Black Death Treatments: A Look at Failed Medieval Remedies

No cure could halt the progress of the plague once the symptoms had occurred in a victim; although many treatments were attempted. Among the remedies used by European doctors were bloodletting, cauterization of the buboes, purges made from laxative herbs, or ingestion of a potion of ground-up emeralds mixed with the dried flesh of adders. None provided effective relief to their sufferers.