The meaning of the Latin word "pestis" is not any other but "pest" (duh!), calamity or ruin. Still today, when we want to make reference to something noxious we do say that it is, effectivelly, a pest. One of the best historic references I may come up with is the Black Death, that punished Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa during the 14th century. It is estimated that between the years 1346 and 1353 somewhere around a third and a fourth of the European population died because of the Yersinia pestis, this is: Nearly 20 million people. It discriminated no one, and spread faster than we can imagine.
Considering that the medieval world was controlled by the catholic church and that it had a huge influence in nearly all aspects of the daily life: What if some of those religious beliefs caused an ecologic imbalance? An imbalance that brought along the nefarious consequences of this pest, that human history ever recorded.
Neither the first or the last.
Yes, it was not the first Pandemic that ever struck humankind, even so, people did not have an idea of the nature or means of contagion of the disease: This, made very unlikely that useful preventive actions were ever considered.
People used to blame the bad things to bad astrological combination or putrid "fumes" & "vapors"... Among a long list of other random superstitions and wild guesses.
We today know that it was the Yersinia pestis to blame. Yet, this knowledge was acquired very late, by the end of the 19th century, after the 3rd pandemic of this kind in China. Since then, the propagation and incidence of this disease has declines thanks to the improvement of general hygiene in our society, the development of antibiotics and the knowledge about the disease itself brought to us by science in the shape of epidemiology.
It was named "Black Death" because one of the symptoms was the appearance of black areas in the skin, thanksto subcutaneous hemorrhages (bleeding, under the skin). Today we know there's 3 variations of this pest. The most renowned one is the bubonic plague, that affects the lymph nodes and provokes the swelling of the ones located in the neck, armpits and (ouch!) groin.
This was the usual one during the low middle ages. There was no antibiotics, so mortality escalated over 75% of the cases, most of them during the first week of displaying any symptoms. Bad luck, it did not spread from person to person (in which case a quarantine would've done more that enough to contain the pest): It required of a "vector" that I will explain a few lines ahead.
Black Death, cats and rats.
How did it spread?
The most common medium of contagion was rodents and their fleas, being passed from the infected rodents to humans thanks to the fleas bite (this was "the" vector, the intermediate agent of transmission), yet, it could also spread by direct contact with infected animals and/or their "products".
The Yersinia pestis affects certain rodents, especially the black rat(Rattus rattus) (This one flourished in Europe around that time) and its flea Xenopsylla cheopis.
A diseased rat, carrying the bacteria, can infect the flea that feeds from its blood and this flea, under certain circumstances, to humans.
Why?
Once the diseased rat died because of the infections, the poor fleas remained homeless and starving, being forced to look for another host. Unfortunately, that new host could be a human.
Plague infected male Xenopsylla cheopis - source in image
Now, knowing this, consider living in that time, the 13th century, at some European city. A place full of people, too much people, with streets populated by swines and rats, that was NOT a very hygienic condition!.
But we'd have cats that would help controlling the vectors of contagion, right?
Yes, we would, if we had cats!
If you're a religious fanatic, please, stop reading here and never come back to my blog.
Cats, Witches and food chains.
During the middle ages one of the most relevant predators that kept the Black Rats in line was the cat(Felis domestica), domesticated by the Egyptians and introduced in Europe by the Phoenicians (I'm mentioning the Phoenicians way too much lately!) during the 9th century a.c. These felines were highly regarded because they kept rats away from the houses and places where food was stored.
But, something changed, something that made cats a creature to be feared, hated and prosecuted; especially those that were black.
Remember, back then the Catholic church was overpowered and the mobs were herded into "eradication of evil" no matter the shape it may have, any ecclesiastic choice had a HUGE influence in people's lives. By the end of the 12th century, in the south of France, the first inquisition started.
Tribunals formed by religious committees destined to battle heresy and witchcraft. Heresy was to have a mind on its own and think in another way that was not the one dictated by the religious despotism holding power. Witch craft was... Not even they had a clear definition! All it took was an accusation and a person would burn in a pyre for no real reason.
As this started, the cat was started to be seen as a suspicious animal, one that confabulated against the ruling authorities.
These suspicions were thanks to the ignorance people had about the cats' behavior and, also, because of its reserved personality and skills for survival. Many of them were associated to witches and their "witchcraft". The general population started fearing cats to the point that some "satanic attributes" were attributed to them.
The first step that doomed the poor animals was during the beginning of the 13th century, thanks to the Pope Gregory IX, that wrote that cats and the devil were "associated". Then, people started exterminating them with fire and torture, witches and cats, especially the black ones.
I knew the part rats played, but had no idea about the cats and the Catholic Church. Very interesting.
Speaking of rats, when I visited London I was surprised to see many museums sold rat toys. That's the British sense of humor, I suppose.
It actually comes as "another" method of pest regulation: Ratcatchers.
During the Victorian era (1837-1901), in England, ratcatchers had a LOT of work thanks to the topic mentioned at this post (yes, hundreds of years later, the overpopulation of rats and lack of cats could still be felt).
There was a particular breed of rats in the Island: The brown rat. This "little" (it actually was quite large) fella could have 15000 descendants in a year if not controlled! Ratcatchers found out that they could make their work worth double benefits, not by simply catching rats, but also selling them as "participants" in a rather cruel entertainment: Rat-Baiting (just like a cock fight, but with no feathers... And an eager dog in the middle, anxious for some rodent blood).
Following the line of "make your work worth more", they also started selling them as pets (they were large!)
Jack Black was the "official" queen's ratcatcher, he had a thing for "specially attractive" rats and bred them to become gifts for pretty women.
There were high class "clubs" of people that had rats as pets, and also some museums!
Some people still do like them as pets. Derived all from that story I just wrote that could've made an article by itself :p... they even have websites.
http://www.nfrs.org/
Wow, so their religious cleansing had a direct hand at increasing filth which claimed the lives of the souls they wanted so fervently to save. Irony at it's finest. I'd also point out that that's must still be upset with the Phoenicians to this day, lol they went from being worshipped as gods to being servants of the devil!
True for that!
I do need to write something about the Phoenicians, they were one of the major benefactors to today's modern economics and trading schemes.
I would definitely be interested in reading that!
informative . Thanks for sharing . followed you . and upvoted . coz u desreve it :-D
TYVM! :D
click here!This post received a 2.6% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @renzoarg! For more information,
really informative post............its a great work for the humanity, keep it up. thanks for sharing. i liked you post.
upvoted you.Hey @renzoarg !!
Nice post
I upvoted you, please lock up my post too and dont forget to upvote me @iqbalmaulana
If you want my upvote, you better quit abusing tags! Drain pipes installation and "bitcoin" as tag is not something I'm willing to give my upvote to.
A good read.... Thanks..
I see rats, I bark!
bork! BORK!
While this is a fun story, it is, unfortunately, something of a historical urban legend. There are absolutely no written records of mass killings of cats, first off. Even if they did occur, they had little to no impact on the death rate from the plague- in China, India, Central Asia, and the Middle East the death rates were just as high- and there definitely weren't any mass cat killings there, since the writ of the Catholic Church didn't extend that far.@renxoarg
These days, most historical research leans towards the idea that the Black Death was kicked off and exacerbated by the end of the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the beginning of the Little Ice Age, then exacerbated by the robust trade routes stretching from China to Europe at the time. (Though they were beginning to crumble with the fall of the Mongol Empire.)
I actually just did a book review a few days ago on The Great Transition, which covers this exact period of history. Good read, if extremely dense.
All that being said, still a pretty big fan of your posts! (I especially liked the phosphorous post the other day.)
Hmmmm.... really impressive way to highlighted the killing of awesome creature of the Earth cat....
Please save it...
There are free cats in middle east countries and far east. Seems still controlling such diseases
nice please follow and upvote for me
Fuck off, comment shitposter, there's no way you can read that in 1 minute.
He wants you to upvote for him though, free posting key!
ahahaha!
hahahahahahaha ^ ^ by the way awesome post...