The Doctor of Death

Do you know who is he? Right!  He is a person who is dressing up a Halloween costume as a “Plague doctor”. Is a plague doctor a ghost or a monster?

However, the answer is “NO”. You can easily know who he is by checking the character’s name. You may have a prejudice after you see the picture because he is what you are expecting. I also thought he was a kind of a Grim Reaper when I saw the picture. The scary costume was the real doctor’s dress when they visited the patients who got the plague in Europe during the 14^th century. How have the costume changed to a scary creature from a doctor's clothing?

The Black Death was a deadly plague that swept through entire Europe. The death rate of the Black Death was 200%. How could it be over 100%? The reason is when a person got the plague, not only must the person die, but the person also infects someone new. I cannot imagine how horrible the situation was. Because of insufficient medical information, the doctors could not find a cure for the disease. It’s too obvious that the doctors did not know the cure, for they did not know what was causing. Back then, people thought about reasons of the plague as follows.

1. People got the plague after they watched the person who already got the plague.
2. The source of infection was bad air.
3. People got the plague because they drank water from a poisoned well.

Because of these thoughts, it should seem that the doctors dressed up like the picture. A long leather coat, a pair of leather glove, and a mask looked like a crow helped to minimize the risk of infection. The most interesting thing is for me the mask. At first, I thought why the doctors made the ugly mask like a raven. However, there was a wise idea of the doctors. The mask could prevent the doctor from bad smell. The doctors kept perfume or spice in beak of the mask. Even though the doctors did not know the reason of the Black Death, their costume should seem that they prevented them from the disease. The plague was caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterial disease spread by fleas from rats.

The most serious problem was the method in treating the Black Death. As you can see the picture, the treatment at the time was to ‘bleed’ patients. The remedy was more of a hindrance than a help, so many people were dead. And then, the doctors started to be called as the doctors of bringing the death.

The reason why people consider the plague doctor as a ghost is probably base on this history.