black plague?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

Answer 2

Which one? What is it you want to know?
In the early 1330s an outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in China.
In October of 1347, several Italian merchant ships returned from a trip to the Black Sea, one of the key links in trade with China. When the ships docked in Sicily, many of those on board were already dying of plague. Within days the disease spread to the city and the surrounding countryside.
By the following August, the plague had spread as far north as England, where people called it "The Black Death" because of the black spots it produced on the skin.
Even when the worst was over, smaller outbreaks continued, not just for years, but for centuries. The survivors lived in constant fear of the plague's return, and the disease did not disappear until the 1600s.

Answer 3

The Black Death was an outbreak of bubonic plague that entered Melcombe Regis in 1348, and within a year had killed nearly half the population.

The Black Death, began with a minor outbreak of bubonic plague, medical term Yersinia Pestis, which started in the Gobi Dessert. It was transmitted throughout China and reached Europe when a Kipchak army, besieging a Crimean trading post, catapulted plague-infested corpses over the city walls. Plague spread throughout Europe, carried by fleas in the fur of rats, and eventually reached the Dorset coast on 24th June 1348.

Contagion carried quickly, and about two thirds of the population became infected. The morbidity rate was about 66%, i.e. if you caught it, you had a two to one chance of dying. Chroniclers relate how the disease raged in a town for about a month and then left. It moved gradually northwards until it had burnt itself out. Within twelve months, nearly half the population was dead.

After the problem of burying the dead in plague pits was over, people tried to get back to normality. But life was never the same again. The decreased population meant a shortage of labour and workmen demanded and received pay increases. The government of Edward III tried to cap pay increases by an Act of Parliament, The Statute of Labourers, the first government attempt to control the economy. Workmen who demanded too much were placed in the stocks, that is trapped in a wooden gadget for a day, and employers who paid over the odds were fined. The Act was largely unsuccessful as employers coaxed workers from other employers, with promises abundant pay increases, and wages kept on rising. One recorded case shows that a joiner who built the stocks for the punishment of greedy workers was paid three times the legal rate for his labour.

The government also passed The Sumptuary Act of 1367, making it illegal for the lower classes to spend their new wealth on new apparel of ermine or silk. Only the aristocracy and some senior gentlefolk were allowed to wear these items. Today when barristers are raised to the rank of Queen’s Council, they are said to ‘take silk’, indicating their elevation in status. The Act has never been repealed, so if you wear silk, and if any of Edward III’s commissioners are still alive, you could get put in the stocks!

By the reign of Richard II, the economy had settled down and landowners switched from labour intensive methods, grain production, to low labour processes, particularly sheep farming. Increased wool production boosted the economy and became the nation’s chief export, making England a major economic power.

Answer 4

The Black Death

1347 - 1350

The Oriental Rat Flea: Xenopsylla cheopis
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Family: Pulicidae
Order: Siphonaptera
Genus: Xenopsylla
Species: cheopis
Fleas are blood sucking parasites. They have the potential of spreading dangerous diseases to humans and other animals. It is possible the first flea was native to Africa and traveled by boat on the back of a rat to different destinations around the world. Even though there are many different types of fleas, they all have similar body parts; eyes and legs help them survive the dangers of their life. A flea undergoes four different life cycles to become an adult. The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague, is one of the deadly diseases that the flea can spread to man and animals.

Body Parts
The rat flea has two eyes, yet it can only see very bright light. On the very tip of its head is a genial comb. Right behind the eyes are two short antennae. Behind the antennae is the pronotum and behind that lays the protonotal comb.

A flea's mouth has two functions: one for squirting saliva or partly digested blood into the bite, and one for sucking up blood from the host. This process mechanically transmits pathogens that may cause diseases the flea might have. Fleas smell exhaled carbon dioxide from humans and animals and jump rapidly to the source to feed on the newly found host. A flea is wingless so it can not fly, but it can jump long distances with the help of small powerful legs. A flea's leg consists of four parts. The part that is closest to the body is the coxa. Next is the femur, tibia and tausus. A flea can use its legs to jump up to 200 times its own body length. It can also jump about 130 times its own height.

The flea's body is only about one tenth of an inch. A flea's body is constructed to make it easier to jump long distances. The flea's body consists of three regions: head, thorax, and abdomen. The head and the thorax have rows of bristles (called combs) and the abdomen consists of eight visible segments.

Life Cycle
There are four stages in a flea's life. The first stage is the egg stage. Microscopic white eggs fall easily from the female to the ground or from the animal she lays on. If they are laid on an animal, they soon fall off in the dust or in the animals bedding. If the eggs do fall immediately on the ground, then they fall into crevices on the floor where they will be safe until they hatch one to ten days later (depending on the environment that they live in, it may take longer to hatch). When they finally hatch, the flea is a larva. The larva looks very similar to a worm that is about two millimeters long. It only has small body and a mouth part. (No arms or legs) At this stage, the flea does not drink blood; instead it eats dead skin cells, flea droppings, and other smaller parasites lying around them in the dust. When the larvae is mature it makes a silken cocoon around itself and pupates. This is when the flea spins a white, silken cocoon for itself. The flea stays in this stage from one week to six months changing in a process called metamorphosis. When the flea emerges, it begins the final cycle, called the adult stage. A flea can now suck blood from host and mate with other fleas. A single female flea can mate once and lay eggs every day with up to fifty eggs per day. Fleas like to live in an environment that is warm, where they can live up to a year.

Answer 5

Yersinia Pestus organism from fleas carried by rats. Thank goodness for antibiotics.

Answer 6

You have to be more specific if you expect a real answer. I am sure you are getting things like;

So what color was it?
Did it come in other colors?
Did you have a question?

A statement or just a name as you listed does not tell us what you are looking for.

Are you looking for causes, cures, time frame, locations, facts, myths? You have to tell us more.

Answer 7

John M - Is the M for "Moron"

Answer 8

Lots to tell, what do you want to know? Please add details.