Plague doctor facts3/19/2024 Be sure to define: melancholy apothecary, physician, decrease Westminster. They could use evidence from the lesson, plus the following extract and others from the Diary of Samuel Pepys to support them. Students write a diary entry about the plague.Here are some suggestions for further activities: Have a go at reading the original document first to spot familiar words, but all documents are transcribed and have simplified transcripts. It is suggested that teachers/helpers read through the documents together with the class. The questions encourage pupils to investigate the sources and make their own judgements on the evidence where possible. The lesson considers the measures taken by King Charles II in response to the plague and the reactions of some of the people to these restrictions, as well as providing contemporary comment on the situation. There was never an outbreak of plague in Britain on this scale again. Also, in plague scares after 1666, more effective quarantine methods were used for ships coming into the country. Probably, people started to develop a stronger immunity to the disease. If the rats did not die, their fleas would not need to find a human host and fewer people would be infected. Some scientists suggest that the black rat had started to develop a greater resistance to the disease. (Many plague deaths had occurred in the poorest parishes outside the city walls.) Nor was it due to the fire of London that had destroyed many of the houses within the walls of the city and by the River Thames. Sniffing a sponge soaked in vinegar was also an option.Īs the colder weather set in, the number of plague victims started to fall. Children were encouraged to smoke to ward off bad air. People thought impure air caused the disease and could be cleansed by smoke and heat. Sometimes, patients were bled with leeches. Treatments and prevention at the time did not help. In these cases, there was little hope of survival. Worse still was pneumonic plague, which attacked the lungs and spread to other people through coughing and sneezing, and septicaemic plague, which occurred when the bacteria entered the blood. This type of plague spread from a bite caused by a black rat flea that carried the Yersinia pestis bacteria. They had a 30% chance of dying within two weeks. Plague sufferers experienced headaches, vomiting and fever. This created swellings (buboes) in the lymph nodes found in the armpits, groin and neck. Most of the sick in 1665-1666 had bubonic plague. Use this lesson to work with original documents which tell the story of the Great Plague 1665-1666. How did Londoners react to this plague that devastated their lives? This meant many people lost their jobs – from servants to shoemakers to those who worked on the River Thames. There were to be no fairs or trade with other countries. The Council of Scotland declared that the border with England would be closed. Searchers looked for dead bodies and took them at night to plague pits for burial.Īll trade with London and other plague towns was stopped. Watchmen locked and kept guard over infected houses. The poorest people remained in London with the rats and those people who had the plague. The Lord Mayor and aldermen (town councillors) remained to enforce the King’s orders to try and stop the spread of the disease. Court cases were also moved from Westminster to Oxford. Parliament was postponed and had to sit in October at Oxford, the increase of the plague being so dreadful. Charles II and his courtiers left in July for Hampton Court and then Oxford. Those who could, including most doctors, lawyers and merchants, fled the city. They were attracted by city streets filled with rubbish and waste, especially in the poorest areas. Rats carried the fleas that caused the plague. The death rate began to rise during the hot summer months and peaked in September when 7,165 Londoners died in one week. The earliest cases of disease occurred in the spring of 1665 in a parish outside the city walls called St Giles-in-the-Fields. Other parts of the country also suffered. While 68,596 deaths were recorded in the city, the true number was probably over 100,000. London lost roughly 15% of its population. This was the worst outbreak of plague in England since the black death of 1348.
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