Till the late 1800s, doctors used to wear black as it was considered formal, sober, and was able to hide stains.
Reports also suggest that till the same period, much of the medical field was filled with useless cures & dishonest practices, and seeking medical advice was the last resort and frequently a signal that the death was close.
And while much of this perception continued, a lot of progress was being made, in the mid-1800s, towards making medicine a more evidence-based science.
One after the other, an increasing number of diseases were being traced back to microorganisms, and the understanding of infections & contamination and their causes improved significantly.
E.g., for the first time, doctors not washing hands was seen as a cause of an increasing number of deaths of new mothers (1847), pasteurization (a heat process to kill pathogens) was devised (1860s), and the antiseptic medicine (substances that inhibit the growth of pathogens) was founded (1860s).
As awareness about the importance of cleanliness increased, the transition to white happened as white connoted cleanliness (no hiding of stains).
The transition is said to have most likely happened between 1875 and 1890, as evidenced by two paintings by the American artist Thomas Eakins.
While in his 1875 painting, Eakins showed doctors wearing black coats operating on a patient’s leg, in the 1889 painting, doctors were shown wearing white.
While physical cleanliness was one part, the more prominent part was the cleanliness of intention and character.
The word candour (the quality of being open and honest) is derived from the Latin candidus, which means white.
As the medical profession fought the perception of being a field of dishonest practices, the new doctors, who were moving medicine to bioscience wanted to distinguish themselves from the false-doctors.
So, these ‘science-doctors’ adopted the white colour.
Today, the need and effectiveness of the white coat are increasingly being questioned because of the ‘white coat syndrome’ (WCS).
WCS describes that some people experience a rise in blood pressure as soon as they step into a doctor’s office.
So, a number of countries (such as Denmark & England) and a number of specialist doctors (paediatricians & psychiatrists) are beginning to skip the white coat to put the patients at ease.
