Weird Plague 'Cures' (The Black Death)

unbelievable plague cures the Middle Ages the Black Death the bubonic plague more commonly known as the black death due to the black buboes that would swell and the armpits and groins of victims decimated the population of Europe during the Middle Ages from 1347 to 1352 bows would swell sometimes as large as an egg and turn black before eventually rupturing losing blood and pus putting the person in agony other symptoms of the plague included fever rashes difficulty breathing and vomiting blood we associate the name the Black Death with this initial devastating outbreak but in reality the bubonic plague continued to affect and devastate Europe for the next few centuries during the outbreak the plague spread rapidly from the Middle East to cross continental Europe and then jump the channel to the British Isles as terror and disease ran rampant throughout Europe people searched for answers some believed that God was punishing the human race for their sins through divine intervention or in the form of the disease one of the most prominent theories was delivered to the King of France by a respected medical institution in France they said that the cause of the plague was the conjunction of three planets in 1345 which then caused a great pestilence in the air this was followed by the bad air theory or miasma theory which became widely accepted everywhere however the Black Death was actually caused by bites from the fleas carried on rats due to the high death toll streets were often littered with bodies that were left outside for the death collectors as they were to be taken away and buried in mass graves known as plague pits life had become so tragic that is one Italian citizen in 1348 agna loaded torus dated there was no one who wept for any death for all awaited death and so many died that all believed it was the end of the world as the death toll increased and people continue to be struck down by the disease throughout Europe and entire families were being wiped out plague doctors began to get desperate and creative with so-called plague cures these are some of those cures bloodletting one way physicians and plague doctors attempted to cure the black death was through bloodletting bloodletting was common during the Middle Ages as it was believed that it expelled harmful humors from within the body that were causing this sickness the practice of bloodletting involved leaching are cutting near to the site of the infection in this case the Bubo however cutting into the skin to drain the blood often led to further infection as the immune system was already weakened health conditions were unsanitary given the circumstances plague doctors would also sometimes Lance the buboes releasing a putrid odor along with blood and pus sweating sweating was also a popular cure in this case the doctor would provide the patient with medicine that would raise their temperature the idea was to make the patient's sweat out the corruption from the blood that the disease caused it was seen as a last resort treatment treacle one of the more pleasant ways of curing the plague was to use treacle a type of syrup made of unrefined sugar the catch was that the tricot had to be aged for at least 10 years to be an effective cure for the black death the reasoning behind this cure was that the substance which by that point would be horrific smelling and very sticky was going to rid the body of the disease while simultaneously counteracting the effects of the disease the treacle was drank in its thick syrupy form and was thought to completely rid the plague from the victim's body while seemingly improbable it is possible that over the course of the 10-year aging period that disease fighting molds may have developed within the treacle that could help fight off the plague whether this saved anyone is largely unknown bathe in urine whilst we might find this a disgusting cure by today's clean standards this isn't altogether unsurprising urine was believed to have healing properties and had been associated with medical issues since the days of Galen and Hippocrates urine was often examined in flasks by physicians who matched the color and consistency to illustrations victims of the plague were given urine to bathe n with the thought being that it would relieve their symptoms this was then taken further and some victims were given urine to drink crushed Emeralds unsurprisingly this cure was more for the wealthy plague sufferer the idea was that swallowing the precious stones would help to restore balance amongst the humors and therefore cure the victim emeralds weren't the only precious jewels used other minerals such as pearls were said to be effective the stones were usually ground down and mixed with water to form a sparkly potation one that was laced with little bits of emerald that probably felt like broken glass covering yourself in human excrement doctors would make a paste from human feces flower roots and some tree resins the buboes would then be cut open and the paste would be smeared on the open wound would then be tightly wrapped to keep the paste inside live in a sewer on the face of it this is a very counterproductive cure however medieval doctors thought that the plague was caused by the air it was thought that the disgusting smells of the sewer would stop the less smelly but disease written air from coming near them and therefore infecting them sadly not only was it a disgusting cure it also wasn't very effective as it often exposed victims to a variety of other nasty diseases whipping yourself the Middle Ages were a particularly religious time and it's no wonder that people turned to God when they got the disease they thought that it might be God's punishment for being sinful and that the only way to a cure was to punish themselves they did this through flagellation this was where they went into the streets and whipped themselves and each other to punish themselves for their sins in the hope that God would cure them dinner parties some doctors thought that stress made people more susceptible to the plague so they recommended eating their meals with others in order to promote merrymaking and reduce stress in Florence Markey only the COPO stefani describes how people used to take turns to host the dinners although often two or three people wouldn't turn up this cure helped to spread the plague more because of close contact with the infected the live chicken cure this may be the most puzzling of the plague cures during the medieval period into the 18th century a popular cure was the live chicken cure or the Vickery method the live chicken treatment included taking a rooster plucking its backside and placing its rump on to the buboes of the plague victim supposedly the bare chicken would draw out the poison in the buboes therefore curing the plague victim of the terrible disease the live chicken treatment was so popular throughout Europe that it was integrated into normal medical procedures for the plague victims by the 16th century some physicians believe that the heat from the chicken was what drew the poison from the buboes while others simply believe the chicken balanced the humors within the body quarantine the most tried and true of the cures was the use of quarantine which had begun to be implemented in Italy in 1348 quarantine policies required that individuals even entire families be confined to or shut up in their homes until they had recovered from the plague and then be confined for a further 40 days afterwards for many that recovery never happened bodies littered the streets in front of the isolated houses for what a family member died in quarantine they would be left on the doorstep to be taken away to the plague pits while plague quarantine policies did work in some ways the death toll in London was still high at around ten thousand four hundred people 7.5 percent of the city's population in 1636 of course these cures were not very successful and eventually the Black Death just went away later would return time and time again across the next few centuries as time went on and medicine became more refined doctors began to understand what remedies worked and why sanitation and quarantine became more and more important as cures while others such as flagellation became less prominent you might wonder why these cures were ever tried and if people really believed them to work the answer is yes physicians and patients really believed that these cures were the right thing to do in stopping the plague it is likely that the cures became widespread because someone tried them and it appeared to work word would spread and more people would try them that means there were probably more crazy cures that were out there that don't know about

Channel: Simple History

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Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, Unbelievable plague cures, black death, medieval, europe, cures, plague doctor, medicine, Middle Ages, miasma theory, Bloodletting, Sweating, Treacle, Bathe in urine, Crushed emeralds, weird, weird history, sewer, flagellant, punishment, whipped, Humors, Black Bile, Yellow Bile, Phlegm, Parties, Live chicken cure, Vicary Method, Quarantine, sanitation, crazy cures, Physicians

Id: MvDJMKLEd9o

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 01 2019