Early modern 1500-1750

• People continued to rely on old ideas like the four humours(phlegm, blood, yellow bile, black bile) , miasma, and belief in witches causing disease
• Wealthy individuals had a varied diet including meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, and alcohol like wine, ale, beer, and mead. This diet was about 80% protein so lead to digestive problems.
• The poor had a basic diet mainly consisting of bread, vegetables, and occasional treats like eggs, cheese, fish, or meat
• Belief that dirty water could make them ill led to infrequent bathing
• Wealthy individuals had servants to wash their clothes, while poorer laborers might only have one set of clothes infected with lice and fleas
• People in the countryside obtained water from wells, springs, or streams
• In towns, water was collected from conduits or bought from water-sellers
• Some towns started bringing water from the countryside to reservoirs for distribution, allowing houses to be connected to water pipes
• Scavengers or rakers collected ash, food waste and sweepings from houses once or twice a week. This waste was sold to market gardeners.
• The flushing toilet was invented in 1596 but was expensive and only the very rich had access to water and drains.
• Privies emptied into to rivers and cesspits depending on where they were built - cesspits could overflow. This polluted rivers and wells and waste would build up in gardens and streets, spreading disease.
• Respiratory diseases were caused by burning wood and coal in open fires in homes. Houses were crowded and damp, further increasing the lung problems.
• 1518 - Isolate plague victims and identify them and their homes, anyone leaving that home had to carry a white stick (weren't enforced everywhere).
• 1578 - recording the spread of the disease, financial help for the sick, burning the victim's clothing and bedding, quarantine for those who lived in the same house (reduced spread of disease, connection between dirt and disease was made).
• 1604 - increased financial help for the sick and their families, watchmen giving harsh punishments to enforce the policy of isolation, those who left could be hanged, (reduced the spread as people stayed in their homes but people still didn't know it was spread by fleas and rats as well).
• How did people react to the outbreak?

  • People went to church
  • people ran away (rich fled to the countryside)
  • people tried to find a cure
  • people blamed foreigners and immigrants
  • people stuck with their families
• Between 1720 and 1751 people became obsessed with gin because it was cheap and largely advertised. It allowed the consumer to escape from the miserable life at the time. The gin craze led to an increase in crime and death rate. New-born children were deformed due to their mothers drinking gin.