The history and value of face masks

Abstract

In the human population, social contacts are a key for transmission of bacteria and viruses. The use of face masks seems to be critical to prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 for the period, in which therapeutic interventions are lacking. In this review, we describe the history of masks from the middle age to modern times.

Keywords: Bacterial transmission; Behavior; History of medicine; Pandemic crisis; Surgical mask; Viral transmission; Wound infection.

Fig. 1

Colored version of a copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel (i.e., Dr. Beak), a plague doctor in seventeenth-century Rome, circa 1656 by Paul Fürst (1608–1666) of Nuremberg made for a broadsheet, German derivate of a sheet of Sebastiano Zecchini, 1656 (source Wikipedia https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pestdoktor#/media/Datei:Paul_Fürst,_Der_Doctor_Schnabel_von_Rom_(coloured_version).png)

Fig. 2

Face mask following Berkeley George Andrew Moynihan (1865–1936) Abdominal Operations 1906 Saunders, Philadelphia Vol I S 24, Repro Moll-Keyn, with permission

Fig. 3

Hermann Otto Hoyer (1894–1968) 1922 Sauerbruch in a thoracotomy, Museum of Medical History at the Charité, art collection Charité, picture Bruns Inv.-Nr. 123330 Repro Moll-Keyn, with kind permission

Fig. 4

‘Our introduced face mask and forehead bandage’ and ‘face mask for person with long hair’ from: Kirschner, M. Allgemeine und Spezielle Chirurgische Operationslehre Bd 1, Julius Springer, Berlin, 1927 S. 222, Repro Moll- Keyn, with kind permission. At this time, it was not common covering the nose with the cloth-made mask

Fig. 5

Dr. med. Ewald Matuschek and his team (source: PD Dr. med. Christiane Matuschek, daughter of Dr. med. Ewald Matuschek)