"At first, Caffa looked like it might fall to Janibeg’s immensely superior forces. But in November of 1346, Janibeg’s army was devastated by a sickness known for it’s purplish apple-sized swellings, or “bubos,” that appeared on the lymph glands of its victims. This Bubonic Plague, or “Black Death” as it came to be known, was breathtakingly virulent. It took an estimated five to seven agonizing days for its victims to die—a near certain fate once the disease was contracted. In some cases, the victims spit noxious blood and died within a day. The disease ravaged the Tartar army, turning near certain triumph into near certain defeat in a matter of weeks. But the tenacious Khan was nothing if not creative. With his army sickened, Janibeg decided to lift the siege, but not before gathering the corpses of his army’s plague victims and catapulting them over Caffa’s city walls. It was the first recorded instance of biological warfare."
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/11/you-think-ebolas-bad-try-the-black-death-112985.html?ml=m_pm#.VGzSUIuG81I
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