Doctors at the time were extremely busy, and -- unfortunately -- completely ill-equipped to deal with the Plague. They tried everything they could think of, from blood-letting to rubbing onions on their patients. They had victims drink vinegar and crushed minerals, or even arsenic. Some tried rubbing chunks of dead snakes on the boils. Still others had the infected person sit near a fire or in the sewer in an attempt to drive out the fever with heat. In later years, doctors found a bit of success by bursting the buboes, although this could also lead to secondary infection.

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