1 janv. 1665 - The Great Plague

Description:

The Great Plague was a deadly bacterial disease that struck London in 1665, killing around 100,000 people - 20% of the city's population. Many of the richer folk fled the city, whereas the poor were unable to. Doctors and priests were affected the most as the sick went to them for help.
Like the Black Death, superstition still dominated people's attitudes to the plague. To treat the disease, they mixed special remedies made from animal parts, or tried to purge the patients of excess humours by bloodletting - however this only opened new wounds that were prone to infection. People also used lucky charms, repentance, and fasting; in extreme cases, some strapped live chickens to their swellings, believing the disease would be transferred to them.
Unlike the Black Death, local councils took measures to prevent the spread of the plague (though these were largely ineffective due to lack of knowledge about causation). Plague victims were quarantined, areas where people were crowded (such as the theatre) were closed, people avoided touching others, dead plague victims were buried in mass graves away from houses, carts roamed the city collecting corpses for burial, and authorities called for the killing of cats and dogs as they thought they were the cause of the disease.

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