Why the Beak?

It looks like something out of a steampunk dystopian nightmare, but it’s real: this is the outfit of a Renaissance plague doctor. It consists of a long coat of waxed linen and a mask with glass eyeholes, all to keep the physician free from contagion.

But why must he look like a hooded bird of prey? Is he trying to frighten his patients to death before the plague can get them? Nope. The beak of the mask is actually stuffed with herbs and spices and, one source says, vinegar. Since bad smells or miasmas were supposed to spread the disease, it was hoped that good smells near your face would ward off illness.

I don’t know what breathing vinegar fumes would do to your lungs, but I suppose the outfit as a whole might actually have provided some protection, at least from the airborne bacteria that spread pneumonic plague. It probably didn’t do much about the fleas that spread bubonic plague, but then I don’t know what would have.

This is the kind of thing you discover when you are researching historical pandemics. I really love writing nonfiction.