The unorthodox attempts to cure the black death and birth of the Plague Doctor

          With the black death sweeping through Europe in the mid 1300s claiming thousands upon thousands of lives, Doctors of the time were scrambling to find some sort of cure as quickly as possible.  Many of the greatest European medical minds witnessed the ferocity of the disease and the startling lack of knowledge of what to do to cure it.  Nobody in Europe at the time had ever seen anything like the black death and many believed the disease to be a vengeful act of God.  The remedies to try and temper "God's wrath" were so unorthodox (and usually contributed to the spread of the disease) that many prominent doctors fled with they're families to try and get somewhere where the plague would not affect them.  Some of these remedies included:

• Rubbing excrement all over yourself
• Eating a spoonful of crushed emeralds 
• Rubbing your wounds with a live chicken
• Bloodletting 
• Coating yourself in mercury and baking yourself in the oven for a while 

   
The list goes on and on and the methods used do not get any less insane, what we have as a result from a lack of medical expertise is the birth of the "plague doctor".  The majority of plague doctors were little more than city-paid hacks or second rate physicians who knew no more about the disease than the people they were operating on, still they serve to this day an iconic symbol of that dark chapter in world history.

Sources:

• Benedictow, Ole J. "The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever." The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever. N.p., 3 Mar. 2005. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
• Rosenhek, Jackie. "Doctor's Review: Medicine on the Move." Doctor's Review. N.p., 04 Nov. 2015. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
• Trueman, C. N. "Cures for the Black Death - History Learning Site." History Learning Site. N.p., 5 Mar. 2015. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.