Pestilence Stage 2

(B1) Vinegar & Rose Water Treatment

If a person gets the disease they should be washed with vinegar and rose water.

(B2) Lancing the Buboes

People who catch the pestilence have swellings on the neck, armpit and groin. We should cut open the swellings and allow the poison to leave the body. A mixture of tree resin, roots of white lilies and dried human excrement should be applied to those areas of the body that have been cut open.

(B3) Bleeding

The pestilence must be in the blood. We should cut open the veins leading to the heart. This will allow the pestilence to leave the body. An ointment made of clay and violets should be applied to those areas of the body that have been cut open.

(B4) Diet

We should not eat foods that go off and smell badly like meat, cheese and fish. Instead we should only eat bread, fruit and vegetables.

(B5) Sanitation

I think we should clean the streets of human and animal waste. We should put it in a cart and bury it in a field outside the village. All bodies should be buried in a deep pit outside the village. The clothes of the dead should be burnt.

(B6) Pestilence Medicine

Roast the shells of newly laid eggs. Ground the roasted shell into a powder. Chop up the leaves and petals of marigold flowers. Put the egg shells and marigolds into a pot of good ale. Add treacle and warm over a fire. The patient should drink this mixture every morning and every night.

(B7) Witchcraft

Place a live hen next to the swelling to draw out the pestilence from the body. To aid recovery you should drink a glass of your own urine twice a day.

(B8) Pest House

To stop the disease spreading all the plague victims should be kept together. We should build a 'Pest House' outside the village. We should take it in turns to look after the people in the 'Pest House'.