Plants and the Plague

Plague has gone down in history as one of the terrors of humanity, and if there was perhaps but one word that conjured fear in the minds of people centuries ago it would have been that of ’plague’. Without any understanding of germ theory physicians could only attempt to deal with the visible symptoms of a plague attack and not overcome the bacterium at its’ heart, Yersinia pestis. Plants and the Plague looks at around three dozen plant species used in the herbal medicine response to plague and pestilence in past centuries. It also looks at the clinical background to the disease, past medical thinking on the subject, courses of treatment formerly used, and numerous plague remedies that the selected plants found their way into. It is a story of superstition, tragedies of error, and faith in misguided medical precepts, but also one of incredible bravery on the part of those physicians and doctors who stayed behind to treat the afflicted and dying in the face of this killer disease.