![]() ![]() Roses were common, for instance, although you could also find things like a vinegar sponge, lavender, perfume, or even the opium-based narcotic known as laudanum (because why not?! This is a plague!). ![]() Designed to fit over the doctor’s nose, it included two holes for ventilation, and the space in between its tip and the doctor’s own nose was generally filled with flowers and herbs. The “beak,” for instance, acted as a primitive respirator. While it certainly changed the ensemble from stylish to scary (and anyone who saw one of these doctors did indeed tend to panic), this strange addition to the outfit was purely for utility. We don’t mean Brandon Lee, of course, but rather the crow-like headgear that would help protect the doctor as he went about his daily work. Score one for style, early Euro-doctors! Enter the crow This plague doctor hat, made of waxed leather, replaced what typically went with the formal-robe attire, which traditionally had included a round, corded bonnet. ![]() The ensemble was completed by topping it off with a flat-topped, wide-brimmed plague doctor hat. Hargreaves-Mawdsley’s A History of Academical Dress in Europe: Until the End of the Eighteenth Century advises us that Doctor-of Medicine chic consisted of donning academic robes (black, of course), which were often pleated in the back. While the whole outfit seems like something that one might wear to dress a local scarecrow, the plague doctor’s outfit was simply the technology of the time and designed as a means of identification, protection, and utility. The costume was designed to protect doctors as they treated patients who were suffering from the plague-typically the bubonic plague, but plagues can be septicemic and pneumonic as well!). While that sounds sinister enough, the actual purpose of the costume was arguably more serious. Sporting a cane to complete the ensemble, the individual brings to mind a crow about to conduct a symphony. A bird-like mask covers the face of a 17th-century doctor who is further swaddled in robes and bears a wide-brimmed and flat-topped plague doctor hat. Most of us have at some time seen this famous and peculiar photo. ![]()
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