scholars attribute the lethality of the Black Death to a condition that results in the amalgamation of both the pneumonic and bubonic plague as well as other diseases. Accounts of the musician, Louis Heyligen in Avignon, attest to the pneumonic aspect of the Black Death ⁶ . Some alternative explanations, particularly from British bacteriologist J.F.D. Shrewsbury, argue out that the report rates of mortality are greatly exaggerated. Present research on the plague accounts is hampered by the lack of consistent statistical data from this period indicating epidemiological accounts and symptoms experienced. Present research is putting forth various alternatives to the plague theory. Some scholars are of the notion that the epidemic was a combination of anthrax and other pandemics during the time while others argue that it was a form of the infectious disease characterized as being hemorrhagic. Overall, modern scholars arguing for the Y. pestis bacterium often point it out as the major agent in the pestilence in combination with other diseases. Such diseases include smallpox, typhus, and infections to the respiratory system among others

In conclusion, recent years and advancement in DNA technologies have led scientists on molecular discoveries pertaining to the Black Death. Although extracting DNA from bones that are 650 years old is tedious and does not always bring expected results, by using DNA fishing techniques, a team in England was able to match sample DNA to the DNA plasmid of the Y. pestis bacterium. In doing so, the team compared their sample to modern versions of the bug and found astounding results and comparisons. Through proper DNA sequencing, the team was also able to note three alterations in modern strains. Therefore, owing to this research, an apposite conjecture is due, which is that the Yersinia pestis was the primary causative agent of the Black Death. Moreover, this study is reinforced by another conducted by Stephanie Haensch of Johannes Gutenberg University, which led to the conclusion and evidence that there were two strains of the bacterium which were previously unknown. It is now scientifically clear that although modern plagues and the Black Death had similar pathogens; the strains were dissimilar, thereby making the resultant disease different.

Bibliography

Alchon, Suzanne Austin.  A Pest In The Land: New World Epidemics In A Global Perspective . Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003, p. 21

Christakos, George, Ricardo A Olea, Marc L Serre, Lin-Lin Wang, and Hwa-Lung Yu.  Interdisciplinary Public Health Reasoning And Epidemic Modelling: The Case Of Black Death . Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2005, p. 110-114

Gasquet, Francis Aidan.  Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), Now Commonly Known As The Black Death . Hardpress Publishing, 2012, p. 1-2

Horrox, Rosemary.  The Black Death . Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007, p. 41, p. 159

Parry, Wynne. "Molecular Clues Hint At What Really Caused The Black Death".  Live Science . Last modified 2011. Accessed April 11, 2018. https://www.livescience.com/15937-black-death-plague-debate.html .