medical physician that treated victims of the bubonic plague
Satirical Copper engraving of a plague doctor of 17th-century Rome, by Paulus Fürst, 1656. A plague doctor was a physician who treated victims of bubonic plague during epidemics in 17th-century Europe. These physicians were hired by the affected cities to treat infected patients regardless of income, especially the poor, who could not afford to pay.
Plague doctors had a mixed reputation, with some citizens seeing their presence as a warning to leave the area or that death was near. Some plague doctors were said to charge patients and their families additional fees for special treatments or false cures. In many cases, these doctors were not experienced or trained physicians or surgeons; instead they were volunteers, second-rate doctors, or young doctors just starting a career. Plague doctors rarely cured patients, instead serving to record death tolls and the number of infected people for demographic purposes.
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