Dr Beaky’s Halloween costume

Introduction

Dr Beaky of Rome is English for Doctor Schnabel von Rom. This Roman phrase was engraved by Paulus Fürst, a plague doctor, and is a famous satire on the costume of the Plague Doctors. Plague doctors were no regular doctors. The government hired these so-called physicians and called upon them to treat those diseased with the Plague. To guard themselves from the disease, these doctors wore an elaborate ensemble which has been widely discussed in literature. Due to their grotesque appearance, these became popular outfits for Halloween! However, Dr Beaky’s costume may not have been just for Halloween, and the Plague killed scores of people before it was finally deemed a curable disease.


Dr. Beaky
Source Credit: Wikipedia 


Plague in the 17th century


The plague doctors were not really doctors. They were students and physicians starting their careers without established medical practices. More often than not, they were regular people who signed up for this life-threatening task of treating plague patients to earn a few extra bucks. Back in the day, it was thought to be caused by ‘miasma’ or some form of bad smell that prevailed in the air due to waste, excreta and dead, decaying matter. Treatment by most doctors would attempt to remove some form of poison from the body. They were to balance the human body's four 'humors' and be given various concoctions and antidotes. Other medieval practices included ‘cupping’ the buboes or the painful lymph nodes that arose, bloodletting to remove the poison from the body or even cautery of the lymph nodes. The Plague was considered a terminal disease, and Death was inevitable.


The Plague
Source Credit: North Country Public Radio



The costume


The plague doctors earned a negative connotation in modern-day thanks to their macabre costumes. Dr Charles Delorme, a royal physician to the King of France, gave the first account of this famous costume. He designed this costume to keep the treating physician safe from the disease. Bearing a very close resemblance to PPE kits in the present day, the ensemble was a mix of various components that shrouded the physician. It comprised a wax-coated goat-leather cloak. While there was no knowledge of transmission of this disease through fleas, the success of this long overcoat has been attributed to the sticky nature of the coat’s exterior that allowed fleas to get stuck and prevented a flea bite. This would be accompanied by boots, gloves and a wide-brimmed hat. The highlight of the costume was a 6-inch-long mask with a beak. This mask was a tightly fitting mask on the face with glass covering the eye sockets. Inside the mask, the plague doctors maintained a repository of herbs and other pleasant-smelling items like camphor, myrrh, mint, and dried flowers. These smells were meant to cancel out the foul-smelling miasma and keep the disease at bay. The beaked mask also had two holes to allow for breathing.


The Beaked Mask
Source Credit: Vintag.es



 "Inside the mask, the plague doctors maintained a repository of herbs and other pleasant-smelling items like camphor, myrrh, mint, and dried flowers. These smells were meant to cancel out the foul-smelling miasma and keep the disease at bay."


Responsibilities


Plague doctors were commonly an ostracized section of society. They seemed to announce the coming of Death, and rightly so, given the imminent Death with the Plague. Apart from conducting their medieval treatments, their primary roles were to maintain registries of those infected with the Plague and enter the number of deaths recorded. Most doctors did not engage with the patients due to fear of getting infected and stayed away from physician duties in these areas. Plague doctors were often met with violence in society, so they carried wooden sticks to ward off danger.


Source Credit: Pinterest



Plague today


We have come a long way from believing that the Plague was a punishment from Hell to understanding the microbiology of the causative organism. Today the Plague no longer affects widespread populations and can stay contained to a few cases a year thanks to strict public health measures prescribed by various health organizations. This event in history has taught us enough about infection prevention. The Black Death was perhaps the oldest known epidemic to mankind, and we continue to take inspiration from such historical events to improvise our prevention strategies for modern-day epidemics. The famous Plague Doctor costume may have seen its fair share of atrocities, but it has undoubtedly been the present PPE kit's forerunner. The Beaked mask sans the aromatic feature has made for a good blueprint for today’s N-95 masks.

In conclusion, we have enough to learn from the History of Medicine. What we call Medieval reflects the progressive understanding of a disease process. Mankind changes, and so does Medicine. To understand a disease holistically, it is vital to know its roots. In the words of the famous scientist Marie Curie, “Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less.”


“Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less.”








References

  1. Plague doctor. (2023, August 21). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor
  2. History of the Black Death and the Plague Doctor. (2023, February 20). Plague Doctor Masks. https://plaguedoctormasks.com/history/
  3. Tedesco, L. (2020, October 6). The True History Of The Plague Doctor: Where Did It Come From? TheTravel. https://www.thetravel.com/why-did-plague-doctors-have-beaks/
  4. T. E. (2022, November 22). Why plague doctors wore beaked masks. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMt8xm4t7XQ
  5. T. I. S. (2021, October 3). How the plague doctor’s mask protected them. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhH0Sf2Yor8






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