![]() Plague doctors could not generally interact with the general public because of the nature of their business and the possiblility of spreading the disease.Ī famous plague doctor who gave medical advice against the Black Death plague as preventative measures was Nostradamus. After plague doctors saw patients they were quarantined for a lengthy period (e.g. Plague doctors practiced bloodletting and other remedies such as putting frogs on the buboes “rebalancing the humors” as a normal routine. ![]() Plague doctors became testators and witnesses to numerous wills during times of plague epidemics. 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. 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. Their principal task, besides taking care of plague victims, was to record in public records the deaths due to the plague. Plague doctors served as public servants during times of epidemics starting with the Black Death of Europe in the fourteenth century. This was all to protect the doctor from miasmatic bad air. It also had a hollow long beak for the nose, which was filled with camphor, garlic, mint, or a sponge of vinegar. This costume had openings for the eyes that were made of glass. He says the chirurgeon wore a long black oilcloth robe that had a hood.It was intended as a protection suit against the contagious plague. 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). Some of the scented materials were amber, balm-mint leaves, camphor, cloves, laudanum, myrrh, rose petals, and storax.A wooden cane pointer was used to help examine the patient without touching. 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. The city of Barcelona paid for their release.Ī plague doctor would have worn a beak doctor costume in his role as a specialized doctor. 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 Orvieto hired Matteo fu Angelo in 1348 for 4 times the normal rate of a doctor of 50-florin per year. 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. Community plague doctors were quite valuable and were given special privileges. In medieval times the large loss of people due to the bubonic plague in a town created an economic disaster. The largest epidemic was the Black Death of Europe in the fourteenth century. The first epidemic of bubonic plague dates back to the mid 500s, known as the Plague of Justinian. 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. They were to attend to the sick people of Avignon. Pope Clement VI had hired several extra plague doctors during the Black Death plague. Because of the dangers and difficulties involved, plague doctors were very hard to find. The chances of survival in times of a plague epidemic were slim. Being a medieval plague doctor was unpleasant, risky, and difficult. The beak they had was a filter for what they believed to be bad, infected air.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. 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. They were not otherwise a general practitioner or “family doctor”. 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. Since the city was paying their salary they treated everyone, the rich and the poor. They were specifically hired by towns that had many plague victims in times of plague epidemics. 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.
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