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Age in medieval plagues and pandemics: Dances of Death or Pearson's bridge of life?
Author(s) -
Hanley James,
Turner Elizabeth
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
significance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1740-9713
pISSN - 1740-9705
DOI - 10.1111/j.1740-9713.2010.00426.x
Subject(s) - plague (disease) , pandemic , death toll , humanity , history , demography , genealogy , gerontology , covid-19 , ancient history , disease , sociology , medicine , philosophy , theology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology
Death has long obsessed humanity. In times of plague and pandemic even more so. Medieval man saw four horsemen of the apocalypse, and of them, Death by disease was gathering the greatest harvest. How randomly did he gather? And how random is the death toll in later pandemics? James Hanley and Elizabeth Turner look at Karl Pearson's visualisations of mortality.