Thursday

[nightdog_barks]

Hazy sun; even if it is still hot, you can tell the season is changing because of the angle of the light.

From the Guardian, here's a fascinating article about how rats probably weren't really responsible for the Black Death. I know, I know, cheerful, right? But the writer has the kind of historical details that just make my brain light up. The archaeologist used records from the Court of Hustings -- wills made and then enacted during the plague years.

From the article:
John of Reading, a monk in Westminster, left one of the few witness accounts. He described deaths happening so fast there was "death without sorrow, marriage without affection, self-imposed penance, want without poverty, and flight without escape".

Great writing! And a real downer. But seriously great writing.

Comments

[blackmare]

That is simply terrifying. We like to think such things are safely confined to the past, but you know ...

[silverjackal]

It's a fascinating article, but I dont' buy the argument. Spread of plague by rats doesn't imply that there would be large numbers of rat remains to be found necessarily -- all it would take would be an increase in the number of fleas on the existing rats, and fleas don't show well in the archaeological record. And rats (and their fleas) were *everywhere*. Could it *not* have been Bubonic plague? Possibly -- that argument gets batted around periodically, and it's possible.

However, Bubonic plague still exists, matches the symptoms described at the time, and has a highly contageous pneumonic form. I'm no expert, but I'd bet it's still Yersinia pestis, and that rodent borne fleas were still the starting point, unless they have better proof otherwise. (For that matter it's still possible to contract -- and die from -- Bubonic plague. Ironically your odds are better in Third World nations, where the doctors see the ailment somewhat regularly, diagnose it, and prescribe the appropriate antibiotics. One ill traveler in the U.S. succumbed relatively recently because his doctors didn't know what they were looking at before it was too late.)