No pigs or other animals are allowed within the city anymore. Fleas live on the rat, and carry the disease to human beings by biting them. In the 17th century, doctors and scientists did not know this. Tis a good thing that we are here in the less crowded part of the city. In the poorer areas, the Plague runs rampant once it gets started.
Houses there crowd in on each other and conditions truly ARE unhygienic and unsanitary.
So many people die during outbreaks of the plague that it is difficult to arrange a Christian funeral. So many of the priests have either died or fled that the bishop of Bath and Wells in England declared that when no priests are available, anyone can give the last rites, even a woman baring the presence of a man to perform the duty. Burying the dead also became a problem. People are dropping dead in the streets and fields. Great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead.