Why plague doctors wore those strange beaked masks？
瘟疫時期的醫生為什麼要戴著那些奇怪鳥嘴面罩？
In the 17th century, people believed these outfits could purify poisonous air. They were wrong.
17世紀時，人們認為這樣的面罩可以淨化有毒的空氣，但是他們錯了。
The plague was once the most feared disease in the world, capable of wiping out hundreds of millions of people in seemingly unstoppable global pandemics and afflicting its victims with painfully swollen lymph nodes, blackened skin, and other gruesome symptoms.
瘟疫曾經是世界上最可怕的疾病，它在難以阻擋的全球大流行中殺死了數以億計的人，受害者會出現淋巴結腫脹，皮膚變黑等其他可怕症狀。
In 17th-century Europe, the physicians who tended to plague victims wore a costume that has since taken on sinister overtones: they covered themselves head to toe and wore a mask with a long bird-like beak. The reason behind the beaked plague masks was a misconception about the very nature of the dangerous disease.
在17世紀的歐洲，醫治瘟疫病人的醫生開始穿著這樣的衣服：他們把自己從頭到腳遮住，並帶著一個長長的鳥嘴面具。從那時起，這種衣服被蒙上了一層陰影色彩。這種鳥嘴面具背後是是人們對於這種可怕疾病本身的誤解。
During that period's outbreaks of the bubonic plague—a pandemic that recurred in Europe for centuries—towns gripped by the disease hired plague doctors who practiced what passed for medicine on rich and poor residents alike. These physicians prescribed what were believed to be protective concoctions and plague antidotes, witnessed wills, and performed autopsies — and some did so while wearing beaked masks.
鼠疫爆發期間（鼠疫曾在歐反覆爆發並流行數個世紀），很多受到鼠疫影響的城市都開始聘用鼠疫醫生，他們對窮人和富人同等對待醫治。這些醫生開出被認為是有效的藥水和瘟疫解藥，見證遺囑，以及解剖遺體，一些醫生在做這些事情的時候都帶著鳥嘴面具。
[Charles de Lorme, a plague doctor who treated 17th century royals, is often credited with the uniform]
【Charles de Lorme, 瘟疫醫生，17世紀為很多皇室服務，被認為是鳥嘴面具和防護服的發明人】
The costume is usually credited to Charles de Lorme, a physician who catered to the medical needs of many European royals during the 17th century, including King Louis XIII and Gaston d'Orléans, son of Marie de Médici. He described an outfit that included a coat covered in scented wax, breeches connected to boots, a tucked-in shirt, and a hat and gloves made of goat leather. Plague doctors also carried a rod that allowed them to poke (or fend off) victims.
這套服裝的出現通常被歸功於Charles de Lorme, 他在17世紀曾為許多歐洲皇室成員提供醫療服務，包括國王路易十三和Marie de Médici（路易十三的母親）的兒子Gaston d'Orléans。他描述了一套防護方法：“在外套上塗一層香蠟，長褲和靴子連在一起，襯衣塞到褲子裡，同時戴上羊皮做的帽子和手套。此外，瘟疫醫生還要隨身攜帶一根柺杖，用來在必要時刻驅趕或者擊退瘟疫病人”。
Their head gear was particularly unusual: Plague doctors wore spectacles, de Lorme continued, and a mask with a nose “half a foot long, shaped like a beak, filled with perfume with only two holes, one on each side near the nostrils, but that can suffice to breathe and carry along with the air one breathes the impression of the [herbs] enclosed further along in the beak.”
“他們的面罩要很不尋常：瘟疫醫生都帶著護目鏡，”de Lorme 繼續描述道，“面罩上有一個半英尺長，像鳥嘴一樣的‘鼻子’，裡面充滿香水並只開兩個孔，一側一個並且開在靠近人鼻孔的位置，以保證醫生能夠正常呼吸，此外‘鼻子’裡還放有乾花，草藥等用來過濾醫生呼吸的空氣” 。
Though plague doctors across Europe wore these outfits, the look was so iconic in Italy that the "plague doctor" became a staple of Italian commedia dell’arte and carnival celebrations—and is still a popular costume today.
雖然當時整個歐洲的瘟疫醫生都穿著這種服裝，但是在意大利，這種看起來很有代表性的‘瘟疫醫生’造型還成了當地喜劇節目和狂歡節慶典的主打服裝，直到如今，這種打扮也很流行。
[Venetians dress as plague doctors to celebrate the city's Carnival. This year, the last two days of the event were canceled due to concerns regarding coronavirus.]
【威尼斯的人們裝扮成瘟疫醫生，慶祝城市嘉年華。但是由於今年新冠肺炎的流行出現，最後兩天的活動被提前取消了】
But the forbidding ensemble was not just a deathly fashion statement: It was intended to protect the doctor from miasma. In the times before the germ theory of disease, physicians believed that the plague spread through poisoned air that could create an imbalance in a person’s humors, or bodily fluids. Sweet and pungent perfumes were thought to be able to fumigate plague-stricken areas and protect the smeller; nosegays, incense, and other perfumes were common in the era.
然而這套“禁忌服裝”並不只是一種致命的時尚宣言：它的出現是為了保護醫生遠離瘴氣，在病菌理論出現之前的時代，醫生們認為瘟疫是通過有毒的空氣傳播的，這種有毒的空氣會造成人的體液失衡，他們認為香甜或者有刺激氣味的香水可以用來淨化瘟疫爆發地區的空氣，同時可以保護那些嗅覺靈敏的人們。在那個時期，芳香味很濃的花束，焚燒的香還有其他一些香水變得很常見。
Plague doctors filled their masks with theriac, a compound of more than 55 herbs and other components like viper flesh powder, cinnamon, myrrh, and honey. De Lorme thought the beak shape of the mask would give the air sufficient time to be suffused by the protective herbs before it hit plague doctors’ nostrils and lungs.
瘟疫醫生在他們的面罩中填滿一種叫Theriac的東西， 這種一由超過55種草藥和其他成分（如毒蛇肉粉，桂皮，沒藥，蜂蜜等）組成的混合物。De Lorme 認為鳥嘴形狀的面具可以是的呼吸進來空氣有足夠的時間被這些有保護作用的草藥浸透過濾，然後在被吸入瘟疫醫生的鼻孔和肺部。
In fact, plague is caused by Yersinia pestis, bacteria that can be transmitted from animals to humans and through flea bites, contact with contaminated fluid or tissue, and inhalation of infectious droplets from sneezing or coughing people with pneumonic plague.
實際上，瘟疫是由鼠疫耶爾森菌引起的，這是一種可以通過動物傳播給人類，也可以通過蚊蟲叮咬，接觸被汙染的液體或者組織，以及在鼠疫病人打噴嚏或者咳嗽時吸入傳染性飛沫等途徑播傳播。
Three horrific plague pandemics swept across the globe before its cause was ultimately uncovered—the Plague of Justinian, which killed up to 10,000 people a day circa A.D. 561; the Black Death, which wiped out up to a third of Europeans between 1334 and 1372 and continued with intermittent outbreaks as late as 1879; and the Third Pandemic, which ravaged much of Asia between 1894 and 1959.
瘟疫出現的原因被真正發現以之前，有三次可怕的瘟疫在全球範圍內大流行。公元561年流行爆發的查士丁尼瘟疫一天造成了多達10000人死亡。1334年至1372年間出現的黑死病，造成多達三分之一的歐洲人死亡，並且直至1879年前還在間歇性爆發。1894年至1959年，瘟疫第三次大流行，並且大部分主要在亞洲地區肆虐。
Ultimately, the plague doctors’ outfits—and methods—didn’t make much of a difference. “Unfortunately,” writes historian Frank M. Snowden, “the therapeutic strategies of early modern plague doctors did little to prolong life, relieve suffering, or effect a cure.”
最終，瘟疫醫生的服裝和治療方法，並沒有起到很大的作用。“很不幸”，歷史學家Frank M. Snowden曾在書中寫到，“早起那種瘟疫醫生的治療策略並沒有起到延長生命，緩解痛苦，或是治癒的效果”。
Plague doctors may have been immediately recognizable, but until the rise of the germ theory of disease and modern antibiotics, their costumes didn’t provide real protection against the disease.
瘟疫醫生可能一眼就能夠被認出來，但是直到病菌理論和現代抗生素出現之前，他們的服裝並沒有為他們提供真正的防護。
