Hygiene In Medieval Times Essay

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,

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