Jump to content

Plague doctor: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
removed last two edits of 159.191.173.26 identified as vandalism
Line 1: Line 1:
[[File:Paul Fürst, Der Doctor Schnabel von Rom (Holländer version).png|thumb|Doktor Schnabel von Rom ("Doctor Beak of Rome" in German) with a satirical [[Macaronic language|macaronic poem]] (‘Vos Creditis, als eine Fabel, / quod scribitur vom Doctor Schnabel’) in [[octosyllabic]] rhyming couplets. engraving by [[Paul Fürst]], 1656]]
⚫
was a idotA '''plague doctor''' (Italian: ''medico della peste'', Dutch: ''pestmeester'', German: ''Pestarzt'') was a special medical physician who saw those who had [[Black Death|the plague]].<ref name="Cipolla, p. 65">Cipolla, 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: both the rich and the poor.<ref>Cipolla, p. 68 3/4 down page</ref> 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 trying to establish themselves.<ref name="Cipolla, p. 65"/>

⚫
A '''plague doctor''' (Italian: ''medico della peste'', Dutch: ''pestmeester'', German: ''Pestarzt'') was a special medical physician who saw those who had [[Black Death|the plague]].<ref name="Cipolla, p. 65">Cipolla, 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: both the rich and the poor.<ref>Cipolla, p. 68 3/4 down page</ref> 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 trying to establish themselves.<ref name="Cipolla, p. 65"/>


Plague doctors by [[plague doctor contract|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.<ref name="Cipolla, p. 65"/><ref name="Ellis202">Ellis, p. 202</ref><ref name="Byrne169">Byrne (Daily), p. 169</ref><ref name="Simon3">Simon, p. 3</ref> 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-seller before his employment as a physician.<ref name="Byrne170">Byrne, 170</ref>
Plague doctors by [[plague doctor contract|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.<ref name="Cipolla, p. 65"/><ref name="Ellis202">Ellis, p. 202</ref><ref name="Byrne169">Byrne (Daily), p. 169</ref><ref name="Simon3">Simon, p. 3</ref> 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-seller before his employment as a physician.<ref name="Byrne170">Byrne, 170</ref>

Revision as of 22:01, 29 January 2013

Doktor Schnabel von Rom ("Doctor Beak of Rome" in German) with a satirical macaronic poem (‘Vos Creditis, als eine Fabel, / quod scribitur vom Doctor Schnabel’) in octosyllabic rhyming couplets. engraving by Paul Fürst, 1656

A plague doctor (Italian: medico della peste, Dutch: pestmeester, German: Pestarzt) was a special medical physician who saw those who had the 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: both the rich and the poor.[2] 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 trying to establish themselves.[1]

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][3][4][5] 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-seller before his employment as a physician.[6]

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.[7] Being a plague doctor was unpleasant, dangerous and difficult. Their chances of survival in times of a plague epidemic were low.[8][9]

History

Pope Clement VI 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, plague doctors were freely allowed to perform autopsies, which were otherwise generally forbidden in Medieval Europe, to research a cure for the plague. The city of Orvieto hired Matteo fu Angelo in 1348 for 4 times the normal rate of a doctor of 50-florin per year.[4]

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.[4]

Costume

Main article: Plague doctor costume

Some plague doctors wore a special costume, although graphic sources show that plague doctors wore a variety of garments. The garments were invented by Charles de L'Orme in 1619; they were first used in Paris, but later spread to be used throughout Europe[12] The protective suit consisted of a heavy fabric overcoat that was waxed, a mask with glass eye openings and a cone nose shaped like a beak to hold scented substances and straw.[13]

Some of the scented materials were ambergris, balm-mint leaves, camphor, cloves, laudanum, myrrh, rose petals, storax.[6] This was thought to protect the doctor from miasmatic bad air.[14] The straw provided a filter for the "bad air". A wooden cane pointer was used to help examine the patient without having to touch them.[15][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.[6]

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] Plague doctors also gave advice to their patients about their conduct before death.[19] 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.[20]

Methods

Plague doctors practiced bloodletting and other remedies such as putting frogs on the buboes to "rebalance the humors" as a normal routine.[21] 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.[22]

Notable medieval plague doctors

A famous plague doctor who gave medical advice about preventive measures which could be taken against the plague was Nostradamus.[23][24] Nostradamus' advice was the removal of infected corpses, getting fresh air, drinking clean water, and drinking a juice preparation of "rose hips".[25][26] In Traité des fardemens it shows in Part A Chapter VIII that Nostradamus also recommended not to bleed the patient.[26]

The Italian city of Pavia in 1479 contracted Giovanni de Ventura as a community plague doctor.[4][27] 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.[28][29] Paracelsus was also a famous medieval plague doctor.[30]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Cipolla, p. 65
  2. ^ Cipolla, p. 68 3/4 down page
  3. ^ Ellis, p. 202
  4. ^ a b c d Byrne (Daily), p. 169
  5. ^ Simon, p. 3
  6. ^ a b c Byrne, 170
  7. ^ Irvine Loudon, Western Medicine: An Illustrated History (Oxford, 2001), pp. 184, 189
  8. ^ Cipolla, pp. 65-69
  9. ^ Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death: natural and human disaster in medieval Europe (Simon & Schuster, 1983), p. 49.
  10. ^ Byrne, 168
  11. ^ Gordon, p. 471
  12. ^ Christine M. Boeckl, Images of plague and pestilence: iconography and iconology (Truman State University Press, 2000), pp. 15, 27.
  13. ^ Byrne (Encyclopedia), p. 505
  14. ^ Irvine Loudon, Western Medicine: An Illustrated History (Oxford, 2001), p. 189.
  15. ^ Pommerville, p. 9
  16. ^ O'Donnell, p. 143
  17. ^ Wray, p. 172
  18. ^ Wray, p. 173
  19. ^ "The Plague Doctor". Jhmas.oxfordjournals.org. 2012-04-02. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  20. ^ Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death: natural and human disaster in medieval Europe (Simon & Schuster, 1983), pp. 126-28.
  21. ^ Byfield, p. 37
  22. ^ Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death: natural and human disaster in medieval Europe (Simon & Schuster, 1983), p. 126.
  23. ^ Hogue, p. 1844
  24. ^ The essential Nostradamus: literal translation, historical commentary, and ... By Richard Smoley. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  25. ^ Pickover, p. 279
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ King, p. 339
  28. ^ Stephen, p. 927
  29. ^ "THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN IRELAND; by J. OLIVER WOODS, MD, FRCGP, Page 40" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  30. ^ 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
  • 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, Author. Oxford University Press, 1909
  • 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
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plague_doctor&oldid=535583407"