View source for Medicine:Plague doctor costume

{{short description|Clothing worn by plague doctors that was intended to protect them from infection}}
[[File:Paul Fürst, Der Doctor Schnabel von Rom (Holländer version).png|thumb|Paul Fürst, engraving, {{circa|1656}}, of a plague doctor of Marseilles (introduced as 'Dr Beak of Rome'). His nose-case is filled with herbal material to keep off the plague.<ref>Füssli's image is reproduced and discussed in Robert Fletcher, [https://archive.org/stream/atragedygreatpl00fletgoog#page/n26/ ''A tragedy of the Great Plague of Milan in 1630''] (Baltimore: The Lord Baltimore Press, 1898), p. 16–17.</ref>]]
The clothing worn by [[Unsolved:Plague doctor|plague doctor]]s was intended to protect them from airborne diseases during outbreaks of [[Medicine:Bubonic plague|bubonic plague]] in Europe.<ref name="BodySystems">
* Pommerville (Body Systems), p. 15
* Bauer, p. 145
* Byfield, p. 26
* Glaser, pp. 33-34</ref> It is often seen as a symbol of death and disease.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Andrew Whalen On 3/19/20 at 1:31 PM EDT|date=2020-03-19|title=Are surgical masks the new plague masks? A history of the not-always-helpful ways we've reacted to pandemics|url=https://www.newsweek.com/surgical-masks-plague-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-epidemic-black-death-history-1493277|access-date=2021-03-09|website=Newsweek|language=en}}</ref> However, the costume was mostly worn by late [[Philosophy:Renaissance|Renaissance]] and early modern physicians studying and treating plague patients.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Black|first1=Winston|last2=May 2020|first2=All About History 19|title=Plague doctors: Separating medical myths from facts|url=https://www.livescience.com/plague-doctors.html|access-date=2021-03-09|website=livescience.com|date=19 May 2020|language=en}}</ref>

==Description==
[[File:Medico peste.jpg|thumb|Plague doctor outfit from Germany (17th century)]]

The costume consists of a leather hat, mask with glass eyes and a beak, stick to remove clothes of a plague victim, gloves, waxed linen robe, and boots. <ref name="BodySystems3">* Pommerville (Body Systems), p. 15
* Bauer, p. 145
* Byfield, p. 26
* Glaser, pp. 33-34</ref>

The typical mask had glass openings for the eyes and a curved beak shaped like a bird's beak with straps that held the beak in front of the doctor's nose.<ref name="Ellis2022">Ellis, p. 202</ref> The mask had two small nose holes and was a type of [[Engineering:Respirator|respirator]] which contained aromatic items.<ref>*Time-Life Books, pp. 140, 158
*Dolan, p. 139
*Ellis, p. 202
*Paton
*Martin, p. 121
*Sherman, p. 162
*Turner, p. 180
*Mentzel, p. 86
*Glaser, p. 36
*Hall, p. 67
*Infectious Diseases Society of America, Volume 11, p. 819
*Grolier, p. 700</ref> The beak could hold dried flowers (commonly [[Biology:Rose|roses]] and carnations), herbs (commonly [[Biology:Lavandula|lavender]] and [[Biology:Peppermint|peppermint]]), [[Biology:Camphorosmeae|camphor]], or a [[Chemistry:Vinegar|vinegar]] sponge,<ref>O'Donnell, p. 135</ref><ref>Stuart, p. 15</ref> as well as [[Biology:Juniper berry|juniper berry]], [[Chemistry:Ambergris|ambergris]], cloves, [[Chemistry:Labdanum|labdanum]], [[Biology:Myrrh|myrrh]], and [[Biology:Storax balsam|storax]].{{sfn|Byrne|2006|p=170}} The purpose of the mask was to keep away bad smells, such as the smell of decaying bodies. The smell taken with the most caution was known as miasma, a noxious form of "bad air". This was thought to be the principal cause of the disease.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-12-31|title=Plagues of the Past|url=https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/special-edition-on-infectious-disease/2014/plagues-of-the-past/|access-date=2021-03-09|website=Science in the News|language=en-US}}</ref> Doctors believed the herbs would counter the "evil" smells of the plague and prevent them from becoming infected.<ref name="Loudon">Irvine Loudon, ''Western Medicine: An Illustrated History'' (Oxford, 2001), p. 189.</ref> Though these particular theories about the plague's nature were incorrect, it is likely that the costume actually did afford the wearer some protection. The garments covered the body, shielding against splattered blood, lymph, and cough droplets, and the waxed robe prevented fleas (the true carriers of the plague) from touching the body or clinging to the linen.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Kiona |title=A Look Behind the Plague Doctor Mask |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2021/02/28/a-look-behind-the-plague-doctor-mask/?sh=a1379a335678 |work=Forbes |access-date=15 February 2023}}</ref>

The wide-brimmed leather hat indicated their profession.<ref name="BodySystems2">* Pommerville (Body Systems), p. 15
* Bauer, p. 145
* Byfield, p. 26
* Glaser, pp. 33-34</ref><ref>Center for Advanced Study in Theatre Arts, p. 83</ref> Doctors used wooden canes in order to point out areas needing attention and to examine patients without touching them.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Imagery From the History of Medicine|url=http://art-bin.com/art/medhistorypix/omedicalimages19.html|access-date=2021-03-09|website=art-bin.com}}</ref> The canes were also used to keep people away<ref name="JAMA2">{{Cite book|last=Association|first=American Medical|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5k_lAAAAMAAJ&dq=beak+doctor+costume+%22plague+doctor%22&pg=PA639|title=JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association|date=1900|publisher=American Medical Association.|language=en}}</ref>{{sfn|Byrne|2008|p=505}} and to remove clothing from plague victims without having to touch them.<ref>Pommerville, p. 9</ref>

==History==
The exact origins of the costume are unclear, as most depictions come from satirical writings and political cartoons.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-02-12|title=17th-century Plague Doctors Were the Stuff of Nightmares|url=https://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/plague-doctors.htm|access-date=2021-03-09|website=HowStuffWorks|language=en}}</ref> An early reference to plague doctors wearing masks is in 1373 when Johannes Jacobi recommends their use but he offers no physical description of them. <ref>Samuel Cohn's The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early  Renaissance  Europe, pg 209</ref> The beaked plague doctor inspired costumes in Italian theatre as a symbol of general horror and death, though some historians insist that the plague doctor was originally fictional and inspired the real plague doctors later.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Black|first1=Winston|last2=May 2020|first2=All About History 19|title=Plague doctors: Separating medical myths from facts|url=https://www.livescience.com/plague-doctors.html|access-date=2021-03-09|website=livescience.com|date=19 May 2020|language=en}}</ref> Depictions of the beaked plague doctor rose in response to superstition and fear about the unknown source of the plague.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mussap |first=Christian J. |date=May 2019 |title=The Plague Doctor of Venice |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31083805 |journal=Internal Medicine Journal |volume=49 |issue=5 |pages=671–676 |doi=10.1111/imj.14285 |issn=1445-5994 |pmid=31083805}}</ref> Often, these plague doctors were the last thing a patient would see before death; therefore, the doctors were seen as a foreboding of death.

The garments were first mentioned by a physician to King Louis XIII of France, Charles de Lorme, who wrote in a 1619 plague outbreak in Paris that he developed an outfit made of Moroccan goat leather, including boots, breeches, a long coat, hat, and gloves<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Black|first1=Winston|last2=May 2020|first2=All About History 19|title=Plague doctors: Separating medical myths from facts|url=https://www.livescience.com/plague-doctors.html|access-date=2021-03-09|website=livescience.com|date=19 May 2020|language=en}}</ref><ref>Timbs, p. 360</ref> modeled after a soldier's canvas gown which went from the neck to the ankle.<ref name=" Boeckl152">Boeckl, p. 15</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Carmichael|first=A.G.|title=Encyclopedia of Microbiology|pages=58–72|publication-date=2009|year=2009|editor-last=Schaechter|editor-first=Moselio|contribution=Plague, Historical|edition=3rd|publisher=Elsevier|doi=10.1016/B978-012373944-5.00311-4|isbn=9780123739445}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Iqbal Akhtar Khan|date=May 2004|title=Plague: the dreadful visitation occupying the human mind for centuries|journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene|volume=98|issue=5|pages=270–277|doi=10.1016/S0035-9203(03)00059-2|pmid=15109549|quote=Charles de Lorme (1584—1678), personal physician to King Louis XIII, was credited with introducing special protective clothing for plague doctors during the epidemic in Marseilles. It consisted of a beak-like mask supplied with aromatic substance, presumed to act as filter against the odour emanating from the patients, and a loose gown covering the normal clothing. On occasions, a drifting fragrance such as camphor was used.}}</ref> The garment was impregnated with similar fragrant items as the mask.<ref>Time-Life Books, p. 158 ''Beak Doctor: during the Black Plague, a medical man who wore a bird mask to protect himself against infection.'' Black plague definition: ''In 14th-century Europe, the victims of the "black plague" had bleeding below the skin (subcutaneous hemorrhage) which made darkened ("blackened") their bodies. Black plague can lead to "black death" characterized by gangrene of the fingers, toes, and nose. Black plague is caused by a bacterium (Yersinia pestis) which is transmitted to humans from infected rats by the oriental rat flea..'' medterm.com</ref> De Lorme wrote that the mask had a "nose half a foot long, shaped like a beak, filled with perfume with only two holes, one on each side near the nostrils, but that can suffice to breathe and to carry along with the air one breathes the impression of the drugs enclosed further along in the beak."<ref name="infectious2">{{Cite book|last1=Vidal|first1=Pierre|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8iVnEZe-zzkC&pg=PA680|title=Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases: Modern Methodologies|last2=Tibayrenc|first2=Myrtille|last3=Gonzalez|first3=Jean-Paul|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2007|isbn=9780470114193|editor-last=Tibayrenc|editor-first=Michel|page=680|chapter=Chapter 40: Infectious disease and arts}}</ref> However, recent research has revealed that strong caveats must be applied with regard to De Lorme's assertions.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Mattie|first1=Herbert J.|title="Men in Tights: Charles De Lorme (1584–1678) and the First Plague Costume"|url=https://doi.org/10.1163/26667711-bja10033|journal=European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health (published online ahead of print 2023)|language=en}}</ref>

The Genevan physician, Jean-Jacques Manget, in his 1721 work ''Treatise on the Plague'' written just after the Great Plague of Marseille, describes the costume worn by plague doctors at Nijmegen in 1636–1637. The costume forms the frontispiece of Manget's 1721 work.<ref>Manget, p. 3</ref> Their robes, leggings, hats, and gloves were also made of Morocco leather.<ref>Timbs, p. 360</ref> This costume was also worn by plague doctors during the Naples Plague of 1656, which killed 145,000 people in Rome and 300,000 in Naples.<ref name="jhmasextract2762">[https://web.archive.org/web/20130212013047/http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/content/XX/3/276.extract The Plague Doctor]</ref><ref>Christine M. Boeckl, ''Images of plague and pestilence: iconography and iconology'' (Truman State University Press, 2000), pp. 15, 27.</ref>

==Carnival==
[[File:Beak doctor mask.jpg|thumb|upright|A beaked Venetian carnival mask bearing a picture of a plague doctor, and the inscription ''Il Medico della Peste'' ("The Plague doctor") beneath the right eye]]

The costume is also associated with a ''commedia dell'arte'' character called ''Il Medico della Peste'' (lit.: ''The Plague Doctor''), who wears a distinctive plague doctor's mask.<ref>Killinger, p. 95</ref> The Venetian mask was normally white, consisting of a hollow beak and round eye-holes covered with clear glass, and is one of the distinctive masks worn during the Carnival of Venice.<ref name="Carnevale">[http://www.carnavalexhibit.org/venice.php Carnevale]</ref>

==COVID-19==
[[File:Posing_with_Plague_Masks_in_New_Orleans_French_Quarter_April_2020_CWV_-_Death_Mask.jpg|thumb|Posing with variations on plague masks in New Orleans during the April 2020 pandemic shutdown]]
During the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020, the plague doctor costume grew in popularity due to its relevance to the pandemic, with news reports of plague doctor-costumed individuals in public places and photos of people wearing plague doctor costumes appearing in social media.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2020-05-04 |title=Coronavirus: Hellesdon plague doctor given advice by police |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-52533718 |access-date=2023-03-03}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title='Terrifying' plague doctor: U.K. police search for person in full 17th century outfit stalking suburb |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/world/plague-doctor-u-k-police-search-for-person-in-full-17th-century-outfit-as-locals-express-alarm |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=nationalpost |language=en-CA}}</ref>

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Engineering:Gas mask}}
* {{annotated link|Physics:Hazmat suit}}
* {{annotated link|Medicine:Medical gown}}
* {{annotated link|Engineering:NBC suit}}

==References==

===Footnotes===
{{reflist|30em}}

===Works cited===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Bauer, S. Wise, ''The Story of the World Activity Book Two: The Middle Ages : From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance'', Peace Hill Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-9714129-4-4}}
* Boeckl, Christine M., ''Images of plague and pestilence: iconography and iconology'', Truman State Univ Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-943549-85-X}}
* Byfield, Ted, ''Renaissance: God in Man, A.D. 1300 to 1500: But Amid Its Splendors, Night Falls on Medieval Christianity'', Christian History Project, 2010, {{ISBN|0-9689873-8-9}}
* Byrne, Joseph Patrick, ''Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues'', ABC-CLIO, 2008, {{ISBN|0-313-34102-8}}
* Carmichael, Ann G., "SARS and Plagues Past", in ''SARS in Context: Memory, history, policy'', ed. by Jacalyn Duffin and Arthur Sweetman McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-7735-3194-7}}
* Center for Advanced Study in Theatre Arts, ''Western European stages'', Volume 14, CASTA, 2002,
* Dolan, Josephine, ''Goodnow's History of Nursing'', W. B. Saunders 1963 (Philadelphia and London), {{LCCN|16-25236}}, {{OCLC|2882574}}
* Ellis, Oliver Coligny de Champfleur, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uocusfZvaa8C&pg=PA202 ''A History of Fire and Flame''], London: Simkin, Marshall, 1932; repr. Kessinger, 2004, {{ISBN|1-4179-7583-0}}
* Goodnow, Minnie, ''Goodnow's history of nursing'', W.B. Saunders Co., 1968, OCLC Number: 7085173
* Glaser, Gabrielle, ''The Nose: A Profile of Sex, Beauty, and Survival'', Simon & Schuster, 2003, {{ISBN|0-671-03864-8}}
* Grolier Incorporated, ''The Encyclopedia Americana'', Volume 8; Volume 24, Grolier Incorporated, 1998, {{ISBN|0-7172-0130-9}}
* Hall, Manly Palmer, ''Horizon'', Philosophical Research Society, Inc., 1949
* Hirst, Leonard Fabian, ''The conquest of plague: a study of the evolution of epidemiology'', Clarendon Press, 1953,
* Infectious Diseases Society of America, ''Reviews of Infectious Diseases'', Volume 11, University of Chicago Press, 1989
* Kenda, Barbara, ''Aeolian winds and the spirit in Renaissance architecture: Academia Eolia revisited'', Taylor & Francis, 2006, {{ISBN|0-415-39804-5}}
* Killinger, Charles L., ''Culture and customs of Italy'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, {{ISBN|0-313-32489-1}}
* Nohl, Johannes, ''The Black Death: A Chronicle of the Plague'', J. & J. Harper Edition 1969, {{LCCN|79-81867}}, {{OCLC|34505}}
* Manget, Jean-Jacques, ''Traité de la peste recueilli des meilleurs auteurs anciens et modernes'', Geneva, 1721, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120206221735/http://whqlibdoc.who.int/rare-books/a56993.pdf online as PDF, 28Mb download]
* Martin, Sean, ''The Black Death'', Book Sales, 2009, {{ISBN|0-7858-2289-5}}
* Mentzel, Peter, ''A traveller's history of Venice'', Interlink Books, 2006, {{ISBN|1-56656-611-8}}
* O'Donnell, Terence, ''History of life insurance in its formative years'', American Conservation Company, 1936
* Paton, Alex, "Cover image", [https://web.archive.org/web/20160319005329/http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/100/4.cover-expansion ''QJM: An International Journal of Medicine''], 100.4, 4 April 2007. (A commentary on the issue's cover photograph of The Posy Tree, Mapperton, Dorset.)
* Pommerville, Jeffrey, ''Alcamo's Fundamentals of Microbiology: Body Systems'', Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2009, {{ISBN|0-7637-6259-8}}
* Pommerville, Jeffrey, ''Alcamo's Fundamentals of Microbiology'', Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2010, {{ISBN|0-7637-6258-X}}
* Reynolds, Richard C., ''On doctor[i]ng: stories, poems, essays'', Simon & Schuster, 2001, {{ISBN|0-7432-0153-1}}
* Sandler, Merton, ''Wine: a scientific exploration'', CRC Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-415-24734-9}}
* Sherman, Irwin W., ''The power of plagues'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2006, {{ISBN|1-55581-356-9}}
* Stuart, David C., ''Dangerous garden: the quest for plants to change our lives'', frances lincoln ltd, 2004, {{ISBN|0-7112-2265-7}}
* Timbs, John, [https://books.google.com/books?id=N70RAAAAYAAJ ''The Mirror of literature, amusement, and instruction''], Volume 37, J. Limbird, 1841
* Time-Life Books, ''What life was like in the age of chivalry: medieval Europe, AD 800-1500'', 1997
* Turner, Jack, ''Spice: The History of a Temptation'', Random House, 2005, {{ISBN|0-375-70705-0}}
* Walker, Kenneth, ''The story of medicine'', Oxford University Press, 1955
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [http://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2020/03/01/plague-doctor-costumes-were-actually-a-good-idea/ Debunking Popular Misconceptions about Plague Doctor Costumes and How They Were Used]
* [https://www.doctorschnabel.net/ Doctor Schnabel's Plague Museum]
zh-yue:瘟疫醫生

[[Category:Medical equipment]]

{{Sourceattribution|Plague doctor costume}}