Why Doctors Used to Wear This Creepy Mask | Joe Rogan and Lindsey Fitzharris

it's important when you're studying the history of medicine to really get into the mindset, because it's so wildly different to the way we think. Right. And, you know, actually, do you know what this is? I brought this, if people are just listening, it's a long beaked mask. Like a bird mask. Yeah. I do not know what that is. Okay, so this, a lot of people think this is a Venetian mask. This is actually a particular example from Venice. It is what people would have, doctors would have worn during the bubonic plague. So it's called the plague doctor mask. And so it was invented in the 17th century by a French doctor. And the idea behind it was, so people thought that disease was spread by this thing called miasma, which are like little particles in the air. They're sort of associated with bad smells. So if something smells bad, it's probably not good for you is what they thought. And it kind of makes sense because it's like, you know, you're in a really, if you're in a slummy area of the Victorian period, it's probably has a lot of disease. It probably doesn't smell good. So that was sort of the thinking behind it. So what you would do is you would put sweet smelling herbs into the beak. And so you would be smelling this and it would protect you from those evil miasma. Whoa. Yeah. It's, you know, is that a real one? No, we don't actually have, I don't believe there's an example of a real one from the 17th century, but there's a lot of illustrations of the plague doctor and he would have been wearing a hat. He would have been wearing a cape, leather gloves, like sort of just protecting himself. Oh, there you go. That's a real one. Authentic 16th century plague doctor mask preserved and on display at the, whoa, there you go. Another one. German museum of medical history. But I question that because it was invented in the 17th century. So if it's real, it's going to be a little bit later. Interesting. But we don't know how much they were worn because they would have been expensive. A lot of doctors weren't very noble. So the plague broke out. They got the hell out of there. There was sort of a phrase, go far and go long, you know, get out and don't come back for a while. There wasn't much they could do for you. They had a stick as well that they would sort of poke the patient with. So they wouldn't have to touch the patient and kind of have them turn over and they can, you know, yes, you have the plague. There wasn't much they could do for you. We can cure the plague. They did not know what germs were. So they really didn't understand what the plague was. They had sort of a concept of contagion. So if you broke out with the plague, they would probably quarantine you in your house and they put a big cross on the door. And so people would bring food and you, you know, put a basket outside of your window with a rope and you take. And so they do that until everybody was dead in the house or that the plague had passed and they felt that you were safe to come out into the general population. So there was an idea that these things were contagious, but not again in the way that we kind of understand disease is being spread today. God, it's so strange that they would, you would not know what was going on. Like people would just start dying and you'd be like, what is this? It's a curse. Yeah, it could be God's curse. And people say, you know, oh, the plague mask is so terrifying. It is pretty creepy. Can I put it on? It's super creepy, but I always say that it's good look. This is why I brought this across the Atlantic. So Joe Rogan could wear the plague doctor mask. How many people would know what that is? Like if you went, you know, if you go to Venice, they say plague doctor mask. It's funny because I was just in Venice recently and they were saying that, you know, the big carnival that they have every year, it's becoming harder to do because of security reasons. So you have like a huge population of a city wearing masks and covering their identities. So they have to cut back, which kind of sucks because, you know, that's like the fun of the carnival. So now they're, they're cutting back where you can wear them in public places and things like that. But yeah, it is unfortunate. Can't even wear a plague mask. Can't wear a plague mask. I'm going to bring it back though. I'm just going to be walking around in downtown LA. How would that attach to your face? Those are like straps or something? Yeah, there would have been straps or in that other example he was showing, it looked like it was sort of a full on. Oh, there it goes. I mean, that looks so creepy. It's so creepy, but... Death. Today we have the modern plague doctor. What do you think that would be? Yeah, the hazmat. Yeah, exactly. And so you think about the hazmat going into hot zones. That would be pretty scary if you didn't know what was going on. And certainly sort of ominous, you know, when you see the hazmat. So it's a weird thing that exists because in a strange kind of way, it probably did protect the plague doctor because he was covering himself up, but it protected him for the wrong reasons. He still didn't understand how disease was spread.