Black Death

A highly infectious disease (probably plague) that occurred during the second pandemic in 1348. The first, or Justinian, pandemic, that started in 543 may not have reached the British Isles, but the second is regarded by G.M. Trevelyan as the greatest single cause of social upheaval in history. Originating in China, the disease was carried to Europe by Italian merchants who, besieged by the Tatars in the Crimea, acquired the disease from their besiegers and disseminated it on escaping to Genoa. It was recognised at Weymouth in August 1348, and before waning in the winter of 1349 had reduced the population of England by a third.

Deaths in Europe attributed to this disease numbered 24 millions. Further outbreaks of the disease ranged from restricted episodes in major cities (e.g. London in 1433) to widespread epidemics, in 1361, 1368, 1375, 1390, 1406 and other years, recurring with varying frequency to the end of the 17th century, after which sporadic disease clusters became the pattern.

The Bills of Mortality (1532) are attributed to awareness of a need for closer observation of the epidemics. Despite inherent defects in the Bills, which were reports of deaths in various localities, they were brilliantly used by the London haberdasher John Graunt (1620-74) in his Observations on the Bills of Mortality, to found the science of vital statistics. The 1665 epidemic was graphically recorded by the diarist Samuel Pepys and was reconstructed by Daniel Defoe in Journal of the Plague Year (1722). The reduction in population led to labour shortages and unprecedented economic changes, which precipitated social unrest.

The Black Death is, from descriptive and circumstantial evidence, thought to be plague. Plague is primarily a disease of rodents and is transmitted from rat to man by the bites of infected fleas. Direct spread from man to man was rare even in epidemics, although it could happen by direct inhalation of infected droplets expelled during coughing or sneezing. The dark skin haemorrhage (ecchymosis) and expectorated blood (haemoptysis) account for the popular name of the disease. The dramatic impact on localities is perpetuated in accounts which have entered folklore, such as the Reverend Mompesson's determined handling of the outbreak in the village of Eyam, Derbyshire, and commemoration remains in some playground dances of children, e.g. Ring a' Roses. The third pandemic, around 1894, was of importance in the Middle and Far East, and it was during this outbreak that the causal organism, Yersinia (Pasteurella) pestis, was first discovered.

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