The bubonic and pneumatic plague was awful sicknesses in which lymph nodes (in your armpits, groin, and neck) swelled up. These were called buboes, which is where the disease got its name. The people of the middle ages were helpless against the plague that was sweeping across Asia and Europe. The bubonic plague was transmitted by direct contact with an infected flea. The flea's esophagus is blocked by bacteria, and no blood is able to get to its stomach. The flea tries to satiate its extreme hunger, and when it bites a new host, it vomits infected blood in to the open wound. The human is then infected, and can transmit the pneumatic plague, by spraying droplets in the air and contaminating those around him.

This appalling disease is believed to have started in Asia. A city was struck with the plague, and they believed it to be...