Plague Doctors

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What was a plague doctor? The Medico della Peste, also known as The Beak Doctor, they were a medieval physician meant to treat bubonic plague victims. They treated everyone due to pay from the city, but some charged more for "special" treatments or falsified cures. Majority were amateurs and only counted for the number of casualties instead of curing, and little were genuinely experienced in medicine. At the time, claiming to be a healer wasn't difficult and only few knew with accuracy what they did, and so many only worsened it. Generally, doctors weren't associated with knowing what they were truly doing until the 19th century. People in France and the Netherlands called them "empirics" due to their lack of medical training, as there was an example of s fruit vendor being a doctor. Yet, because of the illness, they were seen as valuable and revered and were given special privileges at time. For ex: there was an incident where Barcelona sent two of these doctors to Tortosa in 1650 and they were captured and demanded for ransom... Matteo du Angelo was a doctor in 1348 that was hired for 50 florin a year in Orveito... doctors were hired by Pope Clement VI to handle the sick in Avignon... Florence and Perugia used them to do autopsies to find a cure and a cause of death. These doctors witnessed dozens of wills during epidemics and gave advice on what to do before death (it depended per patient and after the medieval era the nature between doc and patience developed a complex ethical code) and other important document, and since the job was more demographic, some doctors ran off with wills and documents. And since desperate times called for desperate measures, The closer to dying the worse the testament. The most doctors knew was just the person they were treating, and the less they knew medically the more comfy they were with creativity. Regardless of economic status, doctors served to everyone, but some did "invent" cures or medicines that had a fee for the wealthy.

What were some of the dangerous treatments these doctors would do? As you may know, these "treatments" did nothing but further the disease, and this reason and others to be covered later, are why these doctors ended up being one of the causes this illness spread. Sometimes the doctors would cover the buboes (pus-filled cysts about the size of an egg on the groin, in the armpits, and on the neck) with human feces. They would also practice the old concept of bloodletting, which did nothing but make the patient lose blood. Other times they'd pierce the bunker to drain the fluid, and some accounts were found saying that some patients were covered in, get this, mercury and baked in an oven.

Now, what about the famous costume? The design of the plague doctor outfit is attributed to Charles de Lorme, chief physician to Louis XIII, a Henry, and several members of the Medici family from 1610-1650. Despite working in the plague years, he lived to be 96. In 1619 he thought about how to protect himself when visiting victims and created said uniform, which has in popularity quick. It had a waxed canvas overcoat, waxed leather pants, gloves, boo yes, and a wide brimmed hat (Katharine Trendacosta says that, "... no job in the 17th century really meant anything unless it had an official hat. Lawyers had wigs, the clergy had a whole mess of headgear, doctors had these."), dark leather hood with a beak-shaped mask held tight witj leather straps to avoid getting in bad air, with eye holes/spectacles that was stuffed with herbs, straw, spices, and carried a wooden cane to indirectly touch patients and bed items. Despite the famous look, this costume did little to protect them, so the wearer's lived in constant quarantine or died, or they wandered Europe until needed, and since they look so Reaper-like they became associated with death since the plague, too, equaled death. The costume dragged everywhere and was un-washable due to the wax, so it would catch everything and went with the doctor, thus spreading the disease. There was little evidence of anyone wearing the costume, since most of what could be evidence are similar to modern political cartoon, and Winston Black (a historian of medicine and religion in the Middle Ages) said that, "it's telling that the most popular image, Gerhart Altzenbach's engraving of 1656, is called 'Doctor Break from Rome', which suggested few people tool them seriously, and most considered them Italian." but The best evidence is the appearance description from de Lorme himself. Black continues with, "there are already descriptions from the later 16th century of doctors wearing protective masks. Perhaps de Lorme should be credited with creating an outfit that was supposed to protect the entire body of the doctor. Despite this... most other Europeans agreed it was Italian in origin."

What items did they put in the beak? Generally, if it smelled it it was likely in the beak. This included juniper berry, amgergris (a waxy substance produced in the digestive system of a sperm whale), roses, mint, camphor, cloves, laudanum (related to opium), myrrh, storax (a type of resin), wormwood, and sometimes a vinegar soaked sponge. There were a few French doctors that soldered the items in the beak in hopes of it being an extra protective layer. The doctors filled the beak as so because of the Miasma Theory of Disease, in which it said that disease was held in a poisonous cloud of vapour in the atmosphere that was created from decay and was identified by a bad smell-- called "bad air" or "night air"-- and so with the logic that bad smells in the air held illness, it made sense to them at the time to "cure" the air itself by countering it with good smells.

According to a popular 17th century poem, they were seen as benevolent:

"As may be seen on picture here,

In Rome the doctors do appear,

When to their patients they are called,

In places by the plague appalled,

Their hats and cloaks, of fashion new,

Are made of oilcloth, dark of hue,

Their caps with glasses are designed,

Their bills with antidotes all lined,

That foulsome air may do njot harm,

Nor cause the doctor man alarm,

The staff in hand must serve to show

Their noble trade where'er they go."