The Plague Doctor is a physician who treats patients with the bubonic plague and the Black Death. One of the most recognizable figures of the Middle Ages, closely associated with the concepts of "epidemic" and "quarantine". Below we will tell you the most interesting facts about plague doctors, and you will find out why they wore masks with long beaks, and what methods they used to treat (or, often, torment) their patients.
7. Plague Doctors and the Black Death
One of worst pandemics in human history, called the Black Death, was an outbreak of the bubonic plague. And although the plague doctors in their traditional guise are associated primarily with this terrible disease, the costume appeared later than the Black Death.
The famous bird-masked anti-plague uniform was developed by the French doctor Charles de Lorm, who healed many European royalty in the 17th century, including King Louis XIII and Gaston of Orleans. He wrote that during the outbreak of the plague in Paris in 1619, he developed clothes made entirely of Moroccan goat skin, including boots, pants, long coat, hat and gloves.
The costume was widely used during the plague of 1656 in Italy. The wearing of such an outfit was spelled out in the contract that each plague doctor concluded with the city councils.
However, plague healers, albeit without their characteristic costumes, did appear in the 14th century. This was initiated by Pope Clement VI, who in 1348 invited several doctors specifically to treat the inhabitants of Avignon affected by the bubonic plague.
6. Features of the costume
One of the most interesting facts about Plague Doctors is related to their extravagant and intimidating appearance. The Plague Doctor looks like a cross between a steampunk raven and a Grim Reaper. In Italy, this image was so iconic that the plague doctor became a major contributor to the Italian comedy of masks and carnival festivals - and remains a popular cosplay character even today.
The costume included the following items, made of waxed leather or oiled canvas:
- long coat,
- shirt,
- breeches,
- gloves,
- long boots,
- a wide-brimmed hat that was supposed to indicate a profession (in case the rest of the suit was too vague).
- A cane that was used to examine patients without touching them. Doctors also used these canes to signal their assistants and ward off distraught or fearful family members or the patient.
But the most noticeable aspect of the uniform was the mask with crystal or glass eyepieces and a long beak, which has a logical explanation. Doctors at the time did not know how the disease actually spread. It has been suggested that the cause of the plague was “poisoned air” (aka “miasm”). And the mask, filled with over 55 herbs and other ingredients such as viper powder, cinnamon, myrrh and honey, was designed to suppress the miasms, thereby protecting the doctor.As long as the air passed along the long beak, it “cleared” and supposedly became safe.
Although the plague doctor costume has become a theatrical and eerie symbol of the "wild time" in medical history, it is in fact the visible embodiment of medical myths about the spread and prevention of plague. Every detail of the suit reflects a changing understanding of the causes and transmission of disease, the relationship between doctors and patients, and the role of the state in protecting public health.
5. Burning mask
Although the patients were obviously having a hard time during the plague, their doctors were not doing much better. In addition to being at risk of getting sick, they experienced severe discomfort due to their suit.
Anyone who has ever worn a medical mask during quarantine knows how unpleasant it is to be in it after a couple of hours. Imagine what it would be like to wear a mask that almost does not allow you to talk, hardly allows you to breathe, and even poorly visible through it.
In addition, based on the miasm theory, some plague doctors in France set fire to aromatic material inside their masks in the hope that the smoke would help purify bad air. Making a fire close to your own face - what could be more "fun"?
4. Plague doctors treated everyone. But not free
Given that the plague was so contagious that doctors needed a special suit, it would be easy to assume that they only treated those who could afford it. But that was not the case. The poor may not have been able to afford treatment, but the plague was so contagious that the rich couldn't afford to spread it to the poor.
For this reason, city councils hired and paid for plague healers without dividing them into rich and poor patients.
Although the position of plague doctor was well paid, it was usually held by three types of people:
- novice doctors,
- those who have experienced difficulties in private practice,
- volunteers who had no medical training but were willing to try to treat others.
In many cases, cities have provided doctors with additional benefits, such as a free home, payment of expenses, and a pension. As a result, plague doctors, who technically treated patients for free, effectively embarked on lucrative careers.
3. Outcasts
A doctor is a prestigious profession in almost all countries of the world (here Russian doctors can laugh bitterly, and why is a topic for a separate article). However, with the plague doctors, a somewhat different story turned out.
They spent so much time with infected people that healthy people, including general practitioners, were afraid to interact with them.
While de Lorme was fortunate enough to live to an impressive 96 years, most plague doctors became infected and died even with the suit, and those who did not get sick often lived in permanent quarantine. Indeed, it can be a lonely and ungrateful existence for the one who saves, or at least trying to save the lives of other people.
2. Duties of Plague Doctors
The main duties of the plague doctor, oddly enough, were not only to treat patients. They were more administrative and labor-intensive, as doctors had to remove and bury corpses, keep records of victims of the epidemic and cases of cure, do an autopsy or witness when drawing up a will, and testify in court if necessary.
Unsurprisingly, this meant that some plague healers took money and valuables from their patients' homes or ran away with their last will and testament.
1. Horrible treatments
Since the doctors treating the bubonic plague faced only nightmarish symptoms and not a deep understanding of the disease, they resorted to some questionable ones. dangerous and painful treatments.
Some have practiced covering buboes - inflamed lymph nodes filled with pus - with human excrement.Bloodletting was a popular treatment for the plague, and if that didn't work, the plague doctor might recommend filling the house with incense, burning buboes with a red-hot iron, or piercing them to drain pus. If this also did not benefit the dying poor fellow, he could be treated with arsenic and mercury, or given medicines that cause "useful" vomiting and urination.
Not surprisingly, such attempts at treatment often hastened death and infection.
However, there were also professionals who did not aggravate the suffering of patients, but organized more or less effective measures to prevent the spread of the disease. So, Michel Nostradamus, who was not only a famous predictor, but also one of the plague doctors of his time, in the "Treatise on the preparation of jams" recommended to separate sick people from healthy people and keep them in different parts of the city.
Although the plague doctors for the most part could not prevent or alleviate the physical suffering of the sick, they gave people a ghostly hope of salvation and were often the last ones to admonish the dying.