God Bless You

i read that during the middle ages, when the black plague spread all across Europe, the phrase " god bless you" became a custom thing to say to whoever sneezes. the reason is that sneezing was a symptom of being infected with the plague. therefore anyone that sneezes is presume to be infected and destined to die. this is why people started using " god bless you" for anyone who sneezes because it meant that he or she is dying. this idea stuck for centuries. when I read in the book about the diseases that swept the colonies in America it reminded me of that time in the middle ages, which wasn't that far. Yellow fever, Cholera, Malaria and other epidemic broke all around the colonies. the difference is that in the middle ages, they opted into saying "god bless you" and that was it. there was no hope and no attempts of treatments while in colonial America some people came up with theories to analyze the diseases and to treat them. Physicians thought that miasmas coming from bad vegetation were the cause. they also thought being touched by dirty hands might be the main culprit. many efforts of quarantine took place to no apparent success. they may not have found a solution, but they sure did an awful lot more than their counterparts in the middle ages.