Next time you complain about fleas it would be prudent to think about an age past when a simple bite could spell your immanent death. This is of course, the Bubonic Plague , better known as the Black Death.
This disease is historically one of the most notable diseases of the middle ages, killing one third of Europe’s population, a total of nearly 200 million lives. It is believed that the rats transported the disease filled critters through the London sewers, and then promptly bit humans who died within 4 to 7 days of infection.
So when next your children play ‘Ring around the rosy” consider the fact that they’re enacting the steps that claimed so many lives. As “posies” were flowers that kept the smell of death away, while “Ha-choo, Ha-choo, we all fall down” refers to the first sign of oncoming death, sneezing. So, it would be advisable to count your blessings as a bite is no longer deadly.
