The black death plague caused by the bubonic, Pneumonic and Septicemic pathogen that decimated the European population by around 30-50 percent. It is estimated that during 1400s the world population was 450 millions but the plague reduced the population down between 350-375 millions. During that time many people fled to different cities and many were doctors. Because of the shortage of doctors, many ordinary people became the plague doctor.The characteristic of the plague doctor is the uniform they wear which entirely compose of black garment and a beak mask.
The black hat they wear is coated with wax to protect the head.
The mask has two eyes which is cover by the eye glass and inside the mask is stuffed with herbs and fragrance materials to filter the foal air.
The full length gown is made out of thick cloth and was wax for extra protection and the underneath the gown is a leather breeches; the boots is also full length.
The gloves are also made out of leather and cane is wooden used to tear open cloths, examine and to shoo away people without touching them.
The plague doctor often recommended several remedies that suppose to ward off or to cure the disease such as carrying around flowers or strong perfume to filter the air because they believed the air carries diseases; drinking hot water to sweat away the disease; using leeches to remove the infected blood; smoke tobacco to ward off disease; take a lot of laxative to create bowel movement to remove the disease; finally coating the victim with mercury and put them in a oven to burn off the diseases.
Many plague doctors are ordinary people who have little or no medical knowledge and were hired by the city. They treated the poor and the rich and their recommended cure often leaded to injury and death.
As you can see the mask and the entire costume are very similar to our modern equipment to quarantine radio active materials and medical hazards and perhaps many of our modern equipments draw inspiration from the ancient.
Team 1 by Minh N.
I enjoyed this blogg because it is so fascinating how people used to believe that you could ward off disease by flowers or good smelling herbs. I love how this person found a picture of what was worn by the "doctors". This actually looks like it would be good protection from getting any fluids on them that could transfer the disease, and yes it is similar to garmets worn today to protect from hazordous materials. I also didn't know that ordianary people were doctors too at this time. That's scarey in itself, because I couldn't imagine some of my friends trying to medically treat me. I suppose at this time during this horrible plague any help was taken given the circumstances. I couldn't imagine living back them and having to see everyone around me die and know that I was most likely the next to go. Such a tragic disease this was. Also Professor Hopkins was talking in class about a scenario that really got me thinking. If one of our family members caught this horrible plague and we had to decide whether to leave them or stay and die with them, I believe I'd chose to stay, because I believe eventually we would all catch the plague as rapidly as it was spreading. What would you do???
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Margaret Leonetti
I couldn't help but to show a little contempt when reading about the concept of a "plague doctor." I find this blog post topic moderately laughable, nonetheless, I do understand the demand of the occupation established in society and it's importance in a time of desperity. The plague was incredibly horrendous, and i can not even begin to imagine such a disaster to pursue our society and disseminate as quickly as it had in the dark ages. Great job with this post Minh,I found this subject of choice captivating and interesting to read, as it is a topic of discussion i'd uncommonly choose to articulate even with the massive era surrounding it.
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I found it interesting how you went into how different techniques were used in order to stave off the black plague. Perfumes, such as the one in the mask, were prescribed to nobility as it was thought of to ward off disease. One treatment you did not go into, that I thought was interesting was the use of garlic on the peasant class. The interesting part of garlic is it is known today to have antibiotic properties. In other words, perfumes that did nothing for the upper class, while the lower class got actual treatment. Had the nobility known of this, the disease could have been staved.
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I’ve done quite a bit of research on the Plague, and I think one of the greatest tragedies to come out of the who epidemic is that people have no idea what caused it, or why it was happening to them. They had no true ideas as to what caused it at all until the 1800’s, and to this day it is still debatable as to where it originated from. Throughout the hundreds of years the epidemic lasted people were left with nothing other than to come up with ideas that we find utterly ludicrous today, such as that they had done something to make God angry, the Jews were poisoning water wells, etc. Had they had the technology and knowledge that we now have, it probably would have never been an epidemic because people would have had real medicines to cure it with instead of things like the use of fragrances to ward it off because they thought it was caused by a foul smell, etc.
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