Just reading "Galileo's Daughter" by Dava Sobel, and this is what she wrote
about the bubonic plague:

"The first symptom typically erupted as a swelling of the lymph nodes under
the arms or between the thighs.  These large, painful, pus-filled lumps,
called buboes, gave the pestilence the name 'bubonic plague'.  Ranging in
size from almonds to oranges, they were the focus of treatment by doctors,
some of whom advocated burning the buboes with incandescent gold or iron,
then covering the wound with cabbage leaves....."

It was not clear whether the treatment dates from the worst plague in the
1340s, or from the plague in Galileo's time (1630s), but it's obviously a
treatment that has survived the test of time - unlike incandescent gold!

Jacquie Nutt

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