![]() Often prescribed treatments made people suffer more. Among the many bizarre and useless cures for the bubonic plague were bloodletting and poultices made with feces (p. Some suggested “preventatives” against the bubonic plague were to eat crushed emeralds, live in a sewer, avoid bad smells, place chopped onions in your house, drink your urine, and don’t look at sick people (Wright p. Some of what people are doing and saying about COVID seems tame in comparison to behavior during past pandemics. Medical scientists have been able to develop working vaccines and helpful medicines in a short time to help combat COVID deaths.Īlso, the historical details Wright’s book provides can-strangely enough-be a soothing balm. Those statistics provide some comfort when compared to COVID statistics. And horrifically, smallpox wiped out entire civilizations in the New World. It, too, killed quickly, especially people in their twenties. Worldwide death estimates from the Great Influenza of 1918 range between 25 million and 100 million (p. ![]() The bubonic plague killed quickly and painfully, wiping out tens of millions of people in the 14 th Century. ![]() Wright’s book provides historical perspective. My great-grandfather Joseph, in the vest and tie, died of typhoid fever in 1922. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |