Skip to content
Curated category

History of medieval medicine

  • Bubonic plagueAn Oriental rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis, carries a dark mass of Yersinia pestis bacteria in its gut. This bacterium forms a biofilm that blocks the flea's…
  • Black DeathIn 1347, Genoese trading ships fled the siege of Kaffa in Crimea. The Golden Horde army of Jani Beg had catapulted infected corpses over the city walls to…