Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 51 views

    Athanasius Kircher The Plague Doctor 1

    Uploaded by

    api-205328583

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Athanasius Kircher The Plague Doctor 1

    Uploaded by

    api-205328583
    51 views8 pages

    Original Title

    athanasius kircher the plague doctor 1

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    51 views8 pages

    Athanasius Kircher The Plague Doctor 1

    Uploaded by

    api-205328583

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 8

    Athanasius Kircher The Plague Doctor

    By Gabriel Carroll

    1
    Title page

    Athanasius Kircher
    The Plague Doctor

    By Gabriel Carroll

    Middle School Life Science

    5/16/18

    2
    The Table Of Contents

    Cover sheet………………………………………...…….…P1

    Title page…………………………………………..………..P2

    Table of Contents…………………………………...……...P3

    Body of the Paper…………………………………………..P4

    Glossary……………………………………………………..P7

    Resources…………………………………………………...P8

    3
    Introduction

    Everyone thinks of the 1300s when they hear about The Plague. But the plague also

    happened in the 1600s too! Not as many people died in the outbreak of the 1600s as

    the outbreak in the 1300s. The plague has been around since the 500s. Around 25

    million people have died in all of the plague outbreaks throughout all of history.

    Occasionally, doctors still see the plague happening today but it is very rare. These

    days doctors know the cure for the plague but they didn't have it in the 1600’s.

    Who is Athanasius Kircher?

    Athanasius Kircher was a Plague Doctor in the 1600s. He has born on May 2nd of 1602

    in Germany and died in 1680 at age 78. He was the youngest of nine kids. He became

    a Catholic priest in 1628. He was a scholar and he studied too many things to count!

    Athanasius Kircher wanted to know everything about the world. A few of the things he

    studied were mirrors, the country of China, music, secret codes, songwriting, light,

    Egyptian hieroglyphics, different languages, and much more! Even though Kircher was

    a scholar he still got lots of things very wrong. He believed that unicorns existed, he

    thought mastodon bones came from giant humans, he thought certain rocks could draw

    out poison from snake bites, and he was convinced that the Biblical Tower of Babel

    went to the moon!

    4
    Kircher was fascinated by geology and was lowered in a basket dangling by a rope over

    boiling hot lava into a volcano called Mount Vesuvius. He described being inside the

    volcano as being like how he thought of hell loud, hot, smelly.

    Kircher created his own museum called The Kircherian Museum. His museum had the

    things he found during his studies including rock samples from Mount Vesuvius in Italy.

    The man who knew everything


    People called Kircher “the man who knew everything,” because, well, he knew almost

    everything. Also because he has a book about him called ​The Man Who Knew

    Everything.

    The Plague

    The​ ​plague has many symptoms; here are some. Victims will cough blood. they will get

    fevers, chills, fatigue, and ​malaise. Malaise is a feeling of general ​discomfort​,

    uneasiness or pain, often the first indication of an ​infection​ or other ​disease​. Plague

    victims would die 3 to 5 days after they even get the symptoms of the plague. doctors

    today know that the plague is caused by a ​bacteria​ that comes from fleas. The plague

    is easily cured by some ​antibiotics​. In Kircher’s time, the plague was thought to be in

    the air. Kircher told doctors to wear a plague mask that looked like a bird beak. Kircher

    5
    did Not invent the plague mask but he wore one when he cared for plague victims.

    Plague mask look like bird beaks; Some doctors believed that the bird like beak would

    scare away the plague; doctors put herbs and strong smelling flowers in the beak that

    they thought would stop the plague from being inhaled. Kircher had many medical tools

    in his museum including, A microscope. Kirchers most noteworthy achievement is that

    he was the first person to look at the blood of a plague victim under a microscope. He

    thought he saw tiny worms wiggling in the pool of blood. He was wrong of course but at

    least he figured out the the plague wasn’t caused by an airborne ​virus​.

    Conclusion

    Athanasius kircher believed a lot of weird things but he was right, or at least on the right

    track, most of the time. He was lowered into a volcano in Italy just to know more about

    the world around him; He really wanted to know about ​EVERYTHING​. Because of

    Athanasius kircher’s research, many more people were able to make great discoveries

    that have helped the world. This was a fun paper to write. I learned a lot about the

    plague and volcanoes.

    6
    Glossary
    Antibiotic:​ A chemical from molds of bacteria that can kill microbes.

    Bacteria:​ The kingdom of organisms with no nuclear membranes or organelles; thrive


    in a wide variety of habitats.

    Disease:​ Any condition in which an organism carry out one of the life functions properly.

    Infectious:​ Able to transmitted from one to another by direct or indirect contact.

    Virus: ​A DNA or RNA particle, usually with a protein coat, able to take over a host cell’s
    metabolism

    7
    Resources
    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/the-plague/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius_Kircher

    https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/plague/symptoms-causes/syc-20351291

    www.history.com/this-day-in-history/black-death-is-created-allegedly

    The Man Who Knew Everything by Marilee Peters

    You might also like