The Plague Doctor

After seeing chamberlainjohn's blip yesterday we realised that the Plague exhibition closed at the weekend, when we have other commitments, so dashed off the National Library of Scotland to learn about Infectious Diseases.

Call me picky, but although the legends were very informative, many of the documents displayed could have said anything for all their legibility and some more interesting artefacts were placed too low down to catch the lighting. Perhaps I'm just disappointed as I was expecting the more recent infectious diseases, such as Hepatitis B and HIV to be represented.

My blip is an illustration of a doctor wearing a mask with a beak filled with aromatic herbs to protect himself from an infectious patient. Although photography of the exhibits is forbidden, due to the varied ownerships and permissions thereof, I considered this display on the wall near the entrance would not fall under such scrutiny - in any case, the attendant was outside, chatting on his mobile phone.