What is your first feeling when you see this outfit?

The black cloak and long bird's beak mask make people feel serious, cold, and even terrifying. But many people don’t know that these “Bird Beak Doctors” who look like death represent the full four centuries of human beings’ fight against the plague.

Bird beak doctor, also known as Plague Doctor, English name The Plague Doctor

In medieval Europe, everyone was "feared when talking about rats". The Plague (Black Death) that swept across the European continent at that time caused Europe to drop by 50%. In this great plague that ruined the world, the average life expectancy of Europeans was reduced by nearly 20 years, and they did not recover until two centuries later.

The most popular way to greet you at that time was: so coincidental, you are still alive.

The Black Death Rampant Europe

For the treatment of the Black Death, the most popular method at that time was "bloodle". This medical method, which sounds quite mysterious oriental, represents the cutting-edge medical technology at that time, but because the patient's blood is contagious, doctors have become a high-risk infected population.

To deal with this situation, a French doctor named Charles de Lorme invented an isolation suit in the 16th century, and the bird beak doctor appeared.

The set consists of 5 parts:

Black wide brim, bird's beak gas mask, black robe, leather breeches and leather gloves and canes

In order to achieve isolation effect, the beak set is made of wax-soaked oil cloth from top to bottom. The iconic beak is filled with camphor, cotton, mint, ginger and other things to filter the air and play a role in disinfection. The pointed bird beak can roughly allow the air to be effectively purified in this long pipe. At the same time, the doctors also covered their hair with top hats, put on long robes to block the stolen goods, and touched the patients with canes.

The cane is also "practical" and "symbolized" amphibious use: when treating a doctor, you can use a cane to pick up the patient's clothes to avoid contact, and when a dead horse is treated as a living horse, you can also whip the patient in order to drive away the disease. In the past era, everything would have a certain connection with gods and ghosts.

Yes, it's so magical.

Bird beak doctor was a very respected profession at the time. In order to get everyone to be treated, the cost of plague doctors is allocated by the government, and they also have the privilege of free dissection of the body.

Bird beak doctor at work

According to common sense, it was a disrespect to disassemble the corpse at that time, but because theological forces did not play much role in dealing with the plague, there was a brief situation in Europe that science was higher than theology.

In addition to medical work, doctors of bird beak will also exercise public services granted by the government. For example, help relevant departments record the number of deaths, help the deceased make a will, or provide psychological counseling to the patients to teach them to face death.

However, although they were the closest group to death at that time, their image gradually became dark and was still related to their high mortality rate.

Because of limited technical means at that time, the isolation effect of the bird beak suit was not as great as people imagined, and the transmission route of the Black Death was not only airborne, so the mortality rate of these bird beak doctors has always remained high.

So later, only the desperate doctor or young doctor who wants to become famous quickly would become a bird beak doctor. People at that time were afraid of them, but also afraid of them.

They are like Conan, and death will come wherever they go. Gradually, the image of the bird beak doctor is associated with words such as "death" and "plague".

In fact, the time for humans to overcome the plague is not far away, which means that the quiver doctor has not withdrawn from the stage of history. In addition, the appearance of this dress itself has a strong religious color, and is at the same time as "death" and "science". The image of the quiver doctor has been quickly accepted by subculture in modern times.

Based on this, modern Internet has created countless works based on this image. In many games, the image of the Bird Beak Doctor will not be absent from the plague theme.

Image of a bird beak doctor in modern games

The Bird Beak Doctor in Assassin's Creed 2

In addition to the online world, the bird beak doctor in real life has also continued in another form. Nowadays, the image of the bird beak doctor appears mostly as a Gothic cultural symbol.

According to records of the mask carnival in Venice in the 13th century, people liked this mask very much and exaggerated the protruding parts of the mouth and nose to achieve a more bird's beak effect.

As a front-line person in the fight between humans and death, the Bird Beak doctor is an unbiased witness to the history of human medical development.

When you see these images again, in addition to feeling personal and mysterious, you will feel more respect....