Copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel (i.e., Dr. Beak), a<unk>  in seventeenth-century Rome, circa 1656 A<unk>  was a physician who treated victims of the bubonic<unk>  during epidemics. These physicians were hired by cities to treat infected patients regardless of income, especially the poor that could not afford to pay.<unk> s had a mixed reputation, with some citizens seeing their presence as a warning to leave the area. Some<unk> s were said to charge patients and their families additional fees for special treatments or false cures. In many cases these doctors were not experienced physicians or surgeons; instead, being volunteers, second-rate doctors, or young doctors just starting a career. In one case, a<unk>  was a fruit salesman before his employment as a physician.<unk> s rarely cured patients; instead serving to record death tolls and the number of infected people for demographic purposes. In France and the Netherlands,<unk> s often lacked medical training and were referred to as "empirics."<unk> s were known as municipal or "community<unk> s", whereas "general practitioners" were separate doctors and both might be in the same European city or town at the same time.
Plague doctor
Doctor
Celebrity doctor
Medicine man
Street medic
Pharmacist
Barefoot doctor
Hoople 