[Sca-cooks] Water Purity (revisited)

[Jeff Gedney]

Remember the discussion we had regarding water purity?
One of the messages asked how people could have been aware of the necessity of keeping water clean without awareness of microbiology: 

>Stefan, how could they have generally known about health
>hazards of water in the Renaissance?  In Holland, about
>1595 the microscope was invented by Zacharias Jansenn
>(his business was grinding lenses for eyeglasses).  Later,
>Anton van Leeuwenhoek began to make microscopes as a hobby.
 
I was browsing a site that has among other interesting data, a number of Medieval and Renaissance laws and court records extracted, called (oddly enough) the "Florilegium Urbanum" (hey Stefan, think they got the idea from you??).

http://www.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/florilegium/flor00.html

Well, I was looking through some laws, and found a number of refs regarding water purity, and the whole discussion we had a couple of weeks ago came to mind, and I thought a reference would be pertinent to our greater understanding. 

A number of quotes from this page seem to clearly indicate that medieval people were perfectly aware of the health effects of microbes, even if they did not know about them:

" the watercourse is communal, and ought to be – and used to be at all times in the past – for the common use of Juliana and each and every person in the city. Except that they may not put into the watercourse the detritus from woad, called "wodger", nor hides being tanned, nor [sheepskins or the blood or waste of] humans or animals, nor wash there soiled infants' clothing, nor have privies over or drains leading into that watercourse." (ca 1299)

"Edward, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine, to the mayor and bailiffs of Oxford, greetings. It has been shown to us by the masters and students of Oxford University that brewers of ale in that town draw and collect water for brewing near sewers and in other unclean places, which are polluted and infected. Consequently, the ale produced from the same, which is sold to the masters and students and to others living there for their sustenance, is not as wholesome and as nourishing as it ought to be, causing them no slight harm and the evident detriment of their health." (ca 1305)

"Because a serious complaint has been made to the bailiffs of the town of Colchester that, [whereas] many of the townspeople brew their ale and prepare their meals using water from the river in the town, certain persons living beside the river such as barkers and white tawyers place many hides of different kinds – that is, horsehides, oxhides, bullhides, calfskins, sheepskins, buckskins, doeskins, and various other skins – in the river water, corrupting and compromising it, and killing off the fish therein, to the great harm and nuisance of the people. " (ca 1425)

"On the same day it was ordained by agreement of the warden and community there that each tenant within the borough of Henley-on-Thames holding, owning or occupying any tenement or land on the north side of a certain watercourse, called The Brook, in a certain street called Friday Street, and situated next to or along that watercourse, is to scour that watercourse before 25 March next following this meeting. Those who fail to do so are to pay to the warden and community a penalty of three pounds of wax, worth 20d. And in this fashion is the watercourse to be scoured henceforth.  <snip>  No tenant of such a tenement is henceforth to put up any latrine over the watercourse, under the same penalty." (ca 1473)

< http://www.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/florilegium/community/cmfabr22.html >


Capt Elias
-Renaissance Geek of the Cyber Seas

-------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather 
wood, divide the work, and give orders.  Instead, teach them
to yearn for the vast and endless sea. 
  - Antoine de Saint Exupery