Each generation saw its return until the end of the 19 th century. This pandemic resulted in the deaths of 30 to 60 percent of Europe’s population. Generations of Plagueīy the 17 th century, the plague doctor’s costume represented a potent symbol of the Black Death, a cataclysmic pandemic that raged across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe from 1346 to 1353. And these physicians died in droves despite the theatrical trappings of their occupational costume. Nonetheless, they lived in permanent quarantine, social outcasts only called upon when families were in desperate need. Sure, plague doctors were more respected than other “dirty job” holders like leech collectors, gong farmers, and sin-eaters. They recorded plague casualty figures in their logbooks. They spent far more time counting bodies and fortunes than curing the sick. In other words, their duties were more actuarial than medical. They also testified and witnessed wills and other essential documents for plague victims. They also faced the constant risk of infection and death.īesides looking in on the dying, plague doctors sometimes took part in autopsies. Without the knowledge of microorganisms or antibiotics, their patient survival rates were dismal. They treated plague epidemics as they arose in various cities and towns across Europe. These traveling physicians wandered from place to place. A Thankless JobĪmong the many horrible occupations of the 17 th century, plague doctors ranked near the top. In the process, they crafted the disturbing plague doctor costume.įind out more about the origins of the 17 th-century plague doctor’s uniform, shaped by medieval understandings of disease. Instead, they relied on an admixture of superstition and anecdotal evidence to treat patients and avoid infection. Without an understanding of germ theory and bacteria, physicians couldn’t effectively fight the disease. The disease re-visited the population generation after generation, indiscriminately killing. These symptoms included blackened skin, grotesquely swollen lymph nodes, and bleeding from the mouth and nose.Īttending doctors proved poorly equipped to deal with this pandemic. A seemingly unstoppable pandemic, victims faced excruciating symptoms. Each surge further contributed to a death toll in the hundreds of millions. For three centuries, intermittent bouts of the Black Death ( Yersinia pestis) swept across the Old World.
Surgical masks became common during surgeries, and in 1869 pioneering doctor Joseph Lister called germ theory “the pole-star which will guide you safely through what otherwise would be a navigation of hopeless difficulty.During the 17 th century, Europe lay in the grip of a living nightmare. masking started looking more modern,” Black says. “By the time the next major epidemic disease hit Europe. After Louis Pasteur demonstrated that germs couldn’t spontaneously generate, Robert Koch isolated the tuberculosis bacterium, directly linking diseases to pathogens. The late 19th century ushered in the “germ theory” of disease, giving personal protective gear new significance. Beak.” According to Black, “Fürst mocked those who believed in, since the plague will kill everyone anyway, and the plague doctor is simply out to get your money.” On the heels of a serious 1656 engraving of a plague doctor by German printer Gerhart Altzenbach (pictured below) came a seemingly satirical engraving by another German printer, Paulus Fürst the Latin title translated to “Dr. “Our earliest evidence of plague masks already shows hostility or skepticism to the doctor and perhaps the masks,” he says. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. Even then, masking was controversial, notes Winston Black, a medieval medicine and religion historian at St.
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