Treatment of the Black Death
Treating the Black Death
Physicians did not understand the Black Plague but however, they knew that it spread through contact. The doctors therefore covered themselve completely to prevent transmission. Below is a picture of how the doctors dressed when dealing with patients:
Physicians relied on crude and unsophisticated techniques such as bloodletting and boil-lancing (practices that were dangerous as well as unsanitary) and superstitious practices such as burning aromatic herbs and bathing in rosewater or vinegar.
Meanwhile, in a panic, healthy people did all they could to avoid the sick. Doctors refused to see patients; priests refused to administer last rites; and shopkeepers closed their stores. Many people fled the cities for the countryside, but even there they could not escape the disease: It affected cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens as well as people.