These are the real-life outfits doctors would wear to treat plague patients in 1600s... The eerie beaked masks you see here belonged to plague doctors of 1600s, who worked in Europe during outbreaks of bubonic plague. Their appearance has become iconic, but the design was rooted in medical theories of the time. Long beak was stuffed with herbs, flowers, and spices, things like lavender, cloves or mint, which doctors believed could filter out “miasma,” or bad air, thought to spread disease.