By other accounts, patients believed the plague to be a punishment sent from God and requested the plague doctor whip them in repentance.įoul-smelling air was also combatted with sweet herbs and spices like camphor, mint, cloves, and myrrh, stuffed into a mask with a curved, bird-like beak. The doctor carried a long wooden stick which he used to communicate with his patients, examine them, and occasionally ward off the more desperate and aggressive ones. The plague doctor also donned a prominent black hat to indicate that they were, in fact, a doctor. The suit was then coated in suet, hard white animal fat, to repel bodily fluids. “The nose half a foot long, shaped like a beak, filled with perfume… Under the coat, we wear boots made in Moroccan leather (goat leather)…and a short-sleeved blouse in smooth skin…The hat and gloves are also made of the same skin…with spectacles over the eyes.”īecause they believed that smelly vapors could catch in the fibers of their clothing and transmit disease, de l’Orme designed a uniform of a waxed leather coat, leggings, boots, and gloves intended to deflect miasmas from head to toe. Wikimedia Commons The two nostril holes in the plague doctor mask certainly did little in terms of protection.
Prior to this time, plague doctors wore a variety of protective suits but it wasn’t until 1619 that a “uniform” was invented by Charles de l’Orme, the chief physician to Louis XIII. It was not immediately obvious to doctors and victims alike how exactly the plague spread.īy the time of the 17th-century though, physicians had subscribed to miasma theory, which was the idea that contagion spread through foul-smelling air. Hired and paid by local municipalities, plague doctors saw to everybody regardless of their economic status, though they did occasionally invent their own cures and tinctures which they included with a fee to wealthier patients. More often than not though, these bookkeepers of the plague were revered and sometimes even held for ransom. Unsurprisingly, this meant that some plague doctors took advantage of their patient’s finances and ran off with their final will and testament. Their duties were more administrative and laborious as they kept track of casualties of the Black Death, assisted in the occasional autopsy, or witnessed wills for the dead and dying. The primary responsibilities of a plague doctor, or Medico della Peste, were not to cure or treat patients. Wellcome Collection The plague doctor’s uniform was designed to protect him from contamination… too bad it didn’t.
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