that rats and rat fleas were the most significant factors in spreading the disease. Some historians of medicine disagree. They point out that few of the accounts of the Black Death mention large-scale deaths among rats. This an inevitable accompaniment of a bubonic plague epidemic. The Black Death, according to these authorities, was spread primarily by bacilli coughed or sneezed into the air or by human fleas. The bubonic plague, they say, played a relatively minor part in the catastrophe. Some suggest that the Black Death was really a combination of simultaneous epidemics, of which an epidemic of plague was only one. (Nohl 33). Whatever the exact the cause or causes of the Black Death, it was the most fearful pandemic ever experienced by Western man. Throughout history there has been many plagues, that is, epidemics in which there were a large number of deaths. The earliest story of plagues that can be identified as they bubonic plague appears in the Old Testament. The Philistines had taken the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the Israelites and placed it in one of their own temples in the city of Ashdod. The Ark of the Covenant was actually a sacred wooden chest. "But the hand of the lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod . . . he smote them with emerods (Deaux 18)." The Philistines moved the Ark to another city, but the Lord "smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts." The exact meaning emerods is not known.After seven months of pestilence, the Philistines decided to return the Ark. The priest and the diviners of the Philistines suggested that an offering be sent with the Ark, "then ye shall be healed (Deaux 18)". When the Philistines asked what the offering should be, they received a reply: "Five golden emerods, and five golden mice according the number of the Lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your Lords. Wherefore ye shall make images o...
