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[[Image:Doktorschnabel 430px.jpg|thumb|Doktor Schnabel von Rom ("Doctor Beak of Rome"), engraving by Paul Fürst, 1656]]
[[Image:Doktorschnabel 430px.jpg|thumb|Doktor Schnabel von Rom ("Doctor Beak of Rome"), engraving by Paul Fürst, 1656]]
A '''plague doctor''' (Italian: ''physici epidemeie'', Dutch: ''pestmeester'', German: ''Pestarzt''), was a special medical physician of the Middle Ages who saw those who had the [[bubonic plague]].<ref> Miskimin, p. 65</ref> They were specifically hired by towns that had many plague victims in times of plague [[epidemic]]s. Since the city was paying their salary they treated everyone, the rich and the poor. They were not normally professionally trained experienced physicians or surgeons, and often were second rate doctors not able to otherwise run a successful medical business or young physicians just out of school trying to get a medical business going. They were not otherwise a [[general practitioner]] or "family doctor".<ref> Miskimin, p. 65</ref> Plague doctors by [[plague doctor contract|their covenant]] treated only 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.<ref name="Ellis202"> Ellis, p. 202 </ref><ref> Miskimin, p. 65</ref><ref name="Byrne169"> Byrne (Daily), p. 169 </ref><ref name="Simon3"> Simon, p. 3 </ref>
A '''plague doctor''' (Italian: ''physici epidemeie'', Dutch: ''pestmeester'', German: ''Pestarzt''), was a special medical physician who saw those who had the [[bubonic plague]].


They were sometimes hired by towns that had many plague victims in times of plague [[epidemic]]s. Plague doctors by [[plague doctor contract|their covenant]] treated only plague patients.<ref name="Ellis202"> Ellis, p. 202 </ref><ref> Miskimin, p. 65</ref><ref name="Byrne169"> Byrne (Daily), p. 169 </ref><ref name="Simon3"> Simon, p. 3 </ref>
They were sometimes hired by towns that had many plague victims in times of plague [[epidemic]]s. Plague doctors by [[plague doctor contract|their covenant]] treated only plague patients.<ref name="Ellis202"> Ellis, p. 202 </ref><ref> Miskimin, p. 65</ref><ref name="Byrne169"> Byrne (Daily), p. 169 </ref><ref name="Simon3"> Simon, p. 3 </ref>

Revision as of 23:27, 15 June 2011

Doktor Schnabel von Rom ("Doctor Beak of Rome"), engraving by Paul Fürst, 1656

A plague doctor (Italian: physici epidemeie, Dutch: pestmeester, German: Pestarzt), was a special medical physician of the Middle Ages who saw those who had the bubonic plague.[1] They were specifically hired by towns that had many plague victims in times of plague epidemics. Since the city was paying their salary they treated everyone, the rich and the poor. They were not normally professionally trained experienced physicians or surgeons, and often were second rate doctors not able to otherwise run a successful medical business or young physicians just out of school trying to get a medical business going. They were not otherwise a general practitioner or "family doctor".[2] Plague doctors by their covenant treated only 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.[3][4][5][6]

They were sometimes hired by towns that had many plague victims in times of plague epidemics. Plague doctors by their covenant treated only plague patients.[3][7][5][6]

The beak they had was a filter for what they believed to be bad, infected air.[8] In France and the Netherlands plague doctors many times didn't have any medical training and were referred to as "empirics" - and even in one case he was just a fruit-seller beforehand.[8]

Being a medieval plague doctor was unpleasant, risky, and difficult. The chances of survival in times of a plague epidemic were slim.[9]

History

Pope Clement VI had hired several extra plague doctors during the Black Death plague. They were to attend to the sick people of Avignon. Of eighteen doctors in Venice, only one was left by 1348: five had died of the plague, and twelve were missing and may have fled.[10]

The first epidemic of bubonic plague dates back to the mid 500s, known as the Plague of Justinian.[11] The largest epidemic was the Black Death of Europe in the fourteenth century. In medieval times the large loss of people due to the bubonic plague in a town created an economic disaster. Community plague doctors were quite valuable and were given special privileges. For example, a normally well guarded procedure of autopsies was freely allowed by plague doctors to allow research for a cure of the plague during the Middle Ages. The city of Orvieto hired Matteo fu Angelo in 1348 for 4 times the normal rate of a doctor of 50-florin per year.[5]

So valuable were plague doctors that when Barcelona dispatched two to Tortosa in 1650, outlaws captured them en route and demanded a ransom. The city of Barcelona paid for their release.[5]

Beak doctor

Main article: Beak doctor costume

A plague doctor would have worn a beak doctor costume in his role as a specialized doctor. He was known then as a "Beak Doctor".[3] The protective suit consisted of a heavy fabric overcoat that was waxed, a mask of glassed eye openings and a cone shaped like a beak to hold scented substances.[12] Some of the scented materials were amber, balm-mint leaves, camphor, cloves, laudanum, myrrh, rose petals, storax.[8] A wooden cane pointer was used to help examine the patient without touching.[13][14]

Historian O'Donnell says that a medieval plague doctor was also referred to as the chirurgeon (Middle English "cirurgien", from Old French, from Latin chīrurgia, from Greek χειρουργία, as referring to surgery). He says the chirurgeon wore a long black oilcloth robe that had a hood.[15] It was intended as a protection suit against the contagious plague. This costume had openings for the eyes that were made of glass. It also had a hollow long beak for the nose, which was filled with camphor, garlic, mint, or a sponge of vinegar. This was all to protect the doctor from miasmatic bad air.[16]

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.[8]

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.[17] Plague doctors became testators and witnesses to numerous wills during times of plague epidemics.[18] They instructed plague patients to be serene and lighthearted and to think of only gold, silver, and other items which were comforting to the heart instead of death.[19]

Methods

Plague doctors practiced bloodletting and other remedies such as putting frogs on the buboes "rebalancing the humors" as a normal routine.[20] Plague doctors could not generally interact with the general public because of the nature of their business and the possiblility of spreading the disease.

Notable medieval plague doctors

Paracelsus was a famous medieval plague doctor.[21] The Italian city of Pavia in 1479 contracted Giovanni de Ventura as a community plague doctor.[5][22] 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.[23][24]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Miskimin, p. 65
  2. ^ Miskimin, p. 65
  3. ^ a b c Ellis, p. 202
  4. ^ Miskimin, p. 65
  5. ^ a b c d e Byrne (Daily), p. 169
  6. ^ a b Simon, p. 3
  7. ^ Miskimin, p. 65
  8. ^ a b c d Byrne, 170
  9. ^ Miskimin, pp. 65-69
  10. ^ Byrne, 168
  11. ^ Gordon, p. 471
  12. ^ Byrne (Encyclopedia), p. 505
  13. ^ Pommerville, p. 9
  14. ^ O'Donnell, p. 143
  15. ^ O'Donnell, p. 135
  16. ^ O'Donnell, p. 143
  17. ^ Wray, p. 172
  18. ^ Wray, p. 173
  19. ^ The Plague Doctor
  20. ^ Byfield, p. 37
  21. ^ Körner, p. 13
  22. ^ King, p. 339
  23. ^ Stephen, p. 927
  24. ^ THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN IRELAND, by J. OLIVER WOODS, MD, FRCGP, Page 40

Source references

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Plague doctor.
  • 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 0971412944
  • 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 0968987389
  • Byrne, Joseph Patrick, Daily life during the Black Death, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 0313332975
  • Byrne, Joseph Patrick, Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues, ABC-CLIO, 2008, ISBN 0313341028
  • Ellis, Oliver C., A History of Fire and Flame 1932 , Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1417975830
  • Fee, Elizabeth, AIDS: the burdens of history, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0520063961
  • Haggard, Howard W., From Medicine Man to Doctor: The Story of the Science of Healing, Courier Dover Publications, 2004, ISBN 0486435415
  • 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 9241563443
  • Kenda, Barbara, Aeolian winds and the spirit in Renaissance architecture: Academia Eolia revisited, Taylor & Francis, 2006, ISBN 0415398045
  • King, Margaret L., Western civilization: a social and cultural history, Prentice Hall, 2002, ISBN 0130450073
  • Körner, Christian, Mountain biodiversity: a global assessment, CRC Press, 2002, ISBN 1842140914
  • Miskimin, Harry A., The Medieval City, Yale University Press, 1977, ISBN 0300020813
  • O'Donnell, Terence, History of life insurance in its formative years, American Conservation Company, 1936
  • Pommerville, Jeffrey, Alcamo's Fundamentals of Microbiology, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2010, ISBN 076376258X
  • Simon, Matthew, Emergent computation: emphasizing bioinformatics, Publisher シュプリンガー・ジャパン株式会社, 2005, ISBN 0387220461
  • Stephen (Sir Leslie), Robert Blake, Christine Stephanie Nicholls, Editor Sir Sidney Lee, The Dictionary of national biography, Volume 14, The Dictionary of National Biography, Robert Blake, Authors Publisher Oxford University Press, 1909
  • Stuart, David C., Dangerous garden: the quest for plants to change our lives, frances lincoln ltd, 2004, ISBN 0711222657
  • Wray, Shona Kelly, Communities and crisis: Bologna during the Black Death, ISBN 9004176349
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