A plague doctor was a physician who treated victims of bubonic plague during epidemics mainly in the 16th and 17th centuries. These physicians were hired by cities to treat infected patients regardless of income, especially the poor, who could not afford to pay. Plague doctors had a mixed reputation, with some citizens seeing their presence as a warning to leave the area or that death was near. Some plague doctors were said to charge patients and their families additional fees for special treatments or false cures. In many cases, these doctors were not experienced or trained physicians or surgeons, instead being volunteers, second-rate doctors, or young doctors just starting a career. In one case, a plague doctor was a fruit salesman before his employment as a physician. Plague doctors rarely cured patients, instead serving to record death tolls and the number of infected people for demographic purpose