I read this morning that a biologist down south has died of the Plague.

It's the biggest real, honest to goodness monster that still lies in wait for mankind -I think only ebola is anywhere near as scary or as destructive to human populations but it stays cooped up in Africa near the equator, thank God!  Others would disagree with me - there is still small pox, bird flu and typhoid fever, and, of course, tuberculosis, the disease that killed the great poet   Shelly and writers such as the Brontes back in the bad old days... Yes, people worry about AIDS but AIDS is no where near as dangerous because of the way it spreads and the time it takes to kill its victims. The list is smaller than it used to be and I am missing most of the worse ones... do the research and your hair will literally stand on end, my friends!

The Plague, which manifests itself in two forms, can be spread in one form as a cough. In the other form, as a flea bite.  This disease is no Godzilla or King Kong in size but it all but decimated Europe's population in the 1300's. In 1347-48 epidemic at least 1/3 of the population of Europe died, in some towns and cities the toll seems much higher - as many as 1/2 of some populations, died. Some medieval towns perished and never rebuilt. It ended the Middle Ages, the Feudal system, lowering the population of Europe until the 1850's.   It all but ended the respect for the Church's hierarchy because of the number of priests and nuns who fled the plague, well, like the plague  - and so much more of what had been a golden age for Europe.
The High Middle Ages had been a time of good climate, very high population numbers, Kings and Queens, and much that we now consider Western culture ( my beloved troubadours sang their way into history in the very late 1100's, for example.) Romantic love, one of our culture's main motifs was born in Southern France at the same exact time. The Romances of Arthur & the nights of the Round Table & the Holy Grail, all born in the high Middle Ages, when the weather was good, the population high and there was enough to eat for everyone. . The good weather lasted from 900 AD - 1300 AD.

But the weather changed around 1300 - by the early teens of that century it was cold and rainy, wet summers destroyed crops. European crops were extremely limited, still. (Remember, that many foods we now take for granted such as all kinds of potatoes & corn were not available until they were discovered in the Americas.)  Various disease followed the bad weather and massive epidemics took out the weak and old, the very young, first. And then in 1347, the Black Plague, the Black Death - came - and nothing was ever the same, again. This period is what is called the Little Ice Age - the weather of Europe was cold & wetter. Winters were horrific, some years and there was ice skating on the Thames, many years. Our culture turned darker.. the persecutions,the dark side of mankind and western culture have always existed but it was the Black Death that brought them to the forefront of our culture.  Our culture felt mortal and our mortality was right in front of us each morning as we opened our doors - if we were lucky enough to survive -  and death and dead bodies were as common as mmodern bill boards are today in modern cities. Very few families surrived without some loss and many families were entirely wiped out, think about what that did the psychology of those men and women, all our ancestors, and shudder for them, just a little.

(Think about that next time some one screams doom about our higher temperatures. My response? we do better in warmer weather than cooler, so bring it on.  )

And the worse part of the Plague? It reoccurred over many centuries, even appearing, here, in San Francisco in the late 1800's. It hid away, still hides away.  It tormented Europe for centuries.

The plague appears every so often in the deserts of the south-west U.S.A. in the wild life populations that abound in that area of the country. It also appears in India and in Africa in the human populations. It is one of the diseases that has, though it is easily cured if caught in time,the potentiality of destroying civilized life. We would not be in a technological era without our high population numbers and well educated, long lived scientists and technicians who can build and improve our sciences and technologies over their lifetimes. The Black Plague, in our era, would be a nightmare. It doesn't play favorites - we would lose the great scientist and the welder at the GM plant with the same rapidity. The Plague - pandemics generally could destroy everything mankind has built since the Renaissance.
  This time, it seems to have originated in a dead cougar.  The man, a biologist, died of the pneumatic version. Poor guy probably thought he had a bad cold or the Flu, until he began to spit up blood. Its not a pretty death and it destroys a human being very quickly.

  It often appears in the rat-like vermin of the desert. Its primary carrier is a small flea but the flea's body clogs with the disease and when it bites a mammal it transmits the disease  usually, first, to rodents, the rodents ( so ubiquitous to human habitations before the age of technology.)  die off and the fleas jump off and look for new homes - these homes, back in the middle Ages were often human beings, dogs, cats and livestock - or other wild life: in short-  any creature who makes a good home for the fleas.
So - a bad old monster popped up again in the South West United States. It keeps us humble to think about such things. Our great cities, our achievements - all we have built are but veneer. The Plague -  easily killed by antibiotics, killed a man and probably the cat he was studying. Want a monster movie, a horror story to keep you awake at night? I find the real thing terrifying.  People, today, think that we are mighty, that we are in control of nature, that we are smart beyond any of our ancestors - but the truth is that civilization always walks a razor's edge. Our old monsters lurk, waiting for us in the fur of wild cat, in the stagnant water in our back yard, in the mosquito that lands on us in summer.. in the gut of a flea. We aren't half as smart or invincible as we think.