Dr. Death
The 17th century was a weird time, where syphilis was rampant. People drank ale to quench thirst because water was rarely safe to drink, and just when it couldn’t get worse, what happens? The on-call doctor would show up to your house wearing this…Talk about a bad day! This err, interesting contraption is a plague mask. It was invented during the Bubonic Plague, as a way to protect doctors from becoming infected. Our understanding, of diseases and how they spread was very rudimentary, at that time, and often doctors were guessing more than anything. We did have a general understanding of contagiousness, but not for the right reasons. Doctors believed that disease was spread through particles in the air being breathed in, particularly associated with bad smells. To protect from infection, doctors stuffed the beak of this mask with sweet or spicy smelling herbs, then strapped in on along with a hood, leather gloves, and a cape. Yikes! During this strange time in human history, doctors believed the body was controlled by 4 fluids (which ruled your personality and how your body reacted to disease : Phlegm- cold, calm personality Blood-hot, fiery personality Yellow Bile- dry, hot-tempered personality Black Bile- moist, melancholy personality. There had been very little actual observation and study of the human body, but doctors nevertheless had an array of interesting cures. Some common practices included: mice- to clean teeth, stop poison from spreading, relieve ear aches, and treat gout, spiders webs- to draw out poison and heal wounds, swallowing of said spider (to heal fever from poison). Now, if you’re anything like me you are wondering, who the hell was poisoning so many people in the 17th century? Well the answer is quite obvious actually, they were poisoning themselves. It was very common to be bitten or stung by animals or insects, to eat poisonous fruit, and for doctors to diagnose “poison” when they found no clear answer. Common cures included dried, crushed toad, and ground unicorn horn. The effectiveness of these cures are unknown but speculation suggests it was quite minimal.
