Image Transcription

3. Dirty laundry. So if they weren’t bathing much, how did most Europeans of the time keep clean? Why, they just swapped their shirts! When they saw the dirt accumulating on their clothes, they assumed that the linens were “drawing out” grime from their bodies. It turns out that scrubbing your body with linen cloth every day (which some people of the time thankfully did) can keep you relatively stench-free. We’d still recommend showering, though.

4. Smell soaps. Liquid soap was first patented way back in 1865… but you probably wouldn’t have wanted to wash your hands with it. It was made by dissolving one pound of solid soap in one hundred pounds of ammonia solution. Ammonia solution is great for cleaning, but it’s also extremely foul-smelling.

5. Doctor drama. In the 19th century, doctors would autopsy a corpse, then attend to other patients — all without washing their hands first. Physician Ignaz Semmelweis realized that this was why patients kept dying of sepsis, and suggested that doctors start washing up before procedures. Unfortunately for patients everywhere, the other doctors didn’t believe him. Semmelweis lost his job and was rejected by his former colleagues. But we’d still shake his hand — and not just because we trust he’d wash it first.