A cosplayer wearing the long, black nose of a plague doctor poses with a woman in a face mask for a photo at the Middle East Film & Comic Con in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, March 5, 2020.

The Plague Doctor’s eerie beak mask was designed to protect against “evil” smells thought to cause disease. But the truth behind this creepy costume will shock you! Discover the medically ...

Their head gear was particularly unusual: Plague doctors wore spectacles, de Lorme continued, and a mask with a nose “half a foot long, shaped like a beak, filled with perfume with only two ...

During the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Italy in the 1650s, it was believed that the doctors taking care of the sick would dawn these masks in addition to long garb and wide-brimmed leather hats.

What kind of face mask have you been using? Join the conversation below. The crow-like plague-doctor mask of 17th- and 18th-century Europe is one of the earliest and creepiest protective coverings.

A 1619 outbreak of plague in France, rooted largely in Paris, led to the first medical mask. As the disease killed some 80 percent of those it afflicted, French doctor Charles De Lorme invented an ...

She says one particular mask is selling big this fall. “That plague doctor mask with the pointy nose, it’s brown,” Cameron says.

Masks like these were worn by doctors in the 17th century to protect them during the Bubonic Plague. Community tips helped police track down the identity of the suspect and arrest him.