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Plague doctor

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Copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel (i.e., Dr. Beak), a plague doctor in seventeenth-century Rome, circa 1656

A plague doctor was a medical physician who treated victims of the plague.[1] They were specifically hired by towns that had many plague victims in times of epidemics. Since the city was paying their salary, they treated everyone: both the wealthy and the poor.[2] However, some plague doctors were known for charging patients and their families extra for special treatments and/or false cures.[3] They were not normally professionally trained experienced physicians or surgeons, and often were second-rate doctors unable to otherwise run a successful medical business or young physicians trying to establish themselves.[1] These doctors rarely cured their patients; rather, they got a count of the number of people contaminated for demographic purposes.

Plague doctors by their covenant treated plague patients and were known as municipal or "community plague doctors", whereas "general practitioners" were separate doctors and both might be in the same European city or town at the same time.[1][4][5][6] In France and the Netherlands, plague doctors often lacked medical training and were referred to as "empirics". In one case, a plague doctor had been a fruit salesman before his employment as a physician.[7]

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some doctors wore a beak-like mask which was filled with aromatic items. The masks were designed to protect them from putrid air, which (according to the miasmatic theory of disease) was seen as the cause of infection. The design of these costumes has been attributed to Charles de Lorme, the chief physician to Louis XIII.[8]

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Costume

Main article: Plague doctor costume

Some plague doctors wore a special costume. The garments were invented by Charles de L'Orme in 1619 and were first used in Paris, but later spread to be used throthe need to make direct contact with the patient.[9]

The scented materials included juniper berry, ambergris, lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), mint (Mentha spicata L.) leaves, camphor, cloves, laudanum, myrrh, rose petals, and storax.[7] Due to the primitive understanding of disease at the time, it was believed this suit would sufficiently protect the doctor from miasma while tending to patients.[10]

Public servants

Plague doctors served as public servants during times of epidemics starting with the Black Death of Europe in the fourteenth century. Their principal task, besides taking care of plague victims, was to record in public records the deaths due to the plague.[7]

In certain European cities like Florence and Perugia, plague doctors were requested to do autopsies to help determine the cause of death and how the plague played a role.[11] Plague doctors became witnesses to numerous wills during times of plague epidemics.[12] Plague doctors also gave advice to their patients about their conduct before death.[13] This advice varied depending on the patient, and after the Middle Ages, the nature of the relationship between doctor and patient was governed by an increasingly complex ethical code.[14]

Methods

Plague doctors practiced bloodletting and other remedies such as putting frogs or leeches on the buboes to "rebalance the humors" as a normal routine.[15] Plague doctors could not generally interact with the general public because of the nature of their business and the possibility of spreading the disease; they could also be subject to quarantine.[16]

Notable medieval plague doctors

A famous plague doctor who gave medical advice about preventive measures which could be used against the plague was Nostradamus.[17][18] Nostradamus' advice was the removal of infected corpses, getting fresh air, drinking clean water, and drinking a juice preparation of rose hips.[19][20] In Traité des fardemens it shows in Part A Chapter VIII that Nostradamus also recommended not to bleed the patient.[20]

The Italian city of Pavia, in 1479, contracted Giovanni de Ventura as a community plague doctor.[5][21] The Irish physician, Niall Ó Glacáin (c.1563?–1653) earned deep respect in Spain, France and Italy for his bravery in treating numerous victims of the plague.[22][23] The French anatomists Ambroise Paré and Paracelsus were also famous medieval plague doctors.[24]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Cipolla, p. 65
  2. ^ Cipolla, p. 68 3/4 down page
  3. ^ Rosenhek, Jackie (October 2011). "Doctors of the Blahji am the best ck Death". Doctor's Review.
  4. ^ Ellis, p. 202
  5. ^ a b Byrne (Daily), p. 169
  6. ^ Simon, p. 3
  7. ^ a b c Byrne, 170
  8. ^ "The "Science" Behind Today's Plague Doctor Costume". Gizmodo. June 2017.
  9. ^ Byrne (Encyclopedia), p. 505
  10. ^ Irvine Loudon, Western Medicine: An Illustrated History (Oxford, 2001), p. 189.
  11. ^ Wray, p. 172
  12. ^ Wray, p. 173
  13. ^ "The Plague Doctor". Jhmas.oxfordjournals.org. 2012-04-02. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  14. ^ Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death: natural and human disaster in medieval Europe (Simon & Schuster, 1983), pp. 126–28.
  15. ^ Byfield, p.37
  16. ^ Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death: natural and human disaster in medieval Europe (Simon & Schuster, 1983), p. 126.
  17. ^ Hogue, p. 1844
  18. ^ The essential Nostradamus: literal translation, historical commentary, and ... By Richard Smoley. Books.google.com. 2006-01-19. ISBN 978-1-4406-4984-4. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  19. ^ Pickover, p. 279
  20. ^ a b "Excellent et moult utile opuscule à tous/ nécessaire qui désirent avoir connoissan/ ce de plusieurs exquises receptes divisé/ en deux parties./ La première traicte de diverses façons/ de fardemens et senteurs pour illustrer et/ embelir la face./ La seconde nous montre la façon et/ manière de faire confitures de plusieurs/ sortes... Nouvellement composé par Maistre/ Michel de NOSTREDAME docteur/ en medecine... by Nostradamus". Propheties.it. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  21. ^ King, p. 339
  22. ^ Stephen, p. 927
  23. ^ Woods JO (1982). "THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN IRELAND; by J. OLIVER WOODS, MD, FRCGP, Page 40" (PDF). Ulster Med J. 51: 35–45. PMC 2385830. PMID 6761926.
  24. ^ Körner, p. 13

References

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Plague doctors.
  • Bauer, S. Wise, The Story of the World Activity Book Two: The Middle Ages : From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance, Peace Hill Press, 2003, ISBN 0-9714129-4-4
  • Byfield, Ted, Renaissance: God in Man, A.D. 1300 to 1500: But Amid Its Splendors, Night Falls on Medieval Christianity, Christian History Project, 2010, ISBN 0-9689873-8-9
  • Byrne, Joseph Patrick, Daily Life during the Black Death, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 0-313-33297-5
  • Byrne, Joseph Patrick, Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues, ABC-Clio, 2008, ISBN 0-313-34102-8
  • Cipolla, Carlo M. 'A Plague Doctor', in Harry A. Miskimin et al. (eds), The Medieval City, Yale University Press, 1977, pp. 65–72. ISBN 0-300-02081-3
  • Ellis, Oliver C., A History of Fire and Flame 1932 , Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1-4179-7583-0
  • Fee, Elizabeth, AIDS: the burdens of history, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06396-1
  • Haggard, Howard W., From Medicine Man to Doctor: The Story of the Science of Healing, Courier Dover Publications, 2004, ISBN 0-486-43541-5
  • Hogue, John,Nostradamus: the new revelations, Barnes & Noble Books, 1995, ISBN 1-56619-948-4
  • Gordon, Benjamin Lee, Medieval and Renaissance medicine, Philosophical Library, 1959
  • Heymann, David L., The World Health Report 2007: a safer future : global public health security in the 21st century, World Health Organization, 2007, ISBN 92-4-156344-3
  • Kenda, Barbara, Aeolian winds and the spirit in Renaissance architecture: Academia Eolia revisited, Taylor & Francis, 2006, ISBN 0-415-39804-5
  • King, Margaret L., Western Civilization: a social and cultural history, Prentice-Hall, 2002, ISBN 0-13-045007-3
  • Körner, Christian, Mountain Biodiversity: a global assessment, CRC Press, 2002, ISBN 1-84214-091-4
  • O'Donnell, Terence, History of Life Insurance in its Formative Years, American Conservation Company, 1936
  • Pickover, Clifford A., Dreaming the Future: the fantastic story of prediction, Prometheus Books, 2001, ISBN 1-57392-895-X
  • Pommerville, Jeffrey, Alcamo's Fundamentals of Microbiology, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2010, ISBN 0-7637-6258-X
  • Reading, Mario, The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus, Sterling Publishing (2009), ISBN 1-906787-39-5
  • Simon, Matthew, Emergent Computation: emphasizing bioinformatics, Publisher シュプリンガー・ジャパン株式会社, 2005, ISBN 0-387-22046-1
  • Stuart, David C., Dangerous Garden: the quest for plants to change our lives, Frances Lincoln ltd, 2004, ISBN 0-7112-2265-7
  • Wray, Shona Kelly, Communities and Crisis: Bologna during the Black Death, ISBN 90-04-17634-9
  • Fitzharris, Lindsey. "Behind the Mask: The Plague Doctor." The Chirurgeons Apprentice. Web. 6 May 2014.
  • Rosenhek, Jackie. "Doctor's Review: Medicine on the Move." Doctor's Review. Web. May 2011.
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