A Brief History of Medical Face Masks

If you materialise to find yourself in 17th - century Naples , you were in for a harsh time . The Plague of 1656 was in full swinging and would claiman estimated 300,000 livesin Naples alone . If you were one of the unlucky mortal to come down with the genus Bubo and high feverishness symptomatic of the disease , a visit from the pestis Doctor of the Church may have been in your future .

The plague doctors ’ uniform did n’t on the dot inspire a mother wit of calm air . They wore a head - to - toe leather overcoating paired with leather gloves , breech , boot , and a wide - brimmed hat . ( Take a second to value just how asphyxiate this outfit would be in a hot Neapolitan summer . ) The doctors were armed with a scepter that , along with the rest of the getup , would indicate the doctor ’s profession and could be used to prod and prod patient role . The whole turnout was modeled after a soldier ’s lawsuit of armor . Fitting , when you consider that far more people died of plague than scrap in the 17th one C .

By far the most harrowing part of the costume was the long - beak masquerade party . The mask had thick glass spectacle and two small holes in the snout . The hooter was stuffed with straw and aromatic herbaceous plant , such asmint , gum myrrh , rose petals , clove tree , and camphor , among others .

A physician wearing a 17th-century plague-preventive head covering.Illustration: Wellcome Collection

The plague doctor ’s side train tick an important moment in the history of the medical masque . The beak , developed by the Gallic aesculapian physician Charles de Lorme , was among the first nerve coverings designed to diminish the spread of illness .

https://gizmodo.com/how-fake-science-saved-lives-in-victorian-london-1795821421

The peck masque , alas , was n’t too effective on that front . De Lorme germinate it based upon the now - defunct theory of miasma , an idea date stamp back to ancient Greece . The hypothesis held thatfoul smells or “ forged air , ” like that from rotting carcasses or solid food , caused disease .

Copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel [i.e Dr. Beak], a plague doctor in 17th-century Rome, with a satirical macaronic poem (‘Vos Creditis, als eine Fabel, / quod scribitur vom Doctor Schnabel’) in octosyllabic rhyming couplets.Illustration: Public Domain

During the eighteenth C , the plague of yesteryear faded away , as did the usage of masks . In the other 1700s , the periodic beak might still adorn a Dr. inspect quarantined ship , but for the most part , Doctor went mask - less .

https://gizmodo.com/how-medieval-people-tried-to-dance-away-the-plague-1843129963

folk in the 18th 100 ( and even as far back as Pliny the Elder and Leonardo da Vinci ) understood that inhale certain airborne particle and debris could be harmful . This finally led Prussian excavation functionary ( and all - around Renaissance man ) Alexander von Humboldt to excogitate a mineworker ’ respirator in 1799 .

Wotton Lodge, Gloucester: operating theatre and staff. Photograph, ca. 1909.Photo:Wellcome Collection

Throughout the 19th century , doctors retain to go without mask while doer in factories were encouraged to practice them to aid separate out particle - rally breeze . In an Irish flax - spinning factory , workers were said to have worn a “ crape mask . ” But when the British physician and author Benjamin Ward Richardson visit said factory , he saw not a masquerade party in sight . In his book , On Health and Occupation , he sums up why mask - eating away did n’t exactly take off in the 19th C . “ Science … is conquered by gratis will , ” he write , noting that until people realize its “ usefulness , ” the face mask “ will have to expect . ” And so , the face mask waited .

In 1897 , French surgeon Paul Berger became one of the first sawbones to ever wear a face mask during an operation . Berger was familiar with the piece of work of German bacteriologist Carl Flügge , who discovered that saliva could contain disease - causing bacteria . Berger , being a impertinent guy wire , figure that spitting into a affected role ’s receptive abdominal cavity during surgical process believably was n’t a great idea . Berger’smask marry above his noseand was made from six layer of gauze , and its lower edge was stitch to the top of his sterilized linen paper apron . ( He had a dope byssus to protect . ) On February 22 , 1899 , Berger read a newspaper publisher , “ On the Use of a Mask in Operating , ” before the Surgical Society of Paris . The reception was n’t exactly warm . In the discussion following Berger ’s lecture , a Monsieur Terrier scoffed at the proposition say , “ I have never wear a mask , and quite sure enough I never shall do so . ”

It would take decades for Dr. to get with the curriculum and start wearing side mask . In a 1905article for the Journal of the American Medical Association , physician Alice Hamilton document the want of mask used in surgery , even at modern aesculapian school . She writes , “ I was told by a pupil in a large medical college in Chicago that he had often noticed at the clinic of a certain sawbones that , when the light was from a sure direction , he could see , from his ass in the coliseum , a continuous spray of saliva coming from the back talk of the surgeon while he converse to the class and conducted his operation . ” Clearly , that surgeon missed Berger ’s memo .

Photograph depicting how the gauze-cotton mask should be worn. K. Chimin Wong and Wu Lien-Teh.Photo:Wellcome Library

A twelvemonth after Hamilton ’s article , the British abdominal Dr. Berkeley Moynihan published one of the first school text to advocate for face masks . In his 1906 Holy Writ , Abdominal Operations , Moynihan concludes ( in a stomach - riffle metaphor ) that the bacterium spewed from a person ’s lip is “ bad than the worst London sewage . ” Unless the surgeon , helper , and anyone else nearby were absolutely silent , they should definitely have masks on . Later in the book , he fox some considerable shade at doctor who practice without look masque , writing , “ it is the custom among the unenlightened to flout at the necessary guard accept by those who practice aseptic surgery ; the import of the word ‘ aseptic ’ is forgotten . ”

It took five more years , a 20th - century infestation , and a courageous physician to jump to popularize the facemask . After take its first lifespan in the nightfall of 1910 , the Manchurian plague ’s demise toll would move up to 60,000 in the following four months . 31 - year - old , Cambridge educated doctorWu Lien Teharrived at the epicenter of the outbreak in the northeastern Chinese urban center of Harbin . Wu required all doctor , nurses , and even inhumation stave to endure font masks .

At the time , the medical residential area ridiculed Wu for the move . A outstanding Gallic doctor work with Wu in Manchuria pointedly went against Wu ’s call for masquerade - wearing . He kick the bucket 24-hour interval after from the disease . It ’s because of Wu that front masquerade party became so important during the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic . Police forces , aesculapian workers , and even resident physician in some U.S. cities were all required to fall apart side masks .

Precautions taken in Seattle, Washington during the “Spanish Influenza” pandemic would not permit anyone to ride on the street cars without wearing a mask. 1918.Photo: Public Domain

While doctors in the main agreed upon mask ’ utility , there was still a circumstances of experiment with pattern . Throughout the early decades of the 20th century , patent were issued various styles of masks . Most commonly , masks were made of cotton netting and held in station with a metal skeleton . Modernsdisposable masksgrew in popularity in the sixties , and in 1972 , the N95 respirator mask was invented , becoming a healthcare standard in epidemic in 1995 .

The history of masks is in many way a history of epidemiology . While the plague doctor of the 17th century sure enough had a scary rig , de Lorme ’s miasm - inspired leather overcoat and bird mask did n’t preclude anyone from contracting the plague . The transition from miasma to germ hypothesis was a dull one , but already in the 1800s there was an understanding of the usefulness of face masks in factories .

The aesculapian human race was much deadening to adopt the innovation . For intimately 50 years , Doctor fought against wearing mask , until the Manchurian infestation became a deadly testing priming coat for the facial expression mask ’s importance . It ’s a will to the need not only for innovations like the side mask but for change public persuasion . If the face mask had been adopted more quickly , myriad lives could have been lay aside .

Sarah Durnis a freelance writer , actor , and medievalist based in New Orleans , Louisiana . She is the author of the bookThe Beginner ’s Guide To Alchemy .

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