Random Horrifying Things Most People Don't Know About Plague Doctors (13 items)

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  (#10) Plague Doctor Hats Were Used For Identification

  While the plague doctor needed to be protected from head to toe, the hats themselves were actually used to indicate that a person was in fact a doctor. The hats were symbolic than functional, though it's possible that the wide brim did manage to keep some bacteria away.
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  (#4) Plague Doctors Used Canes So They Could Be More Hands Off

  The canes that plague doctors carried served a few practical purposes. Doctors could use them to poke and prod a patient that was laying on the ground without having to touch them directly, and they may have been used to keep family members at bay or to protect themselves from desperate patients. They could also be used to communicate to their helpers where a body needed to go after a patient died.
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  (#3) Plague Masks Were All About Smelling The Roses

  The infamous plague masks were actually associated with air purity. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the idea that the air could be polluted became widespread and doctors sought to prevent "bad air," or the miasma, from getting to them.

  Eye holes were fitted with glass pieces so doctors could still see, and the long noses on the mask were filled with drugs and aromatic herbs, including mint, camphor, cloves, straw, laudanum, rose petals, and myrrh to filter the air. The herbs also helped with the smell, considering that the dead bodies and lanced buboes that doctors dealt with were rather pungent. 

  However, despite rumors, 'Ring Around The Rosie' was most likely not about the plague.
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  (#12) They Did Autopsies, Which Were More Common Than You'd Think

  The medieval period isn't really known for its medical advancements, but people at this time were often more informed than you'd think. In addition to the wide amount of information available on the plague thanks to Jewish and Arab sources, bodies were often dissected in order to yield forensic and anatomical information. In the 13th century, the Papacy banned the destruction of a body, but what that actually meant is still debated.  

  Regardless, during the plague, plague doctors were tasked with autopsying bodies to determine the cause of death and try to understand the mysterious illness that was killing so many people so quickly
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  (#7) The Treatments Got Worse The Sicker A Person Got

  Sometimes patients would be told to drink their own urine or consume medicines made from egg shells, marigolds, and treacle. Patients would also be rubbed with onion, garlic, butter, arsenic, or flower petal compounds, or even be advised to rub animal parts on their body to try to eliminate the illness.  Frogs, snakes, and pigeons were particularly popular if they were nearby. Once buboes were lanced, they were then often rubbed with a mixture of tree sap, flower petals, and human excrement.  

  As a person neared death, they could even be coated in mercury and baked in an oven for a while. There were also techniques to induce diarrhea to try to drive out whatever evil had taken over the body.
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  (#5) Plague Doctors Treated Everyone Because Everyone Got The Plague

  Wealth certainly offers greater access to healthcare - that hasn’t changed much - but during the Middle Ages, plague doctors were hired by towns and villages to treat everyone. Since the location was paying them, not the individual, all sick people were provided with the same medical care.  

  For example, when Giovanni de Ventura served as a community plague doctor in Pavia in 1479, he received a monthly payment, a furnished house, local citizenship, and living expenses from the city.  He didn't charge the patients, but could take payment from individuals if they offered.

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