![]() ![]() CDC published nationwide TB data for the first time in 1953, reporting 84,304 cases of TB in the United States.ĬDC publishes TB surveillance data on an annual basis. Hermann Biggs convinced the New York City Department of Health and Hygiene that doctors should report TB cases to the health department, leading to the first published report on TB in New York City in 1893. Similar numbers occurred in the United States. Throughout the 1600-1800s in Europe, TB caused 25% of all deaths. The earliest written mentions of TB were in India (3,300 years ago) and China (2,300 years ago). Archeologists found TB in the remains of a mother and child buried together. And here's the thing: While it's unclear just how useful the getup was, The Public Domain Review says that it's entirely possible that the heavy leather, ankle-length robe might have provided some very real protection against plague-causing factors, like sneezes.TB in humans can be traced back to 9,000 years ago in Atlit Yam, a city now under the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Israel. The stronger the smell, the better it was thought to work, and sometimes, those herbs and flowers were set on fire and allowed to smolder away. The beak was filled with all kinds of herbs and flowers, including mint, cloves, camphor, dried roses or carnations, myrrh, and other pungent herbs. That's where the masks came in: That long beak was filled with herbs thought to help purify the air and keep the doctor healthy. National Geographic says that he - and his contemporaries - believed in something called the miasma theory, which stated that the plague spread through poisoned air. In the 17th century, plague doctors got an upgrade to their wardrobe that came thanks to a physician named Charles de Lorme, who was the doctor of a handful of royals, including King Louis XIII. There were various recipes, but basically it was a tonic of herbs - variously including things like wormwood, sage, rosemary, camphor, and clove - left to steep in white wine vinegar. ![]() And it may have worked: Some of the components weren't just antibacterial but repelled the insects that were causing the plague. The Farmers' Almanac says lore suggests the name - and the drink - came from a group of 18th-century thieves who robbed the homes of plague victims and drank their tonic to protect themselves from the plague. Later plague doctors would have also been very familiar with mixing up a common treatment called Four Thieves Vinegar. Plague doctors also had something called theriac in their arsenal, which was a complicated syrup made from up to 80 different ingredients. (It wasn't really, but that's never stopped anyone before.) Other options for the very wealthy or the merchant class might involve grinding emeralds into a powder, mixing them with food or a drink, and serving that up along with a dose of mercury and/or arsenic, which, yes, was deadly. If you were a plague doctor, chances were good that you were doing it because no one else wanted to or because you weren't quite good enough to have other career options.Īccording to the Ancient History Encyclopedia, plague doctors might offer their wealthiest customers a powder made from ground unicorn horn. So, what was going on with those people who did step up and apply to become community plague doctors? (Yes, those who were interested tended to apply for the job.) Generally, there were a few types of people who went this grisly route: There were medical professionals who weren't quite good enough to get a job elsewhere, or there were doctors just starting out, who wanted to get experience and to build a name for themselves. That quarantine lasted not just during the plague but afterward, too: Plague doctors would remain on the fringes of society even after the danger had passed. ![]() While they were carrying out their duties, they were forbidden from interacting with healthy members of the community and could only associate with the sick. Who were these people? Most plague doctors were hired by a town or village to care only for the people in that town. The solution was to hire a plague doctor.
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