   playwright game the show for educators dossier players
locations evidence glossary works In Search of Shakespeare -
Home « back     Full Timeline     Fribbling Reports   The plague
mass graves Mass graves  It is believed that the plague may have
claimed almost 200 million lives worldwide. In pandemics during
the fifth and sixth centuries, and then later between the eighth
and fourteenth, the plague is believed to have wiped out nearly
50% of the population in those affected areas.  The source of
the plague and its ability to leap continents was a major puzzle
for physicians until, in 1894, Alexandre Yersin isolated the
plague bacillus, which would be named after him, Yersinia
pestis. Yersin developed an antiserum, and suggested the link
with fleas and rats.  In earlier centuries rats were a serious
problem on all seafaring vessels, and migrated wherever the
ships carried them. Riding the rats were the fleas, which would
in turn bite humans, causing the plague to jump species and
attain its deadly human fo