The Big Issue

We died differently back then

In 1592, the deadliest disease of all time, namely plague, returned to London resulting in the deaths of 17,000 people. In response, the Lord Mayor of London ordered that pairs of elderly and responsible women, summoned by ringing a bell, should have the revolting job of viewing every fresh corpse and deciding whether they died from plague or not. Identifying a plague victim could have dire consequences,

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