He
is wearing a long leather raincoat which covers his body entirely and a
crow-like face mask that looks like a weapon at any moment and holding a stick
that is long and very sharp. Who do you think the man wearing a strange cloth
is? My answer is “who is one of grim reapers”. Maybe your answer is similar
as mine. However, he is a doctor against our expectation and his expectable nick
name is a “break doctor”. The scary costume was the real doctor’s dress when they
visited the patients who got the plague in Europe during the 14th century. How
have the costume changed to a scary creature from a doctor's clothing?
We cannot imagine the time when the
Black Death swept through entire Europe. The estimated number of people who
were killed from the disease was around one third of all people in Europe. This
number shows that at least a person in a household died, and the plague was everybody’s
problem. Even more surprising is the death rate of the plague. 99%? Unfortunately,
it 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.
Then, what caused an
abundant amount of death? According the recent article “Black Death SkeletonsGive up Secrets of Life and Death”, the cause of the diseased’ spread is not
because of fleas from rats, but because of aerial infection. I think that the recent cause is more reasonable
because if the disease had transmitted through fleas, there would have needed fleas
as numberless as the sands. People who were living at that time thought about
the reasons of the plague as follows. The thoughts were a quite sad and a bold
idea.
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. The doctor could protect himself by
wearing the weird custom. 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.
There was another reason that contributed the high death rate. It was nothing less than 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 my people were
dead. And then, the doctors started to be called as the doctors of bring the
death. The reason why people consider the plague doctor as a ghost is probably
base on this history.
