This beak piece was also filled with vinegar, sweet oils, and other strong-smelling chemicals to mask the stench of death and unburied bodies. (We now know that rats and fleas were responsible for spreading the Black Death.) The doctors may have thought that dressing up in a bird-like gas mask, the plague would be transferred from the patient to the garment. What was with the bird's beak? Well, a common belief at the time was that the plague was being spread by birds. It's thought that the wide-brimmed hat was used to partially shield doctors from bacteria. Plague Doctors and their hats are similar to today's chefs and soldiers. ![]() In the 14th Century, doctors would have been easily identifiable by their wide-brimmed black hats worn close to the head. What doctors didn't know was that they were probably doing more harm than good-spreading the plague even more by exposing more people to their plague-covered articles of clothing. To provide medical care and to protect themselves, doctors of the time invented the medieval version of a hazmat suit.Įach piece of the suit-the hat, the bird-like mask, the red glass eyes, the black overcoat, the leather breeches, and the wooden cane-is thought to have had an important function to either keep the disease away or scare it away. ![]() In those times, physicians didn't know what was causing the disease to spread, but they did know it was highly contagious. Described as the most lethal epidemic in history, the plague began in China in the 1330s and made its way through Europe from 1346 to 1353. The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, killed at least 75 million people on three continents.
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