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A comment on Black death was not spread by rat fleas, say researchers.

Re:Black death was not spread by rat fleas, say researchers by damian2000 on Wednesday April 02, 2014 @01:34AM (#7513755)
So the plague doctor costumes that I'd heard were just for show actually served a useful purpose - to restrict the breathing of contaminated air?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor

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Re:Black death was not spread by rat fleas, say researchers by 7schlaefer on Wednesday April 02, 2014 @01:49AM (#7513795)
The actual bad smell of infected people was believed to be unhealthy, so afaik most plague masks were built to provide a "good" smell through herbs or incent, but it seems plausible that some of them helped nonetheless.
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