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Hygiene In Medieval Times Essay

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Can you believe that something so basic and that most people have nowadays, could have killed so many people? In the Medieval times, hygiene was an important, life changing factor for the survival of the people. Most medieval citizens only showered once or twice per year. The spread of diseases in the Medieval Times was mostly affected by the citizen's hygiene. The people who lived in the medieval cities, hadn't and wouldn't notice how the hygiene inside their houses and towns was one of the important factors in the spread of diseases. The people's hygiene was also very basic in terms of waste disposal and waste of products. The medieval peasant homes usually had one or two rooms, …show more content…

In the other hand, rushes were still used by some people. Good smelling herbs and flowers, such as: roses, daisies and chamomile were used so that the bad smell coming from inadequate plumbing and floor rushes was disguised. Rushes were bad for the people's health because many feces and urine were kept under it, sometimes from dogs and other times from humans. Therefore, rushes were only renewed and changed sometimes, and when they were changed it was once every 20 years. The English Parliament published an article about the Medieval towns and their waste disposal system saying, "Item, that so much dung and filth of the garbage and entrails be cast and put into ditches, rivers, and other waters... so that the air there is grown greatly corrupt and infected, and many maladies and other intolerable diseases do daily happen (...) as in other cities, boroughs, and towns through the realm of England, where it shall be needful that all they who do cast and lay all such annoyances, dung, garbage, entrails, and other ordure, in ditches, rivers, waters, and other places aforesaid, shall cause them utterly to be removed, avoided, and

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