Medicine in Shakespeare's Time

During the Elizabethan age, the main disease was the Bubonic Plague, or the Black Death. The main reason this was such a problem is because of the lack of sanitaion. Especially in large cities where there were open sewers that were also filled with the garbage. Diseases were spread by fleas, lice, and rats and there was no running water. People got their water from water pumps.
During the Elizabethan age nobody knew what caused illness and disease. Everybody maily followed the teachings of Aristotle and Hippocrates. At the time they thought an imbalance in Humors, the bodily fluids, is what caused illness. That's why doctors 'bled' people. They were trying to get rid of the excess, unnecessary fluids. The only other choice was to was to be given herbs or vegetables.
What doctors wore at the time looks kind of weird to us. But it did actually keep a lot of them from getting diseases from their patients. The wore long black robes with pointed hoods, leather gloves, leather boots, an odd mask with a long beak filled with begamot oil, and amulets filled with dried blood and ground-up toads. They would often douse themselves in vinegar and chew angelica before treating a patient.
Very few people had the money to see a doctor like the one described above. Middle class people had to go the barbers, who, at the time, would also do minor procedures such as pull teeth or let blood along with cutting hair. If you didn't want to go to a barber, you went to the apothocary. They were who administered blood. If you didn't have any money for anything, you went to the church for comfort.

Alchin, Linda K. "Elizabethan Medicine and Illnesses." Elizabethan Era. N.p., 20 Mar. 2008. Web. 23 May 2010. http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-medicine-and-illnesses.htm.