Pathogen Atlas · The 6 Deadliest Bacteria

The 14th-Century Black Death

Era: 1347 – 1353

The cause of the Black Death, which killed an estimated 30–60% of Europe’s population in the 14th century. The famous beaked “plague doctor” costume came much later, in the 17th century: its beak was stuffed with herbs to ward off “miasma”, the foul air people still blamed for disease.

“The father abandoned the son, the husband the wife; for this sickness seemed to enter through the breath and sight.”
— Agnolo di Tura, Siena (1348)

Alexandre Yersin

Discovered in Hong Kong, 1894

Illustration: Burying plague victims in Tournai. Manuscript miniature, 14th century

Photograph: Epidemic prevention bureau, Harbin. Manchurian plague, 1910–1911

Micrograph: Yersinia pestis inside a flea. Scanning electron micrograph · NIAID

Illustration: The Sick Child. Painting by Edvard Munch, 1885–86

Photograph: Robert Koch. Portrait photograph, c. 1900

Rendering: Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a cord. Illustrative rendering, not a real micrograph

Map: John Snow’s map of the Broad Street outbreak. London, 1854

Illustration: Death’s Dispensary. Fun magazine, 18 August 1866

Rendering: Vibrio cholerae. Illustrative rendering, not a real micrograph

Illustration: Justinus Kerner. Pencil drawing, 1834

Portrait: Émile van Ermengem. Belgian bacteriologist, 1897

Illustration: Mary Mallon in hospital. Newspaper illustration, The New York American, 1909

Illustration: “Typhoid Mary”. Newspaper illustration, The New York American, 1909

Rendering: Salmonella Typhi. Illustrative rendering, not a real micrograph

Photograph: Envelope sent to Senator Tom Daschle. FBI evidence photograph, October 2001

Illustration: Pasteur vaccinating sheep against anthrax. Book illustration, 1926

Rendering: Bacillus anthracis in a chain. Illustrative rendering, not a real micrograph