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Full Text (PDF) B-ENT , 2009, 5, 195-202 A Historical Vignette (15) “Be proud of yourself: you have a History!” The nose and the plague J. Tainmont Winston Churchill Avenue 172, P.O. Box 9, 1180 Brussels, Belgium Abstract. The nose and the plague . Although the plague does not cause any specific nasal pathology, the miasma theory and the repulsive smell of the disease were factors that contributed to a strong emphasis on the nose. To stop the spread of the disease, it was thought necessary to saturate the nose with protective scents (hence the nose of the plague doctors) (Figure 1), or simply to hold one’s nose. Moreover, the nose was long considered to be an outlet for mucus from the encephalon, and so induced nose bleeding and sneezing were advised when the plague seemed to be attacking the brain. Figure 1 Figure 1. Photomontage showing a “plague doctor” wearing an enormous nose containing protective scents. In the background, an allegory of the plague: “Golconda” by René Magritte (1953). “The nose was beak-shaped, full of perfumes and anointed inwardly with balsamic matter. There were only two holes, one on each side, at the place of the openings of the natural nose. But that is sufficient for breathing and for conveying, with the air that is breathed, the impression of the drugs contained towards the front of the beak. ”1 196 J. Tainmont 1. The Plague, a serial killer character . We should be aware epidemics of the time, can with a bad odour that a “ pestis ” in Antiquity or probably explain that secondary the Middle Ages was not neces - meaning. Today in French, that ... the corpses abandoned every - sarily the plague as we under - secondary meaning persists where which are devoured finally stand it today. In the case of the alone: the sense of a dreadful by the scattered survivors, the “plague” of Athens that led smell . great pestilence that requires the Pericles’ death in the fifth cen - beautiful ladies of the court to tury BC or the “plague” during 2. The Miasmas hold their noses when they visit which St Louis died outside the handsome gentlemen of the Tunis in the 18 th century, the Homais ... was laden with a stock army for a pleasure party diseases in question may have of camphor, of benzoin and aro - (G. Duhamel , Refuges de la been cholera or typhus. In addi - matic herbs. He was also carrying lecture, IV ). tion, in veterinary medicine, the a large jar full of chlorine water to A long time ago, when travel - word peste/plague is still used expunge the miasmas (Flaubert , ling in Morocco, I stood on a today with the original meaning Mme Bovary, III, IX ). small rise observing the works of of “ non-specific mortal epi - a dyer whose multicoloured bar - demics ”, and not to designate The word miasma was very fre - rels gave off a terrible smell. the “plague” in the sense used quently used to designate the Suddenly an Italian tourist cried in human medicine today. A plague and it is important to out “ Que malodore ! Que pestilen - current example of this usage understand its meaning well. The tia !“ The memory of the dreadful can be found in “avian plague”, word comes from the Greek mias - plague and its legacy of fatal which is caused by a virus and ma (miasma), meaning “ the stain smells emerged here, still not by Yersin's bacillus. caused by a murder ”, which in embodied in the language of this • The plague was also connected turn was derived from the verb traveller. with the word fléau (a scourge). miainw (miainô): “to dye“ in That word came from Latin fla - Homer (a curious coincidence • The French word peste (i.e. the gellum , a whip. It indicated “a with the situation described above plague) now persists where the thing seeming to be the instru - in Morocco!) and then “to soil English word pest in this sense ment of the divine wrath ”. This with blood, sometimes with dust has fallen into disuse (except idea is also concealed in the or tears”. Other derived words in weaker meanings such as etymology of the English word attested to the pre-eminence of the a pest, a person who pesters). Plague , which comes from the notion of murder: namely the stain Etymologically, pest is proba - Greek πlhgh /“ plègè ”, through of the blood that has been shed. bly linked with the Latin adverb Latin plaga meaning a stroke or Finally, miasma also had the reli - pessum meaning “in the bot - blow . gious meaning found in the tom”, a word associated with • The word pestilence . In Latin, tragedies: the sense of profana - the Latin noun pes “le pied ” pestilentia had the same tion, of sacrilege. (the foot). Pessum also had a meaning as pestis . In Antiquity, None of this is found in French. figurative meaning that is now apparently, neither of these two The word was introduced to mean seen in the French “ une perte ” words had the connotation of a the effluvia (impalpable particles ) (a loss), for instance in the bad smell. to which infectious diseases were expression pessum ire: “ aller à In Old French (12 th century), attributed before the discovery of sa perte ” (to go on the road to both words were used with the microbes. Miasmas were not ruin). This etymology allows us same meaning (“plague”), as in therefore specific to the plague to understand the original sense Latin. But from the 13 th century and could be associated with other of pestis as a contagious dis - onwards, pestilence in French infectious diseases such as malaria. ease, an epidemic with a par - acquired the supplementary At the very beginning of the ticularly fatal character. During sense of “ foul smell, putrid 19 th century, miasma had the more Antiquity, pestis indicated every miasma ”. The observation of general sense of “emanations, highly contagious and serious the terrible smell of the corpses gases dangerous to health pro - infection without any specific affected by plague, during the duced by the decomposition of Historical Vignette 197 animal or vegetal matter”, the leged pathway for the miasmas on applied using different methods. sense that now prevails in English. their way to the lungs and then Paré gives us the details: Finally, in the middle of the onto the heart, the seat of life. The In the town 19 th century, by extension, miasme miasmas passed also directly to Magistrates and police officers came to mean a “ disagreeable and the brain through the nose. Finally were required to ensure that, as in unhealthy smell ”. they could penetrate through the Hippocrates’ time, fires were lit to The origin and the modus pores of the skin, particularly if purify the air and that fragrant operandi of the miasmas . they were opened 2 subject to the things like turpentine or broom Miasmas could come from diverse influence of warm baths. 2 were thrown on the embers. In the sources: first from plague patients same way, as in Tournai, soldiers through their sweat or faeces, then 3. The use of the protective per - placed gunpowder without can - from their corpses, abandoned due fumes (Figures 2,3,4) nonballs into artillery, loosing off to the shortage of graves. Climatic shots to eliminate the contamina - conditions were another source, When we entered the house of the tion in the air with the smell of the an example being warm and Moroccan, we were enveloped by smoke. 2 humid air, which favours the rapid a cloud of oriental fragrances: the In dwellings (Figure 3) putrefaction of corpses. This phe - sweet and penetrating perfume of The air had to be waved around nomenon could be aggravated the rose water went to our heads the patient with a fan or with a big where there were large numbers of and reminded us of the mysteries linen sack soaked in water with corpses, for instance after a battle of the harem and the marvels vinegar and attached to a long or a shipwreck. Stagnant water, of the Thousand and One nights. stick. The room was perfumed marshes, sewers and wells pro - (T. Gautier, Voyage en Espagne, with aromas: incense, myrrh, ben - duced miasmas that formed p. 281). zoin, laudanum, styrax, roses, clouds, which could fall again in At that time, disinfection was leaves of myrtle, lavender, rose - the form of rain, contaminating called parfumage (the act of mary, sage, basil, savory, wild the plants. The nose was a privi - perfuming ). The perfumes were thyme, marjoram, broom, pine Figure 2. A physician feels the pulse of a plague victim, while holding to his nose a sponge impregnated with vinegar, “Fascicul Medicine te Antwerpen“, 1521. Figure 3. Appliance for fumigation used during the plague. Hôtel Dieu Museum of Lyon. The word “perfume” contains the word fume ! Figure 4. The plague victims of Jaffa, by Jean-Antoine Gros, 1804, Louvre. 198 J. Tainmont cone, small pieces of pine tree, in rose water, rose vinegar, cloves, 4. Charles Delorme and the cloves... A billy goat had to be a little crushed camphor and he nose of the plague doctors kept at home because his smell will have to smell it often” 2 (Figures 5,6,7,8,9,10) prevented the pestilent air from On the painting “the plague vic - settling there (in accordance with tims of Jaffa” (Figure 4), ... the carnival of the masked the proverb “one bad smell chases Bonaparte touches the bubo in the physicians of the black Plague... away another one”). In the sum - armpit of a plague victim, evoking (Camus, La Peste, p. 52) mer, the room had to be sprinkled the famous gesture of the kings of with cold water mixed with vine - France.
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