{"id":1778,"date":"2023-03-24T09:51:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T01:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2023-05-02T16:07:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T08:07:49","slug":"a-tale-of-two-covers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/a-tale-of-two-covers\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Covers \u2014 How the Manchurian Plague of 1910 \u2013 11 Contributed to the Global History of Medical Equipment"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>#primary {width:100%;} #secondary {display:none;} .entry-header {display:none;} .ele-full-title {font-family:cambria !important;} .ele-full-maintitle {font-family:cambria !important;} .ele-full-subtitle {font-family:cambria !important;} .wp-block-column {font-family:arial;} .paragraph-with-margin-10 {margin-left:5%; margin-right:5%;}<\/style>\n\n\n<p class=\"ele-full-title has-text-color has-large-font-size\" style=\"color:#538135\"><strong>A Tale of Two Covers \u2014 How the Manchurian Plague of 1910 \u2013 11 Contributed to the Global History of Medical Equipment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Written by Xiaomeng Liu<br>Published on 08\/11\/2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Masks have never been more symbolic and integral to global public health. In 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent full-fledged pandemic caused demands for masks (especially N95 and surgical masks) across the world to rise to unprecedented levels. Even though at first there were controversies surrounding whether or not masks were effective for curbing the spread of the virus, most countries soon resorted to mandating that all citizens wear masks in public, which quickly led to a mask shortage and caused mass panic. As the use of surgical and N95 masks spread, with the masks themselves losing their prestige as a medical-grade equipment and becoming a mere everyday object, a great deal of discussions were induced not only within academic circles but also among the general public. A wave of rediscovery and retelling of the history of masks has since been seen on social media, in the media, as well as academic journals and conferences.<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">1<\/a>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2800\" width=\"535\" height=\"346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-01.jpg 1070w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-01-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-01-1024x661.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-01-768x496.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig. 1 Wearing anti-plague masks, front and side views. Source: Manchurian Plague Prevention Service (Harbin), Early Photos of Pneumonic Plague Epidemics, 1910 \u2013 11 and 1920 \u2013 21, Manchuria (s.n.).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Figure 1, which is a century-old photograph, has made frequent appearances in articles recounting the history of masks. In the photo are two young men in full medical protective gear. The man on the left has a red cross on his collar, and, from that, one could guess that they are either doctors, public health workers, or paramedical personnel. The man on the left faces the camera; the other shows his side profile. They each wear a large, thick mask made of gauze. This photo also appears in Wu Lien-teh\u2019s <em>North Manchurian Plague Prevention Service Reports (1918 \u2013 1922)<\/em> with the caption \u201cHow antiplague masks are worn.\u201d This caption is telling: the photo was not intended as a record of public health workers fighting the Manchurian Plague; instead, it was meant to demonstrate how the masks should be worn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Until recently, this photo did not stand out from photos that documented the 1910 \u2013 11 Manchurian Plague, suggesting that the practice of wearing masks was of lesser importance than other more stringent public health measures undertaken during the plague, including lockdowns of sizable areas, house-to-house inspection, strict quarantine, and mass cremation. Today, however, as masks became an important object during COVID-19, scholars have started to rethink the seemingly ordinary object and its historical importance during the Manchurian Plague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">In 2020, renowned medical journal <em>The<\/em> <em>Lancet<\/em> published an article on the history of medical masks. In its rather Eurocentric narrative, only one sentence mentions the Manchurian plague and its place in the history of medical masks,<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">2<\/a>]<\/sup> but as this essay attempts to show, a certain mask invented during the Manchurian Plague turns out to represent an important phase in the history of medical masks and personal protective equipment against bacteria and viruses.<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">3<\/a>]<\/sup> The mask, known as \u201cWu\u2019s mask,\u201d was allegedly invented by Wu Lien-teh. A hagiography of Wu now also spreads across Chinese social media, hailing him not only as a hero who successfully controlled the deadly plague in Manchuria, but also as a talented young scientist who discovered the airborne transmission of <em>Yersinia pestis<\/em>, and subsequently devising what would become a widely used piece of protective equipment. However, as much as Wu\u2019s mask is a piece of ingenuity it is also shrouded in myths. Based on two recent in-depth research studies on this subject, we have finally pieced together a clearer picture of the mask and re-evaluated its significance in the global history of medical masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Even though masks have become a commonsensical thing nowadays, back in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> and early 20<sup>th<\/sup> century, they had neither a unified form nor even a name. Many researchers now trace the origin of modern medical masks back to either the respirator invented by British surgeon Julius Jeffreys in 1836, or the surgical mask introduced by Polish surgeon Jan Mikulicz-Radecki in 1897, but these narratives have neglected a technicality: after the introduction of germ theory and droplet infection in the mid-19<sup>th<\/sup> century, many doctors and public health experts began to use devices similar to Jeffreys\u2019 respirator, but under an entirely different logic \u2014 Jeffrey\u2019s respirator functioned by warming the air inhaled by a patient with a respiratory disease, while the other similar devices after the mid-19<sup>th<\/sup> century used them as a protective gear to filter out pathogens. Moreover, although they shared similar appearances, they began to be fabricated with new materials that would repurpose them more for general public health than for relieving specific patients\u2019 ordeal. In some respirators, charcoal was used in the filter. Others used cotton-wool. Some even added antiseptic agents like carbolic acid and creosote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The Manchurian Plague \u2014 one of the deadliest epidemics in recorded modern history \u2014 was, unlike other major historical outbreaks of the plague that happened in Europe, Hong Kong, and India, predominantly of the pneumonic type (which means that the patients contracted the bacteria mainly via airborne transmission rather than through agents such as rats and fleas). To protect against and combat a pneumonic plague, British, German, Japanese experts and authorities had called the respirator essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">There was a geopolitical complexity to the Manchurian Plague: Manchuria was home of the Manchus, the ruling ethnic group of the Qing empire. However, since the late 19<sup>th<\/sup> century, the Russian and Japanese colonial powers had gradually extended their influence into Manchuria. For fear that the Russian and Japanese would further encroach on Manchuria\u2019s sovereignty during their effort to contain the plague, two months into the epidemic, the weakening Qing state took action in Fuchiatien and named Dr. Wu Lien-teh, a Cambridge-trained Malaysian-Chinese doctor, chief medical officer and sent him to Harbin, the epicenter of the plague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2801\" width=\"320\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-02.jpg 640w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-02-233x300.jpg 233w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig. 2 Wu Lien-teh (1879 \u2013 1960). Source: Wikimedia Commons, &nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/c\/c1\/%E4%BC%8D%E9%80%A3%E5%BE%B7%E5%8D%9A%E5%A3%AB%E8%BF%91%E5%BD%B1.jpg\">upload.wikimedia.org<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Arriving in Harbin in the cold of the winter of 1910, Wu observed the protective gear used by public health workers and saw two types of masks, one being \u201ca readymade wire-meshed frame covered with black muslin and adjustable to the human mouth and nose,\u201d the other \u201ca soft piece of surgical gauze and cotton contrivance\u201d covering the lower part of the face. The first type resembled the respirators used by the Europeans and Japanese during the plague; the latter, mostly referred to as \u201cgauze and cotton-wool mask,\u201d was self-made by the Chinese, and, though simpler, was perhaps more popular among the Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The Chinese in Harbin did not have a sufficient supply of readymade respirators, many of them therefore fashioned their own protective gear. Because they had already known with certainty, through two doctors (before Wu\u2019s arrival), that it was a plague of the lungs, the response teams knew to specifically guard their airways and orifices against coming into contact with the airborne pathogens. It is said that the rat-control teams even plugged their nostrils and mouths with cotton.<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">4<\/a>]<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Clearly, the gauze and cotton-wool masks \u2014 which soon after Wu\u2019s arrival in Harbin were worn by most Chinese and even Russian plague-control personnel \u2014 became the prototype for the subsequent \u201cWu\u2019s mask,\u201d which was soon deployed to Fengtian (or Mukden, present-day Shenyang). An American doctor there noticed the masks and called them \u201cMukden masks.\u201d Therefore, though these masks were credited to Wu, clearly he was not the inventor. In fact, at the International Plague Conference held at Mukden, a Chinese medical officer called Fang Qin (1884\u2013?) presented the mask not with Wu\u2019s name but as a resulting invention of the Harbin Chinese plague-control team\u2019s collective effort. The following is a detailed description of the anti-plague mask:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"paragraph-with-margin-10\" style=\"font-size:18px\">[It] consists of two layers of gauze enclosing a flat oblong piece of absorbent cotton 6 inches by 4 inches. It can be easily made by cutting the usual surgical gauze (9 inches wide), as supplied from the shops, into strips, each measuring 3 feet in length. Each strip is then doubled lengthwise so as to contain in the middle a flat piece of cotton wool measuring 4 inches by 6 inches. At either end of the gauze two cuts, each measuring 15 inches, are made. Thus turning the pad into a three-tail gauze bandage, with the central piece of wool for covering the respiratory entrance. The upper tail of one side should be passed round the side of the head above the ear and tied to the other corresponding tail. The lowermost tail should in a similar manner be passed under the ear and tied to the one on the other side, while the middle tail should be passed over the crown of the head, so as to fix the pad and prevent it from slipping down the neck.<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">5<\/a>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-03.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2802\" width=\"320\" height=\"498\" srcset=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-03.png 640w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-03-193x300.png 193w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig. 3 \u00a0Two ways of wearing an anti-plague mask. Source: Yu Fengbin \u4fde\u9cf3\u8cd3. \u201cBiyi mianju zhi zhifa ji yongtu\u201d \u907f\u75ab\u9762\u5177\u4e4b\u88fd\u6cd5\u53ca\u7528\u9014 [Anti-plague mask: the ways to make it and use it], <em>Zhonghua yixue zazhi<\/em> \u4e2d\u83ef\u91ab\u5b78\u96dc\u8a8c [China medical journal] 4, no. 2 (1918): 76\u201379.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The design of the mask seems primitive; they certainly were not as sophisticated as today\u2019s surgical masks. Even though the gauze covered a larger part of the face than contemporary masks, it would be reasonable to question whether a two-layer gauze with cotton inside could really block the transmission of pathogens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">In fact, other more \u201cadvanced\u201d mask-like equipment also appeared during the plague. For example, the Japanese colonial authority in South Manchuria required the use of conventional but supposedly more advanced respirators in the army. Besides these respirators which covered both the nose and the mouth, the Japanese also had what was called the \u201cKanata style respirator.\u201d In addition to their metal frame and replaceable cloth, these respirators were attached with goggles on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Meanwhile, a British company dispatched a batch of masks that covered the whole head with glass goggles secured in place \u2014 it was French specialist Charles Broquet who thought it necessary to protect the eyes from exposure to pathogens. As much as Broquet was questioning the effectiveness of using cotton and wool pads, he was actually attempting to promote his own design \u2014 a mask with full headgear and mica goggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2803\" width=\"320\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-04.png 640w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-04-220x300.png 220w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig. 4 Kanata style respirator. Source: \u201cTianzhongzu \u7530\u4e2d\u7ec4\u201d Shengjing shibao \u76db\u4eac\u65f6\u62a5 [Mukden times], February 16, 1911, 6).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-05.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2804\" width=\"535\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-05.jpg 1070w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-05-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-05-1024x749.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/a-tale-of-two-covers-05-768x562.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig. 5 This photo shows a group of plague workers in Mukden, Manchuria, in the early 20<sup>th<\/sup> century. All of them are wearing cloth masks over their faces. Source: Wikipedia Commons, <a href=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/3f\/Plague_Workers_Mukden%2C_Manchuria%2C_1882-ca._1936_%28imp-cswc-GB-237-CSWC47-LS8-045%29.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">upload.wikimedia.org<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The gauze and cotton-wool mask was indeed a more modest but practical design; the aforementioned Chinese medical officer Fang named \u201csimplicity of construction\u201d and \u201ccheapness\u201d as its most significant advantages. As there were around 11,000 plague-control personnel (excluding street sanitary workers, policemen, and porters for carrying corpses), it would have been a logistical nightmare to ensure a sufficient supply of masks for every one of them, not to mention for the vast number of patients as well. A gauze and cotton-wool mask only cost about 1 cent to make, compared to the Japanese respirator\u2019s 12 cents. Moreover, the masks required neither factories nor professional workers to manufacture; anyone could make one at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">In addition to being economical and practical, these masks also suited the weather of Manchuria. As the plague control team had to work outdoors in the cold winter, if one wore a headgear mask or separate googles and mask, the person\u2019s own breath, which would be much warmer than the ambient air, would easily cause the googles to fog up and obstruct the person\u2019s vision. The gauze and cottonwool mask would not have this problem, though it would still keep the face warm while outside. Of course, this mask did not have a snug fit on the face, which could reduce its effectiveness in blocking bacteria, but it nonetheless found a middle ground between medical efficacy and practicality. At the very least, one could breathe more easily through the mask than the respirator. In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, one could not help but notice: while the N95 mask was more effective in filtering out the virus, it was indeed the surgical mask that was more economical and convenient, eventually becoming the more popular choice of protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The International Plague Conference that took place in April 1911 in Mukden gave its approval and recognition to the gauze and cotton-wool mask, citing: \u201cThe best form of mask is a simple, three-tailed, gauze and cotton-wool pad, which should be destroyed, or disinfected, after each tour of duty.\u201d However, only a few months later, Richard P. Strong and Oscar Teague, two U.S. epidemiologists who participated in the effort to contain the Manchurian Plague, somewhat refuted the International Plague Conference\u2019s verdict. Upon returning to the Philippines, they conducted an experiment to show that salt solution sprays with <em>Bacillus prodigio<\/em><em>us<\/em> could penetrate the gauze and cottonwool mask, but they nevertheless conceded that in times of a plague, this form of mask would still be efficacious \u2014 to a point \u2014 in blocking contagions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">For Wu, on the other hand, he would not turn his back on his much acclaimed mask simply because someone had filed a critical report even if it were scientific. His mask would continue to be used in epidemic control in China. It was not until early in the 1920s when a small plague struck Manchuria once more that Wu started to devise his own experiments to validate his mask, and though not fully successful in obtaining the confirmation that he was looking for, he insisted on its effectiveness. Wu also began to promote the design of the mask on different occasions including in his own publications. In several influential works on the Manchurian Plague, Wu and his assistants made explicit claims that the mask was indeed introduced by Wu, thereby contributing to giving the mask the name \u201cWu\u2019s mask.\u201d Nevertheless, even had he not been the mask\u2019s originator, Wu did subsequently improve its design. As shown in the first picture in this essay, the masks worn by the two men had two tails rather than the three that was described by the International Plague Conference. This was a major change introduced in the 1920s that was certainly attributable to Wu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Wu\u2019s mask has three important legacies, particularly in terms of how it influenced the development of medical masks in the 20th century. First, the disappearance of a metal frame made the mask more convenient to wear than its predecessors (i.e., respirators). This form was soon adopted by the Western world during the Spanish flu in 1918, and the metal frame is completely absent in today\u2019s mainstream masks. Second, the International Plague Conference established a significant principle concerning the usage of masks (which has become commonsensical for us today): masks should be used as a physical barrier against bacteria without any chemical disinfectant. Third, to quote the <em>Report of the International Plague Conference<\/em> again: \u201cThe best form of mask is a simple, three-tailed, gauze and cotton-wool pad, which should be destroyed, or disinfected, after each tour of duty\u201d \u2014 in other words, masks should be disposed of after a single day of use. This suggests that today\u2019s throwaway culture of masks (as proposed by Bruno J. Strasser and Thomas Schlich in their 2020 <em>Lancet<\/em> essay) may have had a much earlier origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\"><strong>Footnotes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol id=\"posts-footnotes\">\n<li>This essay is based on the materials and insights of two ingenious research published recently in Chinese: 1. Zhang Meng \u5f35\u8499, \u201cwushi kouzhao de youlai\u201d \u4f0d\u6c0f\u53e3\u7f69\u7684\u7531\u4f86 [Origin of Wu\u2019s mask], <em>Jindai shi yanjiu<\/em> \u8fd1\u4ee3\u53f2\u7814\u7a76 [Modern Chinese history studies] no. 2 (2021): 148\u2013159; and 2. Wang Yumeng \u738b\u96e8\u6fdb, \u201cGengxu shuyi yu wushi kouzhao de dansheng\u201d \u5e9a\u620c\u9f20\u75ab\u8207\u4f0d\u6c0f\u53e3\u7f69\u7684\u8a95\u751f [], <em>Nankai xuebao<\/em> \u5357\u958b\u5b78\u5831 [Journal of Nankai University], no. 4 (2021): 71\u201385. The first article has an English version available: Zhang Meng, \u201cFrom respirator to Wu\u2019s mask: the transition of personal protective equipment in the Manchurian plague,\u201d <em>Journal of Modern Chinese History<\/em> 14 (2021): 221\u2013239. I also thank Zhang Meng for providing me with the historical pictures contained in his essay.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bruno J. Strasser and Thomas Schlich, \u201cThe Art of Medicine: A History of the Medical Mask and the Rise of Throwaway Culture,\u201d <em>The Lancet<\/em> 396 (2020): 19.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Christos Lynteris, \u201cPlague Masks: The Visual Emergence of Anti-Epidemic Personal Protection Equipment,\u201d <em>Medical Anthropology<\/em> 37 (2018): 442\u2013457. The author further elaborates on the significance of Wu\u2019s mask in a interview, calling it \u201cthe first modern respirator,\u201d and predecessor of the N95 mask, which is widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic. See \u201cThe untold origin story of the N95 mask,\u201d <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90479846\/the-untold-origin-story-of-the-n95-mask\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90479846\/the<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90479846\/the-untold-origin-story-of-the-n95-mask\">-untold-origin-story-ofthe-n95-mask<\/a> (accessed on 1 November, 2021).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wu Lien-teh, <em>Plague Fighter: The Autobiography of a Modern Chinese Physician<\/em> (Cambridge: W. Heffer &amp; Sons Ltd.), 8. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wu Lien-teh, <em>Treatise on Pneumonic Plague<\/em> (Geneva: League of Nations, 1926), 393\u2013394.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<form>\n <input type=\"button\" value=\"Back\" onclick=\"history.back()\" style=\"border-block-color: #71ea00; border-color: #71ea00; background: white; color: #71ea00; float: right; height: 40px; border-radius: 100px; padding: 0.333em 1.333em; box-shadow:none; text-shadow:none; border-width: 2px 2px 2px 2px; font-size: 1.125em;\" \"=\"\">\n<\/form>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<style>.excerpt-style {color:#538135;display:inline-block;font-weight:bold;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"excerpt-style\">A Tale of Two Covers \u2014 How the Manchurian Plague of 1910 \u2013 11 Contributed to the Global History of Medical Equipment<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Masks have never been more symbolic and integral to global public health. In 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent full-fledged pandemic caused demands for masks (especially N95 and surgical masks) across the world to rise to unprecedented levels.   &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1778"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2814,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions\/2814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}