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The last visitation of the plague in S weden: the case of B räkne‐ H oby in 1710–11
Author(s) -
Schofield Roger
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/ehr.12097
Subject(s) - plague (disease) , generality , distribution (mathematics) , demography , flea , geography , biology , sociology , zoology , psychology , mathematics , archaeology , mathematical analysis , psychotherapist
In an earlier study of the plague in C olyton, D evon, the household distribution of deaths was studied to see whether this provided a method of identifying the causative disease. In this article, a known epidemic of plague in the S wedish parish of B räkne‐ H oby was studied as a means of testing out the generality of the household distribution of deaths. It was discovered that, in this case, the very heavy mortality was due to two radically different means of spreading the disease, initially the classic bubonic one through the rat flea, and latterly, and somewhat surprisingly, the pneumonic one, through the infection of the inhabitants by their own friends and neighbours.