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You're just shoehorning in the assumption that people had diarrhea a lot, because that's the trope about medieval Europe. But if everybody lives in a well-estab
by card_zero 2y ago
You're just shoehorning in the assumption that people had diarrhea a lot, because that's the trope about medieval Europe. But if everybody lives in a well-established traditional way (and there's no current war or plague in the area) then they will also know by tradition the springs, streams and wells that yield clean water.
In Georgian times, around 1800, coal-based industry gets under way, there's a population explosion, and many cities have properly horrific slums, latrine courtyards ankle deep, families living with pigs in wet cellars, graveyards overflowing ex-human slurry into the street. This is also when we invent bottled water, and if you can't get that, beer is a good option for safety reasons.
But in calmer medieval times, avoiding the local water can't have been so crucial, because the locals probably knew where to get the clean-ish stuff (however harmlessly brown or wriggling).
- resolutebat 2y agoNatural springs are rare, while streams and rivers are often muddy, seasonal and/or contaminated by domestic animals and wildlife. There's a reason wells were very common.
- fuzztester 2y agoWell water is not safe either. It's exposed to the atmosphere, so to dust, birds (both s(h)itting and flying), and insects, etc. Depending on the shape and structure of the well, rats can crawl inside, and lizards, and cockroaches and other insects can crawl in anyway, and poop there. and we all know about rats as a vector of many serious diseases, like the plague in said mediaeval times.
- anthk 2y agoEven "natural springs" could give you tons of diarrhea due to some animals taking a dump nearby.
- fuzztester 2y agoYes. Another corroborating comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40413484 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40413484
- fuzztester 2y agoYep, thought of that as soon as I read the parent and GP comments. And I have also thought of the same point on my own before. And it's not just: >could give you tons of diarrhea due to some animals taking a dump nearby. But also: from all the way upstream (from aquatic animal life), and from the upstream watersheds (from terrestrial animal life), which, all together, is a shit-ton of dumps, pun not intended.
- schmidt_fifty 2y ago[dead]
- closewith 2y agoPeople have diarrhoea a lot today, in developed countries with stable access to clean water and food. If anything, people massively underestimate the amount of diarrhoea premodern living involved.
- adonovan 2y agoAcquired immunity is a thing. If you always drink from the same river, you are more likely to become immune to its pathogens. That’s why travellers to places with poorer sanitation often get sick eating food that is fine for the locals.
- scarby2 2y ago>People have diarrhoea a lot today, in developed countries with stable access to clean water and food My personal experience suggests it's pretty uncommon. Maybe once every few years, and I eat all sorts of questionable things.
- taneliv 2y agoDo you have, or live with children?
- closewith 2y ago179 million acute cases pa in the US [https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/28/11/22-0247_article https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/28/11/22-0247_article]. Probably an order of magnitude more unreported cases.
- fransje26 2y ago>> But if everybody lives in a well-established traditional way (quoted from card_zero's comment) > 179 million acute cases pa in the US I don't think the US diet qualifies..
- schmidt_fifty 2y ago[dead]
- schmidt_fifty 2y ago[dead]
- legitster 2y ago> they will also know by tradition the springs, streams and wells that yield clean water I once drank water from a mountain stream and spent a week sick from some sort of phage associated with beavers. As any avid hiker can tell you, even crystal clear, pristine surface waters still run the risk of making you sick. Even without the need of human intervention. Almost every human culture has some traditional drink that involves something boiled. It's weird to assume Europeans were magically different.
- throwway120385 2y agoGiardiasis is often referred to as the "beaver fever" because the organism completes part of its lifecycle in mammals and beavers crap wherever they eat, which is in the water.