Suit Up!

The first hazmat suit, which stands for 'hazardous materials suit, was the bird mask suit worn by doctors during the black plague.
Doctors were the only ones who wore these, and I found a great article on why it was worn,(below the picture.)
I think the mask is rather creepy, and the eyes of the mask were made of red glass to ward off evil, so I'm sure it looked double creepy.
One thing I always thought was weird is how such horror, it was the worse plague in history, produced the cute 'ring around the rosie' song.
ring around the rosie--spoke of the rash of the plague victim.
pocket full of posies-- people thought the flowers would ward off the illness or the smell.
ashes ashes-- they burned the bodies.
we all fall down--everyone dies.

Maybe this helped children to cope.Maybe it was the children and grandchildren of the plague survivors who lost the horror after a few generations.
All we can hope for is this never happens again, but with the world's population over 7 billion, anything could happen.

plague doctor taking a break

http://mentalfloss.com/article/49217/anatomy-14th-century-bubonic-plague-hazmat-suits