Plague Doctors Mostly Counted Victims

During plague epidemics in 17th-century Europe, many plague doctors were not licensed or properly trained physicians, and cities recruited volunteers, second-rate doctors, or doctors just beginning their careers. They were hired by cities to treat infected persons regardless of income, particularly the poor, but they seldom cured anyone. Their principal public duties consisted of registering deaths and infections from plague for demographic purposes, performing autopsies and taking the last wills of the patients. Other people preyed upon desperate families, charging them for special treatments or fake cures.

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