In 14th century Europe, the bubonic plague temporarily boosted wages and reduced agricultural rents.

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Without a groundswell of rodents, fears of bubonic plague should be set aside, or never feared at all.

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He made his first investment, in a theater company, just after bubonic plague had wiped out much of the competition.

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Bacteria, in contrast, often just lurk in the environment (like tetanus), and may thrive on many hosts (as does bubonic plague, for example).

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Of course, such losses would not threaten Labour's majority, which is proof against anything save an outbreak of bubonic plague in the Palace of Westminster.

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One study even suggested that people whose mother and father were both descended from ancestors who survived the bubonic plague in the seventeenth century appeared to be immune to HIV.

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This disease, spread like bubonic plague by fleas on rats that have escaped from ships, has come east from California into Texas and has slowly been working its way north up the Rocky Mountains.

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Suspicions are that the dig has revealed a "plague pit" -- one of many mass graves used to dispose of the bodies of those who succumbed to the Black Death, or bubonic plague, in the 14th century.

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"Or bubonic plague, " replied Judge Rakoff.

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Against this backdrop, any gratification one might have felt at hearing reports of bubonic plague killing al Qaeda operatives in North Africa has to be tempered by a sobering thought: At least one of the Shariah-adherents' terrorist franchises may be actively experimenting with weaponized versions of deadly pathogens.

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