The back of the plague doctor mask

Plague doctor’s long black nose cosplayer poses with a woman in a face mask … [+] Photographs at the Middle East Film & Comic Con in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, March 5, 2020. The Middle East Film & Comic Con started Thursday night in Dubai. Dubai is a city of skyscrapers and nightclubs that has been suddenly subdued by the outbreak of new things. Region-wide coronavirus. (AP photo / John Gunn Brel)

Associated Press

The images of plague doctors, or at least plague doctors, are once again in a slightly cultural moment, about 300 years after their actual heyday. They have become popular motifs for stickers, pins, masks, T-shirts and even stuffed animals during the Covid-19 pandemic (your loyal correspondent is a particularly pleasing collector). But what is the reality behind the iconic mask?

Not just a doctor

Dr. Pest was a government contractor. When the plague struck a European town, the local government hired a special doctor to treat the plague patients. Some of those contracts still exist today in various historical archives throughout Europe, mainly in places such as France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, where plague doctors are responsible, their practice limits, and the city Explains in detail the amount they pay.

Plague doctors’ salaries range from a few florins a month to room charges, food and expenses, but doctors couldn’t afford to pay themselves and even the poorest patients who couldn’t refuse admission had to be treated. did. Homes and neighborhoods struck by the plague. The plague doctor’s contract, on the other hand, also prohibits plague doctors from treating people who have not yet suffered from plague, and remains isolated from the rest of the community when the plague victims are not plagued. I had to. Both of these restrictions were to prevent plague doctors from carrying the disease to uninfected people.

When the plague hits the city, it may already have a doctor, usually doing private practice in the town. But those guys weren’t plague doctors. For one thing, they implemented their own practices instead of signing contracts with local governments. And while they could treat plague patients if they wanted, many preferred to avoid the risk for good reason. When the plague first arrived in Italy in 1348, many communities realized that they had no doctors because they died or fled in the plague. The plague doctor’s contract was an effort to solve the problem.

Shockingly, when the medieval and Renaissance cities hired doctors to do dangerous, depressing, highly stigmatized jobs, they imposed great restrictions on their lives, but doctors did the job. Did not fall down exactly to each other to compete. Plague doctors were often newly trained doctors or surgeons who needed to be experienced and named themselves. Otherwise, he was a doctor who had a hard time finding another job and continuing to practice. Sometimes they weren’t even doctors, only those who were willing to step into the quarantine zone and do their best.

Help here

Today, plague doctors look menacing and eerie. In the 1600s and 1700s, when the plague doctors appeared in the neighborhood, they were even more frightened by the signs that things were getting worse. Of course, it wasn’t the plague doctor’s fault.

In theory, the plague doctors were trying to relieve suffering and save lives, but neither they nor the patients had illusions. The plague was deadly in most cases. The best thing a plague doctor could do was drain blood and lymph from the swollen bubo that named the bubonic plague, but it could also help spread the infection. By the time the plague doctor appeared at your doorstep, you were already destined, so the nominally useful person was a precursor to death.

In fact, the most useful thing most plague doctors could do was keep a record of the number of infections and deaths in their community. They could also serve as witnesses while the patients were making wills. There was something very nice while they were doing an autopsy to understand the diseases that have devastated Europe for centuries.

Clothes for success

During the first centuries of the outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe, between 1348 and 1619, plague doctors did not have a particular outfit. However, around 1619, Charles de Roam, a court doctor of Louis XIV (later more famous Louis XIV) in France, proposed a costume to protect the plague doctor from the patient’s illness. It has become popular elsewhere in continental Europe (no known example from the UK) and has become the iconic plague doctor costume we know today.

Plague doctor costumes are obvious to those who understand how bacteria and viruses spread and are accustomed to seeing modern healthcare professionals wearing protective equipment such as surgical gowns and breathing masks. It is a genius stroke. A long leather gown covered the doctor from head to toe, and under the gown he wore leather leggings, boots, and gloves. Originally only 6 inches long, the beak-like mask was packed with dried flowers, strong-scented herbs, camphor or a sponge soaked in vinegar.

Dr. Pest also had a wooden cane, which allowed him to see, undress, and direct the patient without touching or getting too close. The cane also creates a handy tool for forcing social distance. This was actually the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance people were aware that it could delay the plague epidemic. They finished their outfit with a wide-brimmed leather hat. It was mostly an office badge, in case the mask was somehow too vague.

It looks like an early version of a breathing mask and surgical gown, but de Lorme has the idea of ​​protecting it from the odorous air of miasma, which was believed to be the cause of the disease until the 1800s, rather than from bacteria. I devised it. In fact, the plague doctor’s costume probably protected the wearer from coughing in the case of pneumonic plague and blood and lymph droplets in the case of bubonic plague. But most importantly, the waxed leather was probably protected from fleas.

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