-
So, ports are crucial in epidemics,
-
and in the development of public health measures to counter them.
-
Almost invariably in Western Europe the plague arrived in port cities
-
and then spread inland, following roads and rivers.
-
In the large cities, the disease typically would arrive in the spring,
-
reach a peak of ferocity after a few weeks,
-
then continue as a violent outbreak for two to four months,
-
and then decline with the coming of colder, dry weather,
-
either to disappear entirely,
-
or to be rekindled when favorable climatic conditions returned.
-
Well, that's the etiology, in a nutshell, of the plague.
-
I'd like to turn now to its symptomatology and pathology;