Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Calamities/Diseases/Plague in the Seventeenth Century

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Plague in the Seventeenth Century


In the fourteenth century England experienced a large epidemic that killed many throughout the world. This epidemic was called the bubonic plague. The plague was a easily transmitted pathogen,[1] through ways such as “pneumonic, septicemic, [and] exposure to plagued carcasses”.[2] This disease has often been known to be carried on rats. However rats themselves were only carriers of the bacteria. Therefore once a flea carrying “the plague pathogen, Yersinia pestis”[3] infects a rat with the plague, the rat then carries on for a bit spreading the pathogen to any other mammal it may come in contact with, mainly humans. During the seventeenth and previous centuries the majority did not survive the plague and it often became wide spread when it did occur.


However, the fourteenth century was not the only period when England experienced the Plague. The plague continued to reappear for many years, including “in 1592, 1603, 1625, 1636, and 1665”.[4] One report stated “it is rare to find a year without plague deaths reported somewhere in England”.[5] While the Plague does appear to be a common occurrence in England, it was not strictly confided to the larger cities as one may think. The reason for this epidemic to be so wide spread is due to the fact that often people would travel through counties to warn others of its outbreak, while being infected themselves. Most Historians deem the plague to be important to not only European history, but world history as well.[6] This epidemic hinged on patterns of human settlement, which caused civilization and the plague to run hand in hand.[7] The Plague or “black death” as it was called, will always be one of the most well known historic diseases that ever threatened the world.


Measures to Control the Plague


As was pointed out before, the virulent bubonic pestilence had continued to plague England and Europe throughout the 17th century. Efforts to control the plague were as varied as the number of people “practicing” medicine – in Stuart England restrictions on those practicing medicine were beginning to take form, however, much of England outside London was not controlled by the colleges. Anyone could practice medicine and apothecaries doled out any number of herbal remedies, more often than not working only as a placebo. The general public would often react to predictions, based on superstitions, which foretold the coming apocalypse.[8] And to complicate matters further, many practitioners were criticized for trying to one up each other instead of putting the “public good” first.[9] As a consequence, the fluidity of information, shared between doctors, was hindered and results suffered from inconsistencies and conjecture.[10]


The primary control was to stop the plagues spread via people. Three people had died in the Westminster family near the end of 1664.[11] Unfortunately a neighbouring family that moved to London to escape the devastation had brought it to the city, where it spread like wildfire.[12] Quarantine efforts did little to stop the pestilence for the simple fact that it had already infected the migrating family.[13] The plague was hard to control. By the time people realized a person was feverous, a symptom of the plague, it was too late, others would already have been exposed.[14] By September the Plague had reached its peak.[15] One method employed by the local governor, and approved by physicians, was to burn fires in the streets for three days,[16] I can only assume city officials and physicians hoped the smoke would either kill the plague or not allow it to be airborne. Furthermore, it was hoped that abundant food stocks would ebb the plagues virulence.[17] Yet nothing seemed to stop the plague from running its course.

  1. ↑ Krasnov, B., Shenbrot, G., Mouillot, D., Khokhlova, I., & Poulin, R. “Ecological Characteristics of Flea Species Relate to Their Suitability as Plague Vectors”, Oecologia 149, no. 3 (2006): 475. Accessed on January 26, 2012. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20446017.
  2. ↑ Ibid.
  3. ↑ Ibid.
  4. ↑ Greenberg, Stephen. “Plague, the Printing Press, and Public Health in Seventeenth-Century London”, Huntington Library Quarterly 67, no. 4 (2004): 509. Accessed on January 26, 2012. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/hlq.2004.67.4.508.
  5. ↑ Ibid.
  6. ↑ Gottfried, Robert S. The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe. New York: The Free Press, 1983.
  7. ↑ Ibid.
  8. ↑ Hodges, Nathanael, and John Quincy. Loimologia Or An Historical Account of the Plague In London In 1665: With Precautionary Directions Against the Like Contagion. The third edition with large additions. London: printed for E. Bell ..., 1721, 3.
  9. ↑ Ibid., Preface, V.
  10. ↑ Ibid., V.
  11. ↑ Ibid., 1.
  12. ↑ Ibid., 2.
  13. ↑ Ibid., 2
  14. ↑ Ibid., 2.
  15. ↑ Ibid., 20.
  16. ↑ Ibid., 20
  17. ↑ Ibid., 21.

BN: Now I am curious when there were outbreaks of plague besides the serious one in the 1660s.

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