The Plague Doctor

In the middle ages, disease was thought to have been airborne, which led doctors, who treated infected patients, to wear beak like masks stuffed with herbs and cloth. The belief was, that the herbs inside the mask would purify the air and prevent sickness. Yet, many plague doctors succumbed to the plague, mainly do to the fact that most, if not all, were not really doctors, and only a handful had any real medical training. But biology in the middle ages was still very misunderstood, and whether or not a plague doctor did or did not have medical training was inconsequential since the main method of treatment was simply popping open infected pustules of puss, and exposing others to more bacteria and infection. However, these so called specialists were the few people brave enough to treat people infected with the black plague, and as a result were treated very well. Often plague doctors were hired by a town or a village and treated both the rich and the poor, which relates back to the idea of the black death being the great "Equalizer" of men. Some of these doctors would even work as part of a private medical fleet. For example, Pope Clement VI had multiple doctors at his disposal. Though medieval medicine is archaic and ineffective, plague doctors are an iconic figure of the middle ages, and brought hope to thousands of people suffering from the bubonic plague.