Do you want a plague mask?

Have you ever wondered about the pictures of these 16th Century doctors and their strange masks? Why did they wear those beaked masks? Were they supposed to scare the Black Plague out of its victims? Would they help you avoid today's plague, the unstoppable virus known as COVID-19 or novel coronavirus?

A plague doctor, outfitted in the latest style

First, a short history lesson

The disease known as bubonic plague, the Black Plague, or the Black Death, originated in the Gobi Desert of eastern Asia in 1330. By 1346, it had spread to Europe, where it proceeded to kill, by some accounts, up to 60% of the population of Europe at the time. Then it disappeared.

... And came back. Several times. For centuries afterwards.

The plague was so contagious and so fast-acting that, it was said, a fishing boat would depart in the morning, with the crew healthy and symptom-free, and before nightfall the entire crew would be dead, leaving the ship adrift and disease-ridden.

Cities would hire doctors from out of town, or sometimes itinerants who were not even doctors, to come in and serve the cities as "plague doctors". As with today's pandemic, it was tough duty, as many of the plague doctors died of the plague themselves.

Plague doctors were constantly seeking for ways to isolate themselves from the contagion. In the 14th through 18th centuries, it was believed that diseases, such as cholera and (of course) plague, were spread by "bad air", also known as "night air" or miasma. The word miasma is Greek, and translates roughly to "pollution". And in Latin,"bad air" translates to malaria. Hmmmmm.

Since death, disease and decay are stinky processes, the miasma theory held that bad odors were a sure sign of "bad air". Flowers and other good-smelling stuff were believed to ward off disease because their good odors drove away the miasma. So well-meaning friends and family would fill a  sick person's room with fresh flowers, burning incense, and other good-smelling stuff.

That hasn't changed in 800 years, has it?

(Hey! Maybe that's where all of this "essential oil" pseudo-medicine came from as well!)

In the early 1600s, a French doctor named Charles de Lorme (who happened to be the chief physician to Louis XIII) created what you might call the world's first hazmat suit, and plague doctors quickly adopted it.

The plague doctor's outfit consisted of a lightly oiled cloak, purported to be impermeable to miasma, a broad-brimmed hat or oversized hood, purported to keep bad stuff from drifting down onto the doctor, leather boots and gloves, and a mask consisting of a long, hollow beak and eyeholes with glass lenses.

A plague doctor mask, made of white leather (Buy this mask on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/126798567/plague-doctors-mask-maximus-in-white)

The glass lenses offered the same effective protection as modern safety glasses or face shields. The beak, at least six inches long, and often longer, had nostril-like holes to allow the passage of air, and was stuffed with all manner of aromatic substances, in order to neutralize the miasma. Various sources list the aromatic ingredients, things like "ambergris, mint leaves, storax, myrrh, laudanum, rose petals, camphor, cloves and straw".

Records vary on whether the mask was effective. Remember that the miasma theory was the basis for the beak full of aromatic substances? 

Now, up to more or less modern times

In the 19th Century, the miasma theory of disease was supplanted by the germ theory, as doctors discovered that "germs", the microscopic organisms that really caused disease, can be spread from person to person through a wide variety of vectors, or transmission methods. One vector is aerosols, the technical term for the cloud of microscopic particles which an infected person coughs or sneezes into the air, and which other people then inhale. (That's pretty close to a miasma, isn't it?) 

The COVID-19 virus can be transmitted through skin-to-skin touch, through touching a contaminated surface, or through aerosols. And that brings us almost all the way to the 21st Century.

In 1910, a Chinese doctor (oh, the irony!) invented a face mask for use by medical practitioners, to filter bacteria from the air they breathe. One hundred and ten years later, that doctor's design has evolved into the N95 face mask, which blocks 95% of airborne particles. 

N95 face mask. By Hanabishi - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26800840

Because of the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is now a critical shortage of N95 face masks. The shortage is being backfilled by hobbyists, housewives, automotive manufacturers, and enterpreneurs, who are getting very creative in the design of the face mask. The critical part of the mask is compliance with the N95 standard; the rest of the design is up to the maker's creativity. 

A modern beak mask

And that creativity takes us full circle, all the way back to de Lorme's beak mask.

A modern plague doctor?