Plague Doctor

The Plague Doctor found its origin in the late middle ages but was burned into the human psyche during the 1619 plague outbreak in Paris. While the beak-like masks were intended to purify the air that the doctors would breathe as they turned to bloodletting and other desperate means to curtail the spread of the disease, the masks are now understood as a sign of the hopeless nature of deadly pandemics that will bring our species to its knees.