<<oderiferous>>

Someone's been using the dictionary toilet paper!

::runs::

Genneron

Interestingly, bathing soap was a massive sales product in the Middle Ages. They made and bought enough bathing (not clothes-washing) soap that unless you believe they ate it, it pokes a hole in the concept that people bathed once a year whether they needed it or not ;)

Yep, sewage in the cities was a real problem (luckily, less than 10% of the Medieval population lived in cities) and there was no concept of purifying water to drink it (this is why they just figured water was bad to drink and stuck with weak wines instead). Bathing was probably not as frequent because it wasn't as convenient (but the proliferation of public bathing offended the church.)

People are always more complicated than folks give them credit for, and often find ways to get around problems in one way or another. It is true that today's health standard is generally much better in developed countries, but there probably wasn't that much difference in such issues between colonial Americans and the average Medieval person. The death rates were certainly comparable, although higher among the colonials if you don't use a Black Plague year as the medieval example.

---Brett

> pointed out that the hygenic benefits of regular bathing only really got promoted once companies that manufactured bathroom fixtures (tubs and what not) realized that was probably the best way to increase the sales of their products


Capitalism. Gotta love it.


Dash & the gang

Curious about DragonRealms Platinum? Find out more at http://members.tripod.com/cervanntes/DragonRealms/index.htm

Unlike the general society however, even in the Medieval times among the Jewish community both washing the hands before eating, washing ones eating utensils and pots, and regular bathing <i.e. use of the Mikvah> was promoted <things taken for granted in modern society> , albeit for religious reasons. Part of the reason the Christian church was anti-bathing, in fact; as researched in some of the questions the Inquisition asked the internee, after the explusion from Spain in 1492, being questioned were around these types of questions.

~stabbity,stabbity,stabbity~

Medieval-life.net is a VERY informative site. http://www.medieval-life.net


Also enlightening is this bit:

A common myth is that medieval people had poor hygiene. There is no evidence, however, to support this. While it is true that they did not bathe daily, as most Americans do nowadays, it's not true that they never bathed. They cared for their hair, and men trimmed their beards. They often washed their hands & faces, before and after meals.
It is true there were no sewer systems in most places, and this caused some complications. It's also true that garbage was tossed in streets, helping to foster disease. However, records indicate that there were work teams in towns which tried to haul out the garbage, and there were many lamentations about this job not getting done! So we know that medieval people were aware that this was a problem. When plagues struck a town, they knew enough to quarantine the sick, even if this didn't prevent transmission of the disease (as in the case of the bubonic plague).

It was not until the Renaissance when frequent bathing became frowned upon, and there was a good reason even for this. Europe's water supply had become contaminated by sewage, and bathing could expose one to disease. This is really the source of this myth

Tsk, tsk. Enlighted Renaissance, indeed. The full text can be found at: http://pages.cthome.net/djhalnon/myths.html


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Ysselt Ja'Haadraan, adar
"Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillondus"
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How about when plays and such acts were performed the crowds bodily fluids and vowels were excreted right where they sat, no running to the potty john. <yuck!>.

PS: How's that for Hygene

War Haw Catullus

I'd like to buy an A....aaaagh!

---

~~Fout Pouz moi, Zien paz moi~~
'Everything for me, nothing from me'

~The mind behind Raydell and many~

<<The plagues of the 16th Century put a real damper on bathing. Except for Nostradamus and a few other enlightened souls, bathing was considered a health hazard, and to be avoided at all costs.>>


Actually by more than a few enlightened souls knew the virtues of bathing. Hence the plague usually didn't hit the Jewish ghettos as hard because of the use of the ritual bath, or Mikveh, and the custom of washing ones hands both before eating and after using the "facilities", which was regulated by the Shuchan Aruch <halachah, or laws which were customarily followed by most Medieval Jewish communities>.


As the plague was spread by fleas which infested rats, bathing did much to prevent it, by making sure ones clothes and body didn't have those fleas - in the absence of modern antibiotics, etc.



---
A scavenger troll arrives, scouring the area.

The scavenger troll exclaims, "I dinks I like da' Moongate!"

The scavenger troll bends over and picks up the Moongate. After appraising it, the troll places the Moongate in its frayed knapsack

Yep, bathing was considered a health hazard, but I don't think it was entirely unfounded. Most bathing in those days would have been done with water from or in the local river where, in the cases of many big cities anyway, is also where the sewage ended up.


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I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.
- Henry David Thoreau