A Physician's Plague Personal Protective Costume in the 17th Century
The great plague of the 17th century in Europe, which in some areas, especially in southern Europe, caused an overall mortality not very far from that of the 14th-century Black Death, disrupted every activity of normal life. City dwellers fled urban centres in droves, and the shuttered shops and economic fallout caused huge unemployment and hunger.
People tried to protect themselves with plague costumes, especially physicians, priests and attendants whose duties brought them into contact with plague victims.
In his book Epidemics and Society, Frank M. Snowden, Professor Emeritus of History and History of Medicine at Yale University, writes,
"It was thought that dangerous atoms would not adhere to leather trousers and gowns made of waxed fabric. A wide-brimmed hat could defend the head, and a mask with a protruding beak extending from the nose could carry aromatic herbs that would protect the wearer from the fatal miasmatic smells. A doctor donning a plague suit was likely also to carry a rod- a secular counterpart of a verger's staff. This stick had a twofold purpose: to prod the people one encountered, reminding them to keep a safe distance, preferably downwind; and to search patients at a distance for buboes and other plague tokens in order to determine whether they should be taken to a pesthouse. To complete the outfit, some wearers carried braziers of burning coals to purify the air immediately surrounding them.
Although it was important to defend oneself from a menacing external environment where lethal miasma swirled, it was also vital to strengthen the body's inner defences. Classical medical training, ranforced over the centuries by popular culture, taught that a body became susceptible to disease if its organic disposition, which determined the balance of the humors (chemical systems regulating human behaviour), was disturbed. In such perilous circumstances, it was important to avoid depleting emotions such as fear, distress, and melancholia; to eat and drink sparingly; to avoid excess of exercise or sexual exertion; and to guard against sudden chills and drafts."
Featured image: A watercolour of an early 17th-century plague doctor's costume. (Wellcome Trust/Creative Commons).