but mask designs have changed considerably from their first iterations. A 1619 outbreak of plague in France, rooted largely in Paris, led to the first medical mask. As the disease killed some 80 ...

However the most distinctive part of the outfit was the headgear. Plague doctors wore spectacles and a mask with a beak-like nose extending about six inches, filled with aromatic substances.

In the 1600s, understanding of what caused and spread the plague was limited ... to free the world from the Black Death. A protective mask used by doctors during the 17th century when they ...