Building on the theory of miasma, some plague doctors in France set the scented material inside their masks on fire in the hopes that the smoke would help to clear the bad air. However, for a small group of French doctors, spittle and prattle were probably not as concerning as the fires inside their masks.
The design of these plague masks made it almost impossible for the doctors to speak to other people, which added to the already notable loneliness of the profession. In addition to the risk of contracting the disease-as well as the social stigma-they had an unpleasant experience just wearing the uniform.Īnyone who has ever worn a mask for Halloween knows how gross and annoying it can be after a few hours. While patients obviously had it rough during the plague, their doctors didn’t have it much better. Read more at 10 Crazy Cures for the Black Death.
Air can be infected, and filtration can fix it. Filled with herbs and spices, the mask was intended to overpower or drown out the miasma, thereby protecting the doctor.Īlthough we now know that you can’t simply stop an airborne illness by putting more stuff in the air, we should at least acknowledge that they weren’t completely off the mark. It was theorized that “poisoned air” (aka “miasma”) was the cause, which is how the masks came to exist. So everyone was still trying to figure out how disease actually spread. Remember that this was designed before doctors started washing their hands. Doctors also used these canes to signal to their assistants and fend off distraught family members.īut clearly, the most notable aspect of the uniform was its beaked mask, which does have a logical explanation. The doctors’ wide-brimmed hats were supposed to signal their profession (in case the rest of the costume was too subtle), and their canes were used to examine victims without touching them. The full-length coat was made of waxen leather, which was designed to be impermeable. So the obvious question is: Why?īasically, this was humanity’s first attempt at the hazmat suit. These costumes may not have existed at the same time as the Black Death, but they did exist eventually. To discover more devastating details about the Black Death, check out 10 Factors That Made The Black Death So Deadly. However, that theory has been called into question in more recent years. The most likely explanation as to why these costumes became associated with the Black Death is the suspicion that bubonic plague was the cause. Even then, it was not widely used until several decades later during the plague of 1656. Plague doctors with their famous attire did not appear until 1619. Since then, scientists have been trying to identify the actual disease, and bubonic plague has long been considered the most likely culprit. The “Black Death” is the name given to the biggest pandemic in recorded history, which claimed the lives of up to 200 million people from 1346 to 1353. Although plague doctors were clearly and repeatedly associated with the Black Death, a grand total of zero doctors wore beak masks during that period.
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