Death nightmare - the Black Death!

The term Black Death first appeared in Europe in the 16th century. It was said to have been first proposed by experts from Sweden and Denmark. However, this term became popular after the German Haeckel published a treatise entitled The black death.

There are currently two popular theories about the origin of its name:

Firstly, because its initial symptoms are the appearance of lymph nodes in the groin or armpits, followed by the growth of blue-black blisters on the arms and thighs, and its mortality rate is extremely high, it is named the Black Death.

Secondly, it comes from the mistranslation of the word "Pestis atra" (terrible disease) or "Atra mors" (meaning black and terrifying), implying a terrible haze that causes great trouble to people.

Due to the limited level of medical knowledge in medieval Europe, people at that time could not correctly understand the Black Death, and most of the causes of the disease were speculations that were difficult to convince people.

It was not until 1898 that the Frenchman Paul Louis Simond (bacteriologist) clearly stated that the Black Death originated from rodents (especially rats), and the Black Death was thus equated with the plague.

In the middle of the 14th century, the number of people who died from the Black Death worldwide was about 74.5 million, one-third of which occurred in Europe (about 25 million people), while the population of the entire Europe at that time was only equivalent to the number of people killed by the epidemic worldwide.

This period was later called the "darkest age of the Middle Ages" by Western scholars, and there are very few events in human history that can surpass it.

According to the difference in the site of disease occurrence, it can be divided into the following three categories:

The first was the bubonic plague, which caused nodular swellings, infected the blood, caused buboes and internal bleeding, and was spread by contact.

Second, pneumonic plague. It can cause swollen lymph nodes and lymphadenitis, and the patient may die within a few days. This disease can be transmitted by breathing and is the most dangerous type of plague!

Third, septicemic plague. Boccaccio, a famous Florentine writer who personally experienced the horrific plague in 1348, gave a detailed description of the disease in his masterpiece The Decameron:

Before death, the patient will have nosebleeds and apple or egg-sized lumps will appear on the inner thighs and armpits. As the disease progresses, the lumps will spread throughout the body. Later, dense black spots will appear on the arms and thighs and gradually spread throughout the body. The mortality rate of patients is extremely high, and even if they survive by chance, they will be isolated.

Later, American historian Barbara W. Tuchman pointed out in her book "The Distant Mirror: The Turmoil of the Fourteenth Century" that the hypothesis that the Black Death originated in China was a fallacy of that era.

The over-cultivation of Europe from the 10th to the 13th century, the loss of ecological balance, and various natural disasters and diseases were the root causes of the outbreak of the plague. The end of an old world is inevitably accompanied by the arrival of a new world. The impact and destruction caused by the Black Death on Europe at that time was very huge. While the population dropped sharply, it also shook the feudal rule at the ideological and political level, causing a huge change in the values ​​and worldview of the people at that time, and had a profound impact on the economy, science and technology, culture, politics and religious beliefs of the society thereafter, and the trajectory of social progress was also changed.

The prototype of modern Western lifestyle and commodity economy, the origin of modern Western science and technology and medical research, as well as the world-famous Renaissance and ideological emancipation movement can all be traced back to here.

It is such an irony that the terrifying Black Death became the "trigger" for a series of good starts. However, while facing up to history, the alarm bells are also ringing in our ears. Only when people and nature live in harmony can they coexist. The so-called "win" is actually a compromise.

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