In fact, plague is caused by Yersinia pestis, bacteria that can be transmitted from animals to humans and through flea bites, contact with contaminated fluid or tissue, and inhalation of infectious droplets from sneezing or coughing people with pneumonic plague. De Lorme thought the beak shape of the mask would give the air sufficient time to be suffused by the protective herbs before it hit plague doctors’ nostrils and lungs. Plague doctors filled their masks with theriac, a compound of more than 55 herbs and other components like viper flesh powder, cinnamon, myrrh, and honey. Sweet and pungent perfumes were thought to be able to fumigate plague-stricken areas and protect the smeller nosegays, incense, and other perfumes were common in the era. In the times before the germ theory of disease, physicians believed that the plague spread through poisoned air that could create an imbalance in a person’s humors, or bodily fluids. Though plague doctors across Europe wore these outfits, the look was so iconic in Italy that the "plague doctor" became a staple of Italian commedia dell’arte and carnival celebrations-and is still a popular costume today.īut the forbidding ensemble was not just a deathly fashion statement: It was intended to protect the doctor from miasma. Their head gear was particularly unusual: Plague doctors wore spectacles, de Lorme continued, and a mask with a nose “half a foot long, shaped like a beak, filled with perfume with only two holes, one on each side near the nostrils, but that can suffice to breathe and carry along with the air one breathes the impression of the enclosed further along in the beak.” 8 Medieval doctors believed the plague had at least one of several causes. The septicemic plague killed nearly 100 of the people it infected and still has no cure to this day. The pneumonic plague killed 90-95 of its victims. Explore the facts of the plague, the symptoms it caused and how millions died from it. The mortality rate for humans who caught the bubonic plague was 30-75. Plague doctors also carried a rod that allowed them to poke (or fend off) victims. The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. He described an outfit that included a coat covered in scented wax, breeches connected to boots, a tucked-in shirt, and a hat and gloves made of goat leather. These physicians were hired by cities to treat infected patients. In 1666 the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the centre of London, but also helped to kill off some of the black rats and fleas that carried the plague bacillus. A plague doctor was a physician who treated victims of bubonic plague1 during epidemics. late medieval physicians-in the face of what was by all accounts. The costume is usually credited to Charles de Lorme, a physician who catered to the medical needs of many European royals during the 17th century, including King Louis XIII and Gaston d'Orléans, son of Marie de Médici. In the spring and summer of 1665 an outbreak of Bubonic Plague spread from parish to parish until thousands had died and the huge pits dug to receive the bodies were full. medieval medicine, theriac, Black Death, plague tracts, composite medicines, thera.