GROSS HYGIENE PRACTICES FROM DAYS GONE BY

BRUSHING

Romans used mouse brains to brush their teeth.

ANTISEPTICS

After wine, urine was the most common antiseptic during

Victorian times.

BEDS

Thatched roofs often led to bird droppings throughout the

cottage, even on the bed.

WASTE

Often it was just thrown into a cesspit not far from the house.

Of course, these were breeding grounds for diseases.

LAUNDRY

You may be used to this by now, but on the rare occasion that

laundry was done, it was usually done with a mixture of lye and urine.

SURGERY

There were no such things as clean surgical instruments.

Unless you consider a urine drenched scalpel clean…

WASHING HANDS

Ok, so in castles and large houses there was usually a place to

wash your hands during meal time. Outside of this however,

washing was almost non-existent. Just remember that people

still didn’t know about germs and bacteria.

MOATS

Those clean sparkling moats that you’ve seen in pictures?

That’s a fairy tale. Moats were the perfect dumping ground

for most castles.