Glass eyes were built into the mask to make sure that the eyes were fully protected.
Doctors used wooden canes in order to point out areas needing attention and to examine patients without touching them. The canes were also used to keep people away and to remove clothing from plague victims without having to touch them.
They believed this would remove the bad smells from the air before the doctor breathed it, preventing the doctors from catching the plague.
Plague doctors practiced bloodletting and other remedies such as putting frogs or leeches on the buboes to "rebalance the humors." A plague doctor's principal task, besides treating people with the plague, was to compile public records of plague deaths.
During the 17th-century European plague, physicians wore beaked masks, leather gloves, and long coats in an attempt to fend off the disease.
Short answer: NO. We see in the media many people wondering if the plague doctors were evil or bad. So we want to clarify it definitively. This may be due to their terrifying masks and outfits, but they were doctors!
Within just hours an individual could be in agony from a number of these symptoms, if not all of them. The Black Plague, in all forms, is a relatively fast death, but an astonishingly painful one.
Today, scientists understand that the Black Death, now known as the plague, is spread by a bacillus called Yersinia pestis.
Not Just Any Doctor
A plague doctor's salary could range from a few florins a month to full room, board, and expenses – but it meant the doctor had to treat even the poorest patients, who wouldn't have been able to pay on their own, and couldn't refuse to go into a plague-stricken home or neighborhood.
Antiserum. The first application of antiserum to the treatment of patients is credited to Yersin [5], who used serum developed with the assistance of his Parisian colleagues Calmette, Roux, and Borrel.
Bubonic plague still occurs throughout the world and in the U.S., with cases in Africa, Asia, South America and the western areas of North America. About seven cases of plague happen in the U.S. every year on average. Half of the U.S. cases involve people aged 12 to 45 years.
Patients develop fever, chills, extreme weakness, abdominal pain, shock, and possibly bleeding into the skin and other organs.
Black Death—The Invention of Quarantine
The Black Death, which hit Europe in 1347, claimed an astonishing 25 million lives in just four years.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the idea that the air could be polluted became widespread and doctors sought to prevent "bad air," from getting to them and infecting them. The long noses of the mask were filled with drugs and aromatic herbs, including mint, cloves, rose petals, and myrrh to filter the air.
In October 1347, a ship came from the Crimea and Asia and docked in Messina, Sicily. Aboard the ship were not only sailors but rats. The rats brought with them the Black Death, the bubonic plague.
In many cases, particularly in septicemic and pneumonic plague, there are no obvious signs that indicate plague. Diagnosis is made by taking samples from the patient, especially blood or part of a swollen lymph gland, and submitting them for laboratory testing.
The most famous plague doctor was Nostradamus, who gave advice such as removing infected corpses, get some fresh air, drink clean water, drink a juice made with rose hips, and do not bleed the patient.
The 17th-century court doctor Charles de Lorme rose to fame by inventing the all-enveloping “plague prevention costume” to protect doctors from infectious patients. But his career was dogged by criticism and a controversial treatment that became his speciality.
When was the Black Death? The plague arrived in western Europe in 1347 and in England in 1348. It faded away in the early 1350s.
Plague can be successfully treated with antibiotics. Once a patient is diagnosed with suspected plague they should be hospitalized and, in the case of pneumonic plague, medically isolated.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), through April 17 this year, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported 56 cases of bubonic plague, including two deaths.
How did it end? The most popular theory of how the plague ended is through the implementation of quarantines. The uninfected would typically remain in their homes and only leave when it was necessary, while those who could afford to do so would leave the more densely populated areas and live in greater isolation.
Pneumonic plague, or lung-based plague, is the most virulent form of plague. Incubation can be as short as 24 hours. Any person with pneumonic plague may transmit the disease via droplets to other humans. Untreated pneumonic plague, if not diagnosed and treated early, can be fatal.
Bubonic plague, the disease's most common form, refers to telltale buboes—painfully swollen lymph nodes—that appear around the groin, armpit, or neck. The skin sores become black, leading to its nickname during pandemics as “Black Death.” Initial symptoms of this early stage include vomiting, nausea, and fever.
Fearing the contagious disease that killed people within days, victims were buried in mass graves, or 'plague pits', such as the one unearthed at a 14th-century monastery in northwest England.