[Sca-cooks] common diseases( was mustards)

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 11:36 AM 12/11/2004, you wrote:
>I am sorry but I have to belief they simply did not know of all the health 
>problems that are associated with unclean practices. They were still in 
>the what's that and can we eat it stage of development.  When the health 
>sciences we know were influenced by Mother Church more then  solid 
>scientific fact. At least for most of Europe anyways.
>More often then not plagues, and disease were attributed to the wrath of 
>god or works of the devil, then the ignorance of man.
>Da

Actually, I have to disagree here. The most rustic of peasants *might* 
think that way, but otherwise, no. We have quite a bit of evidence that 
they were conscious of the link between 'filth' and disease- they may not 
have know why, but the knew that it was there. There are manuals for 
training young men to serve, with admonitions to keep clean, wash hands, 
not let the nails get black, not to play with the dog during dinner, you 
name it. Dishes and cutlery are to be kept clean, and the napery is to be 
kept whitewhitewhite! You even have detailed instructions on how to assist 
the lord in bathing! There are books instructing young wives how to keep a 
proper home- including how to get rid of flies/fleas/bedbugs, etc., to 
avoid spoilage and efficiently manage the kitchen. There are medical 
treatises, and many of them emphasize cleanliness (Trotula, a woman 
physician, was especially insistent on it).

Oddly enough, when you really see things do downhill is the 17th and 18th 
centuries- in part due to a significant increase in population. Clean water 
and sanitary facilities are much more of a problem when people are crowded, 
and diseases such as cholera were rampant.

Anyway, just because they couldn't *see* the microbes, they could observe 
the results of their activities- cleanness and whiteness and purity were 
highly valued, and there's a big reason why!

Me and my headache are going back to bed now. Nite all-

'Lainie
___________________________________________________________________________
The penalty good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be 
governed by men worse than themselves. -- Plato