1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,840 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:07,560 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know 3 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: from house stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 4 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:19,200 Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always this 5 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:22,439 Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and that makes this stuff you 6 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:27,800 Speaker 1: should know the podcast, the audio podcast. Nothing more? Got it? 7 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 1: Not a lot less then comparably sized podcasts. No, no, 8 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 1: this is chock full of good stuff. This one's good 9 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:38,400 Speaker 1: of man, do you think so? Oh? Yeah, I liked it. 10 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:39,879 Speaker 1: You like this one? Yeah? I like some of the 11 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:42,000 Speaker 1: historical stuff we did. Man, I love it. You know, 12 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: as a history major at one point, I love history, yeah, Chuck. Yes, 13 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: So we're talking about the Black Death, yeah right, not 14 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 1: Black Sabbath like death. Well, I'm gonna need some more 15 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:57,960 Speaker 1: time now, okay, so we'll wait, hold on, okay, alright, 16 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:04,600 Speaker 1: I'm back. Yes, you understand now what we're talking about? Great, chuck. Um. 17 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: I was researching this to find out, like, okay, what's 18 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 1: newsy about the Black Death? Like? How am I going 19 00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:12,240 Speaker 1: to find an intro? I actually found one? Really, Yeah, 20 00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 1: it's it's from two thousand six, February two thousand and six. Sorry, 21 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:19,560 Speaker 1: but there was a study that came out of you 22 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,919 Speaker 1: tricked university. Have you ever heard of the Little Ice Age? 23 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:30,000 Speaker 1: There was a period in um world history, global history. 24 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:34,320 Speaker 1: I think it may have been kind of localized to Europe. 25 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:39,200 Speaker 1: So let's say European history in about the fifteen hundreds, 26 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:45,679 Speaker 1: where there was this inexplicable period of cold. Interesting, right, 27 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:50,279 Speaker 1: it's called the Little Ice Age, harmful cold. It got cold, 28 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 1: like our our conception of like why you know, vikings 29 00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 1: were pelts and everything, they're always walking around it's very cold, 30 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: not just because they live in skin navya, but because 31 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 1: it was cold. Then okay, so this Little Ice Age, 32 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: like I said, inexplicable. No one had any idea why 33 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:13,440 Speaker 1: it happened. And these you tricked researchers got that got 34 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: ahold of some tree samples, some leaf samples from eras 35 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: before the Little Ice Age and after, and they started 36 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:27,240 Speaker 1: counting stomas. These are the pores on the leaves. The 37 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: more stomage you have, the more carbon dioxide there is 38 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:33,480 Speaker 1: in the air. Leaves developed these stomas, they can absorb 39 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 1: more C O two. Right, So if so facto, the 40 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:39,560 Speaker 1: more stonage you have, the more c O two in 41 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:42,640 Speaker 1: the atmosphere, and what they found by counting these stomas 42 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,040 Speaker 1: was that there was a lot of c O two 43 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:50,600 Speaker 1: prior to the forties in Europe. That means that there's 44 00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:52,799 Speaker 1: not that much c O two. You know that there 45 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 1: was a lot of c O two in the air 46 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:57,600 Speaker 1: in the atmosphere. One reason there's a lot of CEO 47 00:02:57,639 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: two is because there's not a lot of trees to 48 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:03,360 Speaker 1: soaked that CEO two up. One reason there's not a 49 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:05,520 Speaker 1: lot of trees is because humans are cutting down the 50 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: trees to farm land, right or just stay warm. There's 51 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:16,799 Speaker 1: there's fewer trees deforestation brought on by human activity. Okay, 52 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:22,040 Speaker 1: So what they find then is that after fifty roughly, 53 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:26,280 Speaker 1: there's suddenly fewer stomas, which means that there's less c 54 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:28,520 Speaker 1: O two in the air, which means that there's more trees. 55 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:31,520 Speaker 1: Do you know ei there are more trees? Do you 56 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 1: I have a good guess it's because in between that time, 57 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:40,440 Speaker 1: the forties and the thirteen fifties, the Black Death happened 58 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:45,320 Speaker 1: and so many people died that it had a measurable 59 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: effect on the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of 60 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:52,800 Speaker 1: not that many trees and then suddenly lots of trees 61 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:55,240 Speaker 1: because there was no one to tend this farm land 62 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: in the interesting you know what else, This was a 63 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: tidbit from the end. But money, as we'll say it here. 64 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:03,640 Speaker 1: They think that there is a lack of genetic diversity 65 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:07,360 Speaker 1: in the UK today because of the Black Death, they 66 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 1: were much more genetically diverse than the eleventh century. It 67 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:15,880 Speaker 1: represented what's called the population bottleneck. Million people died, about 68 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:20,440 Speaker 1: a third of the population of Europe, which is mind boggling. Yeah, 69 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:22,479 Speaker 1: it's all right, let's do it. Well, I was reading 70 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:24,440 Speaker 1: this one his story in his name is Skip Knox, 71 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:26,080 Speaker 1: and I don't know where he is now, but when 72 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:29,400 Speaker 1: he wrote that it was at the university no Boise State, 73 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:33,719 Speaker 1: and he said, um, he goes it's uh, it's worth 74 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:39,400 Speaker 1: saying this has never happened before or since. It was 75 00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 1: an event like this where within about to three years 76 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:50,880 Speaker 1: million people died. That's never happened before. I mean, no 77 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 1: war can account for that, Yeah, no other pandemic. Yeah, 78 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 1: it's this is this was it. This was as bad 79 00:04:56,360 --> 00:04:59,080 Speaker 1: as it gets, and it was bad that it was bad, 80 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:02,400 Speaker 1: and it was bad not is because of the ultimate devastation, 81 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,520 Speaker 1: but it was bad because of how gnarly the black 82 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:07,640 Speaker 1: death is. Yeah, why don't you want to talk about 83 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:10,840 Speaker 1: some symptoms? All right? If you had the Black death, 84 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,040 Speaker 1: this is what you had to look forward to. First 85 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:16,560 Speaker 1: of all, you had no idea what was happening to you. 86 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:20,880 Speaker 1: Neither did your doctor, neither did your local cardinal or bishop. 87 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:22,800 Speaker 1: And you know, they didn't know a lot back then, 88 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: but they had their like cock eye theories. At least 89 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,040 Speaker 1: they didn't even have cock eye theories on this. They 90 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:30,320 Speaker 1: had a cock eyed theory that everybody went along with. 91 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:32,880 Speaker 1: They developed some but initially they're like, I don't know 92 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:37,760 Speaker 1: what this is, but you have these big tumor lumps. 93 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:40,920 Speaker 1: You got them on your body, you got black spots. 94 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:44,120 Speaker 1: Well tell them about the tumors somewhere small, but they 95 00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:46,720 Speaker 1: could get pretty big. Yeah, some as big as an apple. 96 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:48,880 Speaker 1: And they said in the article here that if you 97 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:51,200 Speaker 1: had one on your neck, it could permanently like cock 98 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:54,080 Speaker 1: your head to one side, permanently, meaning like the five 99 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:58,200 Speaker 1: days you had. I know, I hope it's okay to 100 00:05:58,279 --> 00:06:03,080 Speaker 1: laugh a little bit this now. And you surely know, um, 101 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: you had plus using out of sores, open sores. You 102 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:12,479 Speaker 1: had a nasty smell because you were riding from the 103 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:17,520 Speaker 1: inside out. Your breath was awful, it was gruesome. Purple splotches. 104 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:20,640 Speaker 1: God's tokens, right, Yeah, they call them God's tokens because 105 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:23,560 Speaker 1: once you got these, that means God's gonna take you 106 00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:27,520 Speaker 1: off the earth pretty soon. That's God's token. Fevers that 107 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:32,400 Speaker 1: could fry your brain, send you into delirium, vomiting, coughing 108 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:37,440 Speaker 1: up blood, blood, and plus using I've already said it's 109 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:40,560 Speaker 1: worth twice. So um, those are some of the symptoms. 110 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:44,159 Speaker 1: And once you start having these symptoms, you are pretty 111 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:46,920 Speaker 1: much done for within a matter of days. Right, and 112 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:50,600 Speaker 1: so in our modern day, it takes a little while 113 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:54,520 Speaker 1: to bury somebody, even with this machinery that we used 114 00:06:54,520 --> 00:07:00,200 Speaker 1: to to dig modern graves um, but back and it 115 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 1: took even longer to dig a grave, to hold the 116 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:06,479 Speaker 1: service to bury somebody. And when people die within days 117 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 1: and suddenly there was like a third of the population 118 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: dying off. There was no time to bury anybody, no space. 119 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:17,480 Speaker 1: There's literally stacking up dogs, eating corpses. It saysn't here 120 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:23,200 Speaker 1: children hungry ChIL babies beside their dead mothers. Yeah, Molly 121 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:28,840 Speaker 1: Edmans really when they wrote this man Um. Yes, but 122 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 1: that's the truth. I mean, that was crazy. That was 123 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:32,960 Speaker 1: the raw truth. That was an ugly, ugly, ugly scene. 124 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:35,200 Speaker 1: And of course anyone who see Monty Python knows that 125 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,360 Speaker 1: there are people who operated carts that banged on the pot. 126 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:42,040 Speaker 1: Since I bring out your dead, yeah, and well we'll 127 00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:45,280 Speaker 1: get into the flinging. Of course it is too. Well, 128 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:47,440 Speaker 1: let's get into the flinging because that's kind of how 129 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:49,680 Speaker 1: it started. Um. And first I want to point out 130 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 1: the Black Death, you know, gripped Europe. It did not 131 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:58,840 Speaker 1: only impact Europe. It's so funny, it's so eurocentric the 132 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:01,680 Speaker 1: way we approached the Black Death. It started in the 133 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:06,120 Speaker 1: Gobi Desert sometime in the late thirteen twenties in China. 134 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:10,040 Speaker 1: China lost thirty five million people in the fourteenth century 135 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:13,240 Speaker 1: from the Black Death. You know, no one ever mentioned 136 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:16,080 Speaker 1: They always hear about the Europe the Black Death in Europe, 137 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:19,360 Speaker 1: so it was localized and it was actually in in 138 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 1: Asia and Central Asia, um for a decade or two. Um. 139 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,800 Speaker 1: But they blame it pretty squarely on the Genoese for 140 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 1: bringing it to Europe. Right, yes, how did the Genoese 141 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:34,680 Speaker 1: get it? Well? In thirteen seven in Kafa, which is 142 00:08:34,679 --> 00:08:38,160 Speaker 1: modern day Ukraine. It was a Genoese trading post. They 143 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:42,080 Speaker 1: were attacked by the Tartar army. Uh. Tartars start to 144 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:44,400 Speaker 1: die off by the plague, and the Genoese are like, 145 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:49,760 Speaker 1: sweet God as punishing our enemies and they're dying, Let's 146 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:52,640 Speaker 1: have a big party and celebrate. And then the Tartars 147 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:54,920 Speaker 1: are like, well, we're gonna start flinging our dead corpses 148 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:57,480 Speaker 1: over the wall at you because the smell is so awful. 149 00:08:57,559 --> 00:09:00,160 Speaker 1: You will die from the smell. They weren't two far. 150 00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:02,360 Speaker 1: It was a stupid idea, but stupid idea of what 151 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:05,120 Speaker 1: at work, because they actually what they were doing. What 152 00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:08,959 Speaker 1: they were doing was germ warfare, very early germ warfare. Right. 153 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:11,040 Speaker 1: They had it wrong though they thought it was a smell. 154 00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:16,120 Speaker 1: Actually it was this pestilence, and so the Genoese you know, said, oh, 155 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 1: we need to get rid of these nasty bodies. But 156 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:19,280 Speaker 1: it was too late. They were infected by that point. 157 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:24,679 Speaker 1: The Genoese fled to Sicily, and then from there it 158 00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: took two pass one. Uh where was the first one? 159 00:09:28,559 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: The well? The first one went up through um Austria 160 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 1: and Germany, and then the second path went through Um 161 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:38,959 Speaker 1: Italy to France to the UK. Yes, at a speed 162 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:41,439 Speaker 1: which doesn't sound fast, but it really is. If you're 163 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:44,319 Speaker 1: talking about black death, about two and a half miles 164 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:46,560 Speaker 1: a day. And not only is it fast like even 165 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:49,800 Speaker 1: by today's standards, this is before This is when people 166 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:52,240 Speaker 1: were riding horses and carts and the two a half 167 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:57,360 Speaker 1: says real, it's lightning fastest trained fast for that time. Yeah, yeah, 168 00:09:57,440 --> 00:09:59,559 Speaker 1: Why is it called the black death? Actually, do you 169 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:03,199 Speaker 1: know this? I do, So there's a there's a mistranslation. 170 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:07,320 Speaker 1: At some point, well back in the day, people called 171 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:11,839 Speaker 1: that the big death or the great mortality, the big death, 172 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:13,719 Speaker 1: that's bad. That's what they called it as it as 173 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 1: it was happening, right and then um later on it 174 00:10:16,559 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: came to be known as the um ultra morse, which 175 00:10:20,559 --> 00:10:26,760 Speaker 1: is Latin for terrible death or black death. At some 176 00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:29,280 Speaker 1: point in time, somebody decided that they liked the black 177 00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:33,559 Speaker 1: death better. Uh, and sometime in the eighteenth century when 178 00:10:33,559 --> 00:10:38,160 Speaker 1: they were using it to differentiate them Plague of London 179 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:43,480 Speaker 1: in sixteen sixty five, But they mistranslated. It wasn't originally 180 00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:47,319 Speaker 1: called the black death or the um terrible death. It 181 00:10:47,360 --> 00:10:49,720 Speaker 1: was called the Big Death. And then it just kind 182 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: of went from there all right. Well, at the time, 183 00:10:53,679 --> 00:10:57,600 Speaker 1: King Philip the sixth of France turned it over to 184 00:10:57,640 --> 00:10:59,880 Speaker 1: the Paris College of Physicians, who were they were like 185 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:03,720 Speaker 1: the Mayo Clinic of the time, and they said, here, 186 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:06,240 Speaker 1: we need to figure out what this is. What is it? 187 00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:09,080 Speaker 1: Smartest doctors in the world, and they says, we know, 188 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:11,120 Speaker 1: we figured it out. It's all here on the report. 189 00:11:11,679 --> 00:11:14,160 Speaker 1: This is uh, this happened when Saturn and Jupiter and 190 00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:19,240 Speaker 1: Mars lined up in Aquarius and Jupiter's roll wet and hot, 191 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:21,600 Speaker 1: and it soaked up the evil vapors from the Earth 192 00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:24,880 Speaker 1: and Mars is dry, so it exploded those vapors, and 193 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:28,120 Speaker 1: now it is a fog of death. And they very 194 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:31,360 Speaker 1: smugly pinpointed the time that it happened one pm on 195 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:37,280 Speaker 1: March and they just slicked their heads like but they 196 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:39,880 Speaker 1: did say it was a fog of death. My guess 197 00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: is that it was probably pretty foggy for some reason, 198 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:45,720 Speaker 1: some weather system happened, or they were onto something like 199 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:51,160 Speaker 1: it was being transmitted through the air somehow, which you know, 200 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:53,240 Speaker 1: they might have been actually onto something there with an 201 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:58,800 Speaker 1: airborne pathogen. Possibly. Instead they went with the fog of death. 202 00:11:58,880 --> 00:12:01,520 Speaker 1: From the planets aligning. And another term for a fog 203 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:04,160 Speaker 1: of death is a miasma. It's a corrupted bit of air. 204 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 1: And this is what Europe went with, right, Yeah, like, okay, 205 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:12,679 Speaker 1: well these are the smartest guys as far as medicine goes. 206 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:17,560 Speaker 1: They have the longest crow'sbeak masks of anybody. Um, and 207 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:19,720 Speaker 1: we're gonna go with this fog of death thing, So 208 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:22,240 Speaker 1: how do we combat it? And what they figured out was, well, 209 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:25,400 Speaker 1: since you're breathing this fog, you got to keep the 210 00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:27,560 Speaker 1: fog at bay. And one good way to do that 211 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:31,679 Speaker 1: is to fight fog with fire smoke. So there were 212 00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:36,160 Speaker 1: fires everywhere. Yeah, they were recommended to burn um aromatic wood, 213 00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:39,200 Speaker 1: so people would and people even carry this stuff around rosemary, 214 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:43,040 Speaker 1: amber and musk. The Pope even stood between two fires 215 00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:45,600 Speaker 1: when he addressed people. Yeah, they kept them burning on 216 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:51,560 Speaker 1: the street corners. Um. And then there were the fact 217 00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:53,960 Speaker 1: that it was coming from the south and it was 218 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:58,600 Speaker 1: a fog of death. They started putting glass in their 219 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,560 Speaker 1: southern windows so that the southern wing couldn't penetrate it. 220 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:04,040 Speaker 1: See that kind of smart there it is. They weren't 221 00:13:04,040 --> 00:13:06,520 Speaker 1: all hokey. Now, some that seemed kind of smart. What 222 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:14,000 Speaker 1: didn't seem very smart was don't bathe don't have physical intimacy, 223 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: although it's a good way to spread disease. So maybe 224 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:19,560 Speaker 1: they're onto something there. Um, don't sleep during the daytime, 225 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:23,320 Speaker 1: avoid sad thoughts to spreading it. They're like, just don't 226 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:26,959 Speaker 1: be lazy. Yeah, yeah, avoid sad thoughts about disease. There's 227 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,199 Speaker 1: something to that if you believe in the mind. Uh, 228 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 1: if you believe in positive psychology exactly. So some of 229 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:35,560 Speaker 1: the little hokey there was a little substance to a 230 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:38,280 Speaker 1: bit of it. Um, I have a little cocktail tidbit 231 00:13:38,320 --> 00:13:42,400 Speaker 1: for you, though, so awesome. I don't know. The word 232 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:46,400 Speaker 1: quarantine actually comes from the Black Death in Venice, Italy. 233 00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:49,120 Speaker 1: They were pretty smart and they said, you know what, 234 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:51,320 Speaker 1: we should start isolating some of these ships of people 235 00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:53,560 Speaker 1: that are coming in, not let them come on land 236 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:55,680 Speaker 1: until we know that no one on board is is sick. 237 00:13:56,160 --> 00:13:57,920 Speaker 1: So let's do this for like thirty days. And then 238 00:13:57,960 --> 00:13:59,600 Speaker 1: they went, now that's not long enough. It's let's do 239 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:07,760 Speaker 1: it for four days, forty days or qua quaranti quarantine. 240 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:11,240 Speaker 1: That's where the word came from. Well, it's not as 241 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:14,199 Speaker 1: much of a stretch of somebody. Besides Chuck is pronouncing it. 242 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:17,320 Speaker 1: But yes, that is where quarantine. Look at it. It 243 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:20,560 Speaker 1: looks like they were quarantine. Yeah, so that's pretty smart too. 244 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:23,680 Speaker 1: There were some smart people. Still, six of the population 245 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:27,920 Speaker 1: of Venice died within I think eighteen months. Yeah, so 246 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:33,360 Speaker 1: the quarantine, while practical and useful, you know, didn't protect everybody. Yeah, 247 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:35,640 Speaker 1: and you know, we don't know what the doctors were 248 00:14:35,680 --> 00:14:38,440 Speaker 1: doing that much because all we have here is just 249 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:42,360 Speaker 1: recorded documents of what was going on. Well there there 250 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:46,720 Speaker 1: there wasn't even documentation. It was popular writers, church writers. 251 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:48,800 Speaker 1: It wasn't like science journals. I mean, not a lot 252 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:51,240 Speaker 1: of people knew how to read and write during this time, 253 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:53,880 Speaker 1: and the ones who did normally were affiliated with the church, 254 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:56,440 Speaker 1: so they would have had a very religious view of 255 00:14:56,440 --> 00:14:59,640 Speaker 1: what was going on. Right. Um, they're probably blood letting 256 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,640 Speaker 1: the yeah, the like the physicians that were working the 257 00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:07,200 Speaker 1: Crow's mass guys um were uh, blood letting. They were 258 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:11,360 Speaker 1: um opening up these bu bos, which is it's almost 259 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:17,320 Speaker 1: like a textual representation of a pussy boo. They would 260 00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:20,720 Speaker 1: open these and drain them because that made sense to 261 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:24,960 Speaker 1: get rid of whatever is in there. I guess very smart. Yeah, Um, 262 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:30,280 Speaker 1: we still do that today, Poppins. It's yeah every Tuesday. Uh. 263 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:32,920 Speaker 1: Religion comes into play pretty heavily there because a lot 264 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:35,640 Speaker 1: of people said, you know, let's let's turn to God 265 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:38,840 Speaker 1: and pray for help. Well, a lot of people thought 266 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,720 Speaker 1: that this was punishment from God. Oh yeah, the flagellents, 267 00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:44,480 Speaker 1: so only he could do anything about it or she 268 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:48,760 Speaker 1: depending in New York and um, so yes, the flagillents, 269 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:52,040 Speaker 1: chuck take it. The fligillents of Germany. Yeah, the Brotherhood 270 00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:56,240 Speaker 1: of the flood Flagellents had our vigilance. Flagelence had already 271 00:15:56,240 --> 00:16:00,480 Speaker 1: been around, not flagilens though, no very big difference. They're 272 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:02,520 Speaker 1: already around. But they rose up, like you said, in 273 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:06,000 Speaker 1: Germany the in the mid thirteen forties, and they thought 274 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:07,840 Speaker 1: it was punishment from God. And they thought, you know what, 275 00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:09,760 Speaker 1: we're gonna do something about it. So you've heard of 276 00:16:09,800 --> 00:16:11,920 Speaker 1: self flagellation, that's where it comes from. They would walk 277 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:16,800 Speaker 1: barefoot across Europe whipping themselves with their little whatever cat 278 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:22,000 Speaker 1: of nine tales. Uh, scourges, scourges like that had like 279 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:25,880 Speaker 1: sharp kind of barbed ends. Uh. It didn't work, though, 280 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:29,560 Speaker 1: and a lot of people turned against God because of that, 281 00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 1: they also killed a lot of Jews. The Flagellnce did 282 00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:38,920 Speaker 1: a flagelence. Yeah, highly they killed Jews. They would kill 283 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:42,200 Speaker 1: clergy that opposed them, except for the Pope, and the 284 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:45,640 Speaker 1: Pope was like, you're officially denounced, and I think thirteen 285 00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:48,480 Speaker 1: forty nine and that was it for the flagelence, although 286 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,400 Speaker 1: they popped up again in later um plugues and pestilences, 287 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:57,400 Speaker 1: but they stopped for the black death, like immediately when 288 00:16:57,440 --> 00:17:00,280 Speaker 1: they denounced them. Well, they killed Jews because it was 289 00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:03,160 Speaker 1: a pretty bad rumor going around that the Jews had 290 00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:06,560 Speaker 1: uh were poisoning the water supply, and because at the 291 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:09,800 Speaker 1: time Christians and Jews lived separately, largely a lot of 292 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:14,119 Speaker 1: Jewish Jewish communities were effectively quarantined so they didn't get 293 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:17,080 Speaker 1: hit as hard. So all of a sudden, Jews are 294 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:19,719 Speaker 1: I don't know prosperings the right word, but they're not 295 00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:23,760 Speaker 1: dying like the Christians are, so so that Christians started 296 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:27,600 Speaker 1: burning them as they started burning them alive. Apparently in Strasbourg, 297 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:33,000 Speaker 1: the Germany was more Jews died in Germany than anywhere 298 00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:36,159 Speaker 1: else um at the hands of Christians who were upset 299 00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:43,040 Speaker 1: about the plague um and in Strasburg in uh, let's see, um, 300 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:46,480 Speaker 1: I think thirteen forty eight, on one day, two Jews 301 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:49,679 Speaker 1: were burned alive at the stake, just that one city 302 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:52,840 Speaker 1: on that one day. And apparently entire communities used to 303 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:55,560 Speaker 1: be walled up and set on fire with everybody, or 304 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:58,320 Speaker 1: Jews would convert Christianity on the spot, or they would 305 00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:01,160 Speaker 1: set their own houses on fire. Yeah, which is kind 306 00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,440 Speaker 1: of sensible, like, oh, look, my house is already on fire. 307 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:07,520 Speaker 1: Better I should probably take off, keep on walking, see 308 00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:10,359 Speaker 1: you guys later. Well, a lot of Jews fled to 309 00:18:10,359 --> 00:18:13,480 Speaker 1: the countryside, didn't they too, because they were able to. Yeah, 310 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:15,080 Speaker 1: good for them, is what I said. Well, I don't 311 00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:17,200 Speaker 1: think it was just Jews. I think anybody who had 312 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:20,399 Speaker 1: the means of going to the countryside, which is crazy 313 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:22,840 Speaker 1: because I mean, like going to the countryside means like 314 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:25,160 Speaker 1: stepping out your back door. I thought in like the 315 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:30,000 Speaker 1: fourteenth century, but apparently there were still the wealthy went 316 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:31,679 Speaker 1: out to the country once in a while, and they 317 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,960 Speaker 1: would Yeah. So it was needless to say, it was 318 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:39,160 Speaker 1: a really rough few years for Europe um and by 319 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:45,800 Speaker 1: fifty two it was largely gone. Yeah, it just took off. 320 00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: But what I mean there was. It's not like all right, 321 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:51,720 Speaker 1: black desk on, everything's cool now. They were like huge, 322 00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:57,280 Speaker 1: huge effects. Apparently the um self flagellation worked, right, Yeah, 323 00:18:57,680 --> 00:18:59,520 Speaker 1: sure that's what it was. Well, yeah, you have to 324 00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:03,119 Speaker 1: imagine a third, right, So that means that between you, 325 00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:08,840 Speaker 1: me and Jerry, one of us dies. That's not necessarily true. 326 00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:13,960 Speaker 1: I'd set myself on fire. Um okay, so then two 327 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:18,760 Speaker 1: of us would have died, right, Um, I mean a third, 328 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:24,320 Speaker 1: a third of of this this population within like seriously, 329 00:19:24,359 --> 00:19:29,280 Speaker 1: like two years is just gone. People are um being 330 00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:32,040 Speaker 1: eaten by dogs or corpses are being eaten by dogs 331 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:35,679 Speaker 1: in the streets. Families are just completely abandoning one another 332 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:39,280 Speaker 1: once they get sick. The whole um social psyche, the 333 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:42,639 Speaker 1: collective psyche of Europe just kind of crumble a little bit. 334 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:45,400 Speaker 1: It took a pretty big ding. And one of the 335 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:48,080 Speaker 1: places it took that ding was in religion. A lot 336 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:52,399 Speaker 1: of heretical society sprung up because it was like either 337 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 1: this was your work, God, or you didn't do anything 338 00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:58,680 Speaker 1: to help us, so we're not coming to church anymore. 339 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:02,760 Speaker 1: Instead of being really thankful that they survived, people uh 340 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:07,680 Speaker 1: partied like it was basically crazy parties. Yeah, a lot 341 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:14,000 Speaker 1: of debauchery, lots of debauchery. Um. Uh. There was an 342 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,240 Speaker 1: economic impact to a huge one. Well yeah, if half 343 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:19,680 Speaker 1: your sorry, if a third of the workforce is gone, 344 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:24,240 Speaker 1: you've got no one working, So labor is gonna skyrocket. 345 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: The price of labor is the price of labor is 346 00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:31,359 Speaker 1: cost of goods food, you know, the little silver lining. 347 00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:34,280 Speaker 1: Their food was in supply because there weren't as many 348 00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:38,720 Speaker 1: people to eat it. Exactly. Sadly, the other cool thing 349 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:42,960 Speaker 1: does it's potentially we saw the birth of modern science 350 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:45,960 Speaker 1: and medicine because of the Black Death. Because the leaders 351 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:50,320 Speaker 1: we're like, you know, this whole planet's aligning thing was 352 00:20:50,359 --> 00:20:52,560 Speaker 1: pretty stupid now that we look back at it, So 353 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:56,040 Speaker 1: why don't we found some schools and do some real 354 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:59,320 Speaker 1: research based on physical science and give that a whirl. 355 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:03,479 Speaker 1: And it started. It worked, which was some kind of 356 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,639 Speaker 1: ironic as well, because the population was so decimated that 357 00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:09,199 Speaker 1: it even after they had this idea, they had to 358 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:12,159 Speaker 1: wait a little while to reopen schools because they couldn't 359 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:16,840 Speaker 1: staff them. Oh yeah, um. And also, chuck, there were 360 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:20,399 Speaker 1: there was an almost complete loss of any illusions about 361 00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:23,760 Speaker 1: death and whether or not it's coming for you. Um, 362 00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:28,080 Speaker 1: there's a whole allegory and art that um that sprang 363 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:30,840 Speaker 1: up at the time called Dance macab which is the 364 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:34,119 Speaker 1: dance of death, which is basically like you know, showing 365 00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:38,880 Speaker 1: living people and skeletons, you know, working side by side 366 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:42,639 Speaker 1: or um hanging out or partying together or whatever. And 367 00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:44,560 Speaker 1: the point of that is that you know, death can 368 00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:47,320 Speaker 1: come at any time, and it's coming for everybody. So 369 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:49,600 Speaker 1: art and poetry and things like that just took a 370 00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,600 Speaker 1: real down return there for a while because that was 371 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:55,680 Speaker 1: clearly what everyone was thinking about at the time. That's right, Chuck, 372 00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:59,000 Speaker 1: Uh what caused it? See? This is where I get 373 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:03,240 Speaker 1: a little, um, a little confused, because there's conflicting information 374 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:05,600 Speaker 1: even to this day. Well it's um one of those 375 00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:08,359 Speaker 1: things where we thought we figured it out, but uh, 376 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:13,960 Speaker 1: modern techniques and modern investigation have kind of led us 377 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,840 Speaker 1: to think, is you like that? I have have led 378 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,440 Speaker 1: us to think that maybe that first idea hasn't wasn't right. 379 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:24,320 Speaker 1: The first idea came out of the third pandemic, which 380 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:29,320 Speaker 1: was in eighteen nine in Hong Kong and India. Right, Um, 381 00:22:29,359 --> 00:22:38,320 Speaker 1: and two bacteriologists Alexander Jerson and Uh Shibasaburo Kitasato, thanks Um. 382 00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:43,199 Speaker 1: They worked independently and isolated the cause of that third pandemic, 383 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,440 Speaker 1: and it is what we know today as bubonic plague. 384 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:50,960 Speaker 1: It's a bacterium called your Cina pestis um, named after 385 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:55,679 Speaker 1: Alexander Jerson right um, and it it lives in the 386 00:22:55,760 --> 00:23:00,560 Speaker 1: four gut of fleas, rodent fleas that feast on rat. Yeah, 387 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:04,800 Speaker 1: this was interesting, I thought, because the flea bites the 388 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:08,879 Speaker 1: regular fleet um bites rat and drinks blood, and it's like, 389 00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:14,480 Speaker 1: oh man, that was fantastic. Uh. If you're infected with 390 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:17,800 Speaker 1: the your sena, you're sending a pestus and your fleet. 391 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:21,159 Speaker 1: You bite the rodent and you eat the blood, but 392 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:22,960 Speaker 1: it gets stuck in your foregut, and so you never 393 00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: feel that quench of that tasty, tasty blood in your 394 00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:29,359 Speaker 1: stomach if your flee. So you keep biting more and 395 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:32,360 Speaker 1: more rodents and infecting more and more roes because you're, 396 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:35,480 Speaker 1: like we talked about with the fleas, regurgitating it back 397 00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:38,000 Speaker 1: onto rodents, and all of a sudden you're killing all 398 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,159 Speaker 1: these rodents and then when there are no more rodents 399 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:43,800 Speaker 1: and the fleas will go to people. And so they 400 00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:47,560 Speaker 1: thought that's how it was spread, which makes sense because 401 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:51,720 Speaker 1: it's not like um conditions were really sanitary in the 402 00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:53,879 Speaker 1: Middle Ages, or there were plenty of rights before the 403 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:58,440 Speaker 1: Middle Ages. Um the fourteenth century, right, yeah, um, yeah, 404 00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:01,439 Speaker 1: there were plenty of rats, plenty of fleas um. The 405 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:06,080 Speaker 1: problem is that there's a lot of discrepancies between bubonic 406 00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:10,639 Speaker 1: plague or your sena, your Cinea pestis and whatever. The 407 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,440 Speaker 1: Black Death was right, so you've got like a big discrepancies. 408 00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:19,560 Speaker 1: You've got um bubos right with both, but bubo is 409 00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:23,280 Speaker 1: under the bubonic plague. Um tend to spring up around 410 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:26,879 Speaker 1: the growing area only, And descriptions of bubos with the 411 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:29,560 Speaker 1: Black Death or that they were all over the place, 412 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:33,680 Speaker 1: all over your body. Um bubos or bubonic plague doesn't 413 00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:40,120 Speaker 1: cause um purple splotches. It doesn't cause delirium, doesn't yeah, 414 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:44,040 Speaker 1: Or the vomiting um, blood and and pus and all 415 00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:47,439 Speaker 1: that stuff. There's a lot of stuff that was documented 416 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:51,480 Speaker 1: widely by different sources during the Black Death that doesn't 417 00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:53,800 Speaker 1: have anything in common with bubonic plague. Well, the big 418 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:57,040 Speaker 1: one to me was the fact that bubonic plague, even 419 00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:00,760 Speaker 1: if you don't treat it as mortality rate of about 420 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: and from the sounds of the Black Death, it was, 421 00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:08,040 Speaker 1: you know, near a hundred taken down entire villages, right, 422 00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,600 Speaker 1: So they did figure out that the third pandemic in 423 00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:17,080 Speaker 1: was caused by your cinea pestis bubonic plague, but they 424 00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:22,320 Speaker 1: erroneously possibly attributed it to the Black Death. But for 425 00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:25,199 Speaker 1: about a hundred years, that was the premise that everyone 426 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,280 Speaker 1: went on was bubonic plague was a Black Death until 427 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:34,760 Speaker 1: and some researchers who have been dubbed um plague deniers. Yeah, 428 00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:37,199 Speaker 1: I have started to come up with competing theories, and 429 00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:41,359 Speaker 1: there's there's some interesting ones. Yes, sociologists Susan Scott and 430 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:45,760 Speaker 1: biologist Christopher Duncan. I think that it is a hemorrhagic 431 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:52,399 Speaker 1: fever like ebola. Makes sense. Some say anthrax or maybe 432 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:55,239 Speaker 1: some just disease that is not around, some extinct disease, right, 433 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:58,440 Speaker 1: like it went extinct somehow after after the Black Death. 434 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:02,080 Speaker 1: The thing though, is the DNA study and the nineteen 435 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,080 Speaker 1: nineties they dug up some corpses from mass graves in 436 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:09,440 Speaker 1: France tested the teeth because I guess dental pulps about 437 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:11,720 Speaker 1: the only thing you contest at that point, and they 438 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:15,600 Speaker 1: did find that the y pestis in the samples. So 439 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:17,679 Speaker 1: they said, oh, yeah, so it was a plague. But 440 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:20,560 Speaker 1: then they apparently looked at other bodies from other grave 441 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:24,119 Speaker 1: sites and that it wasn't conclusive, so they didn't find 442 00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:27,919 Speaker 1: it at all. So what does that mean? I don't know. 443 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:33,600 Speaker 1: What do you think? Um? Well, Skip Knox, that historian 444 00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:37,280 Speaker 1: are referred to earlier. His um his theory is that 445 00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:42,520 Speaker 1: it was bubonic plague working in concert with the mnemonic plague, 446 00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:48,000 Speaker 1: so it was respiratory, which is um bubo pneumonic. Yeah, 447 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:50,639 Speaker 1: which basically his ideas that there are two plagues working 448 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,920 Speaker 1: at once, or that's the theory he subscribed to, which 449 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,919 Speaker 1: I don't know. It's it seems likely to me that 450 00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:00,960 Speaker 1: there's probably some bacterium that's either extinct or worse than 451 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,639 Speaker 1: that dormant right right, Let's hope it's dormants. Not the 452 00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:06,199 Speaker 1: word I want to be hearing right now. Oh, and 453 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,160 Speaker 1: there's one other thing that was a problem with the fleas. 454 00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:12,200 Speaker 1: There were two other problems that we didn't mention. One 455 00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:15,200 Speaker 1: was that there should have been a die off of rats, 456 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:17,720 Speaker 1: because remember they jumped from rats to humans when there's 457 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,399 Speaker 1: no more rats and there's no documented die off of 458 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:25,840 Speaker 1: rats in Europe before the plague ever um. And then secondly, um, 459 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:29,919 Speaker 1: what was the winter should kill fleas? That's right, Chuck, 460 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,520 Speaker 1: but it didn't. Well, it does kill fleas, but it 461 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:37,160 Speaker 1: didn't have any effect on the spread of the Black Death. Well. 462 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:39,959 Speaker 1: The other problem though, is it's like we said, it's 463 00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:42,560 Speaker 1: all the stuff that's written down, so it's not like, 464 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,240 Speaker 1: you know, you said the bubos are near the groin area. 465 00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:50,280 Speaker 1: But at the time, you know, with the sensationalism of 466 00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,720 Speaker 1: of the day, people they could have been writing, you know, 467 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:55,399 Speaker 1: the sores all over their body, and you know, they 468 00:27:55,440 --> 00:28:00,240 Speaker 1: could have exaggerated some of the symptoms because of fear. Uh. Yeah, 469 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:02,120 Speaker 1: I just don't know how much I trust the records 470 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:04,800 Speaker 1: of hundreds in Europe. Well. Plus also, there was no 471 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:09,800 Speaker 1: standardized medical jargon either for them to use or that 472 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,000 Speaker 1: that they could use that we would understand. Yeah, so 473 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,800 Speaker 1: we're cobbling together what we think they meant, what this 474 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:18,760 Speaker 1: one person meant. But they think the numbers of deaths 475 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:24,000 Speaker 1: are pretty accurate. This is pretty crazy. One third. Oh, 476 00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:27,720 Speaker 1: and we're talking about how it's so eurocentric. In Cairo, 477 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:34,120 Speaker 1: seven thousand deaths a day at its peak, the black death. 478 00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:38,680 Speaker 1: Sorry the black death. Wow. Yeah, let's say for black death. 479 00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:41,760 Speaker 1: If you want to see some pretty cool pictures, um 480 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,720 Speaker 1: and read more about it, I strongly recommend this one. 481 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,400 Speaker 1: Type in black death in the search bar at how 482 00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. And it's time now for a 483 00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:57,120 Speaker 1: listener mail. Josh. I'm gonna call this our second Mafia mail. 484 00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:00,600 Speaker 1: Sometimes we get so much mail from one topic that 485 00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:02,880 Speaker 1: we feel like we should read more than one email 486 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:06,120 Speaker 1: on the topic, especially when it's accompanied by physical threats. 487 00:29:06,560 --> 00:29:10,360 Speaker 1: That's right. So this is from Kate the Canucks Stewart, 488 00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:12,320 Speaker 1: that's what she calls herself, which I thought it was 489 00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,840 Speaker 1: kind of funny. Hi, Josh and Chuck and Jerry. I'm 490 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:18,120 Speaker 1: a huge fan of the podcast, but I've never written 491 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:20,920 Speaker 1: in before because I never had much to say besides 492 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:23,400 Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I love you guys. It's a great 493 00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: reason right in by the way. Um, However, after listening 494 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:29,360 Speaker 1: to the Mafia Cast, it just had to write you 495 00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:32,160 Speaker 1: an email to have some info from my family's past. 496 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:36,120 Speaker 1: My grandmother on my mother's side, it's a second cousin 497 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,160 Speaker 1: to the infamous Lucky Luciano. Most of the men and 498 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,440 Speaker 1: her family were made and although she was largely kept 499 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:45,640 Speaker 1: out of the loop when it came to the wheelings 500 00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:49,480 Speaker 1: and underdealings of her family. Like Diane Keaton and the 501 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:52,760 Speaker 1: god fine Uh. There is one event that really brought 502 00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,440 Speaker 1: home the kinds of things her brother and cousins were 503 00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:57,680 Speaker 1: up to. When my mom was only a baby, my 504 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:01,200 Speaker 1: grandfather ran out on my grandma. When my great uncle 505 00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:03,280 Speaker 1: heard about this, he and his cousins asked my grandma 506 00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:06,000 Speaker 1: if she wanted them to take care of him for her. 507 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:09,880 Speaker 1: She really didn't know what that meant, but responded, maybe 508 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,840 Speaker 1: even jokingly, well, don't kill him or anything. The next day, 509 00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:15,479 Speaker 1: she got a phone call that her husband had been 510 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:18,880 Speaker 1: admitted to a hospital, badly beaten, with both of his 511 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:22,360 Speaker 1: legs broken. Clearly, it wasn't prudent to mess around with 512 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:25,360 Speaker 1: members of my family. There are other rumors swirling around 513 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:27,640 Speaker 1: about different ventures that my great uncle and cousins were 514 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:31,479 Speaker 1: involved in, but they were notoriously tight lipped about everything. 515 00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:33,320 Speaker 1: As far as I know, no one in my family 516 00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:35,520 Speaker 1: is a part of the mob anymore, and no one 517 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:37,920 Speaker 1: has the broken legs. No one has broken the legs 518 00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:42,080 Speaker 1: of any of my ex boyfriends. But I wouldn't date 519 00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,600 Speaker 1: you just to be on the safe. That huh. That 520 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:49,880 Speaker 1: is Kate the canuck Um. Thanks a lot, Kate appreciate that, 521 00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,360 Speaker 1: and all you Canucks listening out there, thank you very 522 00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:58,200 Speaker 1: much for moral this and thousands of other topics. Is 523 00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:00,600 Speaker 1: it how stuffworks dot com? So and more about the 524 00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:03,520 Speaker 1: podcast click on the podcast icon in the upper right 525 00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:06,760 Speaker 1: corner of our homepage. The House Stuff Works iPhone app 526 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:12,880 Speaker 1: has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you 527 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:16,280 Speaker 1: by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are 528 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:16,480 Speaker 1: you