One could say that the plague doctor mask was the world's first attempt at a gas mask. According to the miasmatic-humoral doctrine, the plague was due to "bad air". The beak was meanwhile filled with aromatic herbs to filter and purify the air breathed by the plague doctor intended to prevent contagion. On both sides of the “beak”, two horizontal cuts were made to let air pass through. These holes were sealed by two pieces of glass, while the lower part of the face was covered by a powerful, hooked nose resembling a long beak - the plague doctor mask's trademark feature. The plague doctor mask covered the physician's face in the shape of an oval with two open round holes located in the eyes.
#The plague doctor original full
The full outfit, which covered the plague doctor from head to foot, consisted of an outer garment tightly enclosed around the mask. The theory was that it would isolate the physician and prevent direct contact with the bodies of plague victims. It was actually worn by doctors and physicians as a medical uniform, under the supposition it would have protected them from disease when they visited people infected.
In the 17th century, a famous French doctor, Charles de L'Orme, perfected the plague doctor mask, giving it the look we recognize today.
But officials in the port city of Ragusa were able to slow its spread by keeping arriving sailors in isolation until it was clear they were not carrying the disease-creating social distancing that relied on isolation to slow the spread of the disease.We know only a little about its origins, but it is clear that the plague doctor figure was common throughout Europe since the Middle Age. The plague never really ended and it returned with a vengeance years later. READ MORE: Social Distancing and Quarantine Were Used in Medieval Times to Fight the Black Death How Did the Black Death End? In the face of this papal resistance, the movement disintegrated. Though the flagellant movement did provide some comfort to people who felt powerless in the face of inexplicable tragedy, it soon began to worry the Pope, whose authority the flagellants had begun to usurp. Then they would move on to the next town and begin the process over again. For 33 1/2 days, the flagellants repeated this ritual three times a day. Some upper-class men joined processions of flagellants that traveled from town to town and engaged in public displays of penance and punishment: They would beat themselves and one another with heavy leather straps studded with sharp pieces of metal while the townspeople looked on. Some people coped with the terror and uncertainty of the Black Death epidemic by lashing out at their neighbors others coped by turning inward and fretting about the condition of their own souls. WATCH: The Grisly Business of Black Death Burials Indeed, in the early 1340s, the disease had struck China, India, Persia, Syria and Egypt. READ MORE: Pandemics that Changed History How Did the Black Plague Start?Įven before the “death ships” pulled into port at Messina, many Europeans had heard rumors about a “Great Pestilence” that was carving a deadly path across the trade routes of the Near and Far East.
Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe-almost one-third of the continent’s population. People gathered on the docks were met with a horrifying surprise: Most sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those still alive were gravely ill and covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. The plague arrived in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s.
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