these days the coronavirus is a fact of life images of hazmat suits medical professionals
and full body scrubs and surgical masks are flooding the news the sight of so many of
these outfits makes us more than just a little anxious but we do recognize them as effective
attire for limiting the spread of disease today we learn about plague doctor costumes
i'm your host ryan socas and you're watching it's history
in the 17th century during the epidemics of the bubonic plague that swept western
europe plague doctors who exclusively treated the infected took to wearing a very different
kind of costume to protect them from what they called bad air then believed to carry disease
the fanciful looking costume typically consisted of a head to toe leather or wax canvas garment
large crystal glasses and a long snout or bird beak containing aromatic spices such as mint
cloves or dried flowers such as roses or even a vinegar sponge the strong smell of these items
sometimes set aflame for perceived added advantage were meant to combat the contagious bad air that
the costume itself could not protect against plague doctors also carried a wand with which
to issue instructions such as ordering disease stricken houses be filled with spiders or toads
to absorb the bad air and commanding the infected to inhale bottled wind or take urine baths
the same wands were used to take a patient's pulse to remove his clothing and also to ward
off infection when they came too close a potent tool used for social distancing if ever there
was one in fact however strange this early modern hazmat suit looks it was not entirely useless the
ankle-length gown and herb-filled beak designed to fight off harmful air would have offered
some protection against germs the invention of the plague doctor costume complete with beaked masks
is credited to a french physician charles delorme who's thought to have developed the suit in 1619
by 1636 it had proven popular enough to be worn as far away as the present-day netherlands
but ultimately it became an icon of european culture once and for all during the plague of
1656 which killed nearly half a million people in roman naples plague doctors at the time were
required by contracts signed in municipal courts to wear the costume the appearance
of one of these human-sized birds on your doorstep could only mean that death was near
as the costume came to be adopted by plague doctors throughout western europe in the 17th
and 18th century it more and more entered the collective imagination plague doctors were such a
common sight in venice their costume was taken up as a carnival outfit effectively
incorporating this symbol of mortality into the annual celebration of life perhaps one of the
most important documentations of this phenomenon comes from a photo taken near a plague quarantine
station and eventual grey for an estimated 160 000 people the photo shows one man wearing a
vintage plague mask while the other holds a kind of waffle iron used in the disinfection of letters
this raises the question is the man on the right actually trying to protect himself by wearing this
century's old mask or is it all staged done in fun a demonstration of antique findings that aside i'd
like to hear your thoughts on the future if in a hundred years from now our descendants looking
back on the fashion of a modern pandemic will feel equally as terrified make sure you catch
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