The design of these clothes has been attributed to Charles de Lorme, the chief physician to Louis XIII. ![]() 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. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, some doctors wore a beak-like mask which was filled with aromatic items. In one case, a plague doctor had been a fruit salesman before his employment as a physician. In France and the Netherlands, plague doctors often lacked medical training and were referred to as “empirics”. 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. ![]() Beak), a plague doctor in seventeenth-century Rome, circa 1656 / Wikimedia Commons These doctors rarely cured their patients rather, they served to record a count of the number of people contaminated for demographic purposes.Ĭopper engraving of Doctor Schnabel (i.e., Dr. Typically they were not professionally trained nor experienced physicians or surgeons rather they were often either second-rate doctors unable to otherwise run a successful medical practice or young physicians seeking to establish themselves in the industry. However, some of the plague doctors were known to charge patients and their families additional fees for special treatments or false cures. Since the city was paying their salary, they treated everyone: both the wealthy and the poor. In times of epidemics, such physicians were specifically hired by towns where the plague had taken hold. Howard W.The masks were designed to protect them from putrid air, which was seen as the cause of infection.Ī plague doctor was a medical physician who treated victims of the bubonic plague. Joseph Patrick Byrne, Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues, ABC-Clio, 2008ĭorothy Crawford, Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History, Oxford University Press, 2018 He was more than just the inventor of the plague preventive costume he was a talented physician who treated thousands of people during the reigns of three different French kings. Desiring to improve people's lives, Charles spent a good deal of his time coming up with remedies for such diverse ailments as stomach pain and headaches. He built up his reputation as being a reliable, benevolent, and competent physician who cared about his patients and who found solutions during times of hardship. Philippe de Champaigne (1602–1674) (after) National Galleries of Scotland Charles's benevolence was praised by Henri IV himself, as the physician was known for refusing special gifts offered to him by patients who came from nobility. His prowess as a physician preceded him and he became the chief physician to three consecutive French kings: Henri IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV. ![]() His reputation as a good practitioner grew rapidly in the capital and, thanks to his father's connections, Charles became the personal physician to several members of the Medici. Soon after, he moved to Paris to practise medicine under the mentorship of his father. Charles followed in his father's footsteps and, in 1607, he graduated from the University of Montpellier at the age of 23. The outfit also consisted of gloves, boots, and a hat, which was made of waxed leather.Ī Physician Wearing a Plague Preventive Costume in Marseille, 1720īut who was Charles Delorme, apart from the inventor of the plague preventive costume?Ĭharles was the son of Jacques Delorme, a professor at the University of Montpellier who had great connections among the nobility. He created the 'plague preventive costume', which consisted of a long overclothing garment (Moroccan), which went from the neck all the way down to the ankle, the idea being that the air could not penetrate it. In 1619, the bubonic plague erupted in Paris, and an experienced French physician named Charles Delorme was about to have an idea. However, in the midst of the chaos, a man came up with a new invention, one that would possibly help protect the physicians treating patients who'd contracted the plague. All anyone could do was remove the corpses to prevent the virus from spreading further and killing even more people.įor doctors – or physicians as they were called during the early modern period – this situation was unbearable. A Terrified Man Realising He Has Just Contracted the Plague, Surrounded by a Group of PeopleĮdward Matthew Ward (1816–1879) Wellcome CollectionĪs the death toll continued to rise, no remedy was found against the disease.
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