The Black Death Caused Many Traditional Medical Methods to Fail
The Black Death was seen by many as the end of the world. People were dying left and right, until it seemed like everyone was going to die soon - and doctors were almost as powerless as anyone else to stop it. Before the Plague, alchemy was considered normal practice for doctors, and everyone believed that it helped in curing people of their diseases. Now however, alchemy was not helping at all in curing the Black Death. In fact, in many cases doctor's alchemy made things worse for the dying patient. Also, it is believed that doctors did more to spread the plague when they visited patients than to help the situation. Now, more importance was placed on surgeons, who could actually make an autopsy and look at the body to see what was happening.
The Black Death Improved Hygiene Throughout Europe
Before the plague, personal hygiene was very low on people's list of priorities. People did many things that would be unthinkable today including:
These would obviously increase the spreads of all diseases, and when the plague came around, this was one of the reasons it was able to spread so quickly. But now, because of the plague, people had a huge incentive to be hygienic. through trial and error, as the people around them were dying, the population of Europe eventually learned better practices. For example,while they didn't know about bacteria, they realized that boiling drinking water stopped many diseases, so a lot of people started doing that. Many villages and cities also started burning bodies after they died to stop the spread. Even after the plague ended, these better hygienic practices still persevered and improved life for later generations.
- Drinking contaminated water
- Bathing only a few times a year
- Burial of the dead in mass graves
These would obviously increase the spreads of all diseases, and when the plague came around, this was one of the reasons it was able to spread so quickly. But now, because of the plague, people had a huge incentive to be hygienic. through trial and error, as the people around them were dying, the population of Europe eventually learned better practices. For example,while they didn't know about bacteria, they realized that boiling drinking water stopped many diseases, so a lot of people started doing that. Many villages and cities also started burning bodies after they died to stop the spread. Even after the plague ended, these better hygienic practices still persevered and improved life for later generations.