[1] James Trefil, "Can We Live Forever?" 101 Things You Don't Know About Science and No One Else Does Either (1996)
Bronze Age: 18
[2] Average Life Expectancy at Birth
“The average life expectancy in Classical Greece was 28...The average life expectancy in Classical Rome was 28”
[3] “Americans and their health - A little good news”, WIN Wyoming, November 2004
“During the Roman Empire, the average life expectancy of humans was about 22-25 years.”
[4] "old age" Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008
“In ancient Rome and medieval Europe the average life span is estimated to have been between 20 and 30 years.”
[5] Time traveller's guide to Medieval Britain
“The Middle Ages are a dangerous time... Average life expectancy is only 30.”
[6] A millennium of health improvement
“The average life expectancy for a male child born in the UK between 1276 and 1300 was 31.3 years.”
[7] “Commentary: The pitfalls of policy history. Writing the past to change the present”, S Ryan Johansson, Cambridge Groups for the History of Population and Social Structure, Cambridge University
"For most of human history mortality was high and life expectancy low (between 20 and 30 years at birth)...”
[8] This Wonderful Lengthening of Lifespan, Bruce J. Klein, Immortality Institute, 2003
“In 1796, life expectancy hovered around 24 years.”
[9] It's Getting Better All the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years By Stephen Moore, Julian Lincoln Simon
“Throughout most of human history, death came at an early age--25 to 30 years was a typical lifespan. The essential element of the human condition was a day-to-say struggle to fend off death...Increasing life expectancy at birth from the lower 20s to the high 20s around 1750 took thousands of years. Over the next two centuries, life expectancy in the richest countries suddenly accelerated and tripled. From the mid-18th century to today, life spans in the advanced countries jumped from less than 30 years to about 75 years.”
[10] “The End of Life: Medical Considerations - Causes Of Death”
“In the 1800s and early 1900s, infectious (communicable) diseases such as influenza, tuberculosis, and diphtheria were the leading causes of death.”
[11] “Commentary: The pitfalls of policy history. Writing the past to change the present”, S Ryan Johansson, Cambridge Groups for the History of Population and Social Structure, Cambridge University
"...most people were too poor, and therefore too poorly nourished, to resist the relentless onslaughts of disease, particularly infectious disease. In 18th century Western Europe, agricultural development increased the food supply and let ordinary people buy more and better food. Better nutrition increased their resistance to infectious disease, and reduced death rates, all without the assistance of medical care.”
[12] “Health: A millennium of health improvement”, December 27, 1998, BBC News
“Childbirth was less sanitary, and put the mother at a high risk of fatal infection. Complications in the birth were more frequently fatal too, as, although midwives existed, they had little medical knowledge and their hygiene was poor.”
[13] "Saga Background: Women", Theban Tribunal Sourcebook
“...Early marriage and procreation of children was the norm in Byzantium...One reason for the promotion of teenage marriage was the emphasis on the virginity of the bride. Another, unstated reason may have been the desire to make the most of the childbearing years; because of the high rate of infant mortality, a woman had to bear many children to insure the survival of a few. Furthermore, since many women died young (if they survived infancy, they had an average life expectancy of about thirty-five years), it behooved them to marry and begin producing children as soon as physically possible.”
[14] THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION, Keith Montgomery, Department of Geography and Geology, University of Wisconsin Marathon County
"STAGE ONE is associated with pre Modern times, and is characterized by a balance between birth rates and death rates...The high rate of birth (even higher if one were to adjust it for women of childbearing age) could be due any or all of the factors that are associated with high fertility even today in many less developed countries. With a high death rate among children, there would be little incentive in rural societies to control fertility except in the most unbearable of circumstances...STAGE TWO sees a rise in population caused by a decline in the death rate while the birth rate remains high, or perhaps even rises slightly. The decline in the death rate in Europe began in the late 18th.C. in northwestern Europe and spread over the next 100 years to the south end east."
[15] Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics Population and demography Version 1.0 April 2006 Walter Scheidel Stanford University
“High mortality logically implies high fertility. For instance, a mean life expectancy at birth of 25 years compels – on average – every woman surviving to menopause to give birth to approximately five children to maintain existing population size. The corresponding rate was higher still for married women: one reconstruction posits a lifetime mean of 8.4 births for continuously married women in Roman Egypt (Frier 2000: 801).“
[16] Crisis In The Family: Connecticut And The Nation, Lou Ratté, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute
“In concrete terms, historians observe, the American woman of 1800 bore, on the average, seven or eight children; the American woman of 1900 bore three or four...You can start with an initial population of 100. Half of them are women. Those fifty women have to produce 200 children in twenty years. If all the women produced an equal number of children, and all the children lived, the number of children necessary would be four. However, ten percent of the women don’t marry. Eliminate five women. Ten percent of the women who do marry prove to be infertile. Eliminate another five women. Finally, ten percent of the women lose their husbands before they can produce children. Eliminate another ten percent. You are left with thirty-five women. These women could produce 200 children if each bore 5.7, or between five and six children each. However, ten percent of the children, or twenty, die as infants, and another ten percent do not live into adulthood to produce children of their own. Add another twenty. You now have 240 births necessary. Remember, though, that of the 200 children, half of which will be female, that you want, thirty percent will not be able to do their share of reproducing. You need an additional sixty children to ensure that the population can continue to double. So, you need 300 children. Divide that number by the available thirty-five women. Each woman must bear between eight and nine children...Between seven and eight is the figure that demographic historians estimate was the average for number of children in the American family in 1800”
[17] William Faulkner, a twentieth- century American novelist once wrote, “The past is not dead, Sep 2004
"In the 17th century, the majority of people worked as farmers. In this profession, it was beneficial to have as many people helping as possible in order to maximize profit. Thus, the average number of children per household was 8.3 compared to today’s 1.3 children, according to 'Colonial America to 1763'."
[18] The Real Population Problem: Too Few Working, Too Many Retired, William Poole and David C. Wheelock, The Regional Economist, April 2005
“For centuries, the world’s population grew slowly, as high rates of mortality largely offset high birth rates.”
[19] The Peopling of America, Digital History
“Child Mortality in New England: 180-200 of every l,000 died first year, 35-40 percent failed to reach adulthood”
[20] Unit 5: Human Population Dynamics // Section 2: Mathematics of Population Growth
“Until the mid-19th century birth rates were only slightly higher than death rates, so the human population grew very slowly. The industrial era changed many factors that affected birth and death rates, and in doing so, it triggered a dramatic expansion of the world's population”
[21] “Molecular investigations into complex behavior: Lessons from sexual orientation studies,” Human Biology, Apr 1998 by Pattatucci, Angela M
"Remarkably, the mean age of phenotypic expression of sexual orientation, assessed in terms of the age of the first romantic/sexual attraction to another person, was constant at approximately 10 years"
[22]
Puberty May Start at 6 As Hormones Surge, By HARA ESTROFF MARANO, July 1, 1997
“...the adrenal sex steroids do what sex hormones typically do, influence behavior as well as the body...Using data from three separate studies, they said that sexual attraction first manifested itself in the fourth grade, from the ages of 9 to 10...In Dr. Herdt's study, the mean age of first-recalled sexual attraction was 9.6 for men, 10.1 for women. In the cancer institute's studies, the mean age of first sexual attraction was 10 to 10.5...Dr. Herdt recalled 'being struck by the significant number of teens in our study who made remarks about attractions' occurring at 9 or 10. 'I thought that was strange, certainly inconsistent with the literature,' Dr. Herdt said. 'But many of the teens specifically placed their experiences in the fourth grade'.”
[23] ”New research shows how evolution explains age of puberty”, From the University of Southampton
“They found that Paleolithic girls arrived at menarche - the first occurrence of menstruation - between seven and 13 years. This is a similar age to modern girls, which suggests that this is the evolutionarily determined age of puberty in girls...Disease and poor nutrition became more common as humans settled, causing puberty to be delayed. Modern hygiene, nutrition and medicine have allowed the age of menarche to fall to its original range.“
[24] When Little Girls Become Women: Early Onset of Puberty in Girls
“There are new guidelines for pediatricians that are guaranteed to shock: girls who start to develop breasts and pubic hair at age six or seven are not necessarily "abnormal" (Kaplowitz, et al., 1999). In fact, by their ninth birthday, 48% of African American girls and 15% of white girls are showing clear signs of puberty.”
[25] "reproductive system disease." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008
“ ’Abnormally early’ has traditionally been defined as younger than 9 years in boys and younger than 8 years in girls, though studies undertaken since the 1990s indicate that the normal onset of puberty may be occurring at a younger age in girls in developed countries and that therefore the age of precocious puberty for girls may actually be as low as 6 or 7.”
[26] Early Puberty: What Is Normal and When Is Treatment Indicated?
“Girls and boys who enter puberty before 8 and 9 years of age, respectively (corresponding to about -3 SDS), are arbitrarily considered to need referral for endocrine investigation. A recent report from the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society suggested that the limit for investigation of girls and boys should be lowered to 7 and 8 years, respectively. For African-American girls, 6 years is the suggested age.”
[27] Nutritional Information, Precocious puberty
“Precocious puberty, or early sexual development, is happening everywhere. It’s estimated that one out of six girls aged eight may be entering puberty. The age at which puberty begins has been steadily declining. Today, the average age of first menstruation is under 12 years. Reports of early puberty have come from many countries including Canada, the US, Australia, Britain, the European Union, Asia, and the Caribbean. A groundbreaking US study on 17,000 girls found that 27 percent of African-American and almost seven percent of Caucasian girls had the onset of secondary sexual characteristics, i.e., either breast development or pubic hair development, by the age of seven. By the time the girls turned eight-years-old, 15 percent of Caucasian girls and 50 percent of Afro-American girls were starting puberty. Even more startling was the finding that one percent of Caucasian and three percent of African-American girls showed these characteristics by the age of three.”
[28] Changing times: The evolution of puberty", Gluckman & Hanson, Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology Volumes 254-255, 25 July 2006, Pages 26-31
“An evolutionary and life history perspective is used to consider the evolution of puberty. The age of menarche would have evolved by the Neolithic to be matched to social maturity. It is suggested that in developed countries menarche is now returning to a similar age as in the Neolithic...”
[29] Puberty, Encyclopedia of Psychology
Although most children begin puberty between the ages of 10 and 12, it can start at any age from 8 to 16. The most obvious determining factor is gender; on average, puberty arrives earlier for girls than boys.
[30] Puberty May Start at 6 As Hormones Surge, By HARA ESTROFF MARANO, July 1, 1997
“In fact, two University of Chicago researchers, Dr. Martha K. McClintock, a biopsychologist, and Dr. Gilbert Herdt, an anthropologist, say that puberty may actually begin around the age of 6.”
[31] “Age of Consent A Historical Overview” Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, Volume: 16 Issue: 2/3, 5/3/2005
“Age of Consent throughout history has usually coincided with the age of puberty although at sometimes it has been as early as seven. Early on age of consent was a familial or tribal matter and only became a legal one in the Greco-Roman period. The Roman tradition served as the base for Christian Europe as well as the Christian Church itself which generally, essentially based upon biological development, set it at 12 or 14 but continued to set the absolute minimum at seven. In the past century there has been a tendency to raise the age of consent but the reasons for the change have not always been clear and the issue has been further complicated by the reluctance of many contemporary historians to recognize what the actual age of consent in the past has been. This failure has distorted the importance of biology on age of consent in the past.”
[32] “Age of Consent A Historical Overview” Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, Volume: 16 Issue: 2/3, 5/3/2005
“... The Roman tradition served as the base for Christian Europe as well as the Christian Church itself which generally, essentially based upon biological development, set it at 12 or 14 but continued to set the absolute minimum at seven.”
[33] “sexual behaviour, human” Encyclopedia Britannica 2008
“when secular law replaced religious law, there was rather little change in content...in England and the United States there was no such rift with the past. In the latter country, as each new state joined the union, its sex laws simply duplicated, to a great extent, those of pre-existing states;”
[34] “family law” Encyclopedia Britannica 2008
“Historically, the attitude of the English common law was that a person under seven years of age lacked the mental ability to consent to marriage, and that between seven years and puberty there could be consent but not consummation. At common law, therefore, the marriage of a person between the ages of seven and 12 or 14 was “inchoate” and would become “choate” on reaching puberty, if no objection was raised.”
[35] MEISTER V. MOORE, 96 U. S. 76 (1877)
“The defense was:...That that evidence utterly failed to establish a valid marriage at common law. The Revised Statutes of Michigan upon the subject of the solemnization of marriages, adopted in the year 1838 and in force at the time of the alleged marriage, enact as follows:...
'SEC. 6. Marriages may be solemnized by any justice of the peace in the county in which he is chosen, and they may be solemnized throughout the state by any minister of the gospel who has been ordained according to the usages of his denomination and who resides within this state and continues to preach the gospel.'
'SEC. 8. In the solemnization of marriage, no particular form shall be required except that the parties shall solemnly declare, in the presence of the magistrate or minister and the attending witnesses, that they take each other as husband and wife. In every case there shall be at least two witnesses, besides the minister or magistrate, present at the ceremony.' "
[36] MARRIAGE OF MINORS.; THE NEW LAW FIXING THE AGE OF CONSENT--CRIMINAL LIABILITY OF CLERGYMEN AND MAGISTRATES, New York Times, July 14, 1887
“At common law, a marriage contracted under the age of consent was not regarded as void, but only as an imperfect marriage, valid until voided by the parties after their arrival at the age of consent...The common law rule of 14 in males and 12 in females was derived from the civil law, also substantially from the canon...In the revision of the statutes, the age of consent was fixed at 17 for males and 14 for females, but so deep rooted had the common law become that the section was repealed by chapter 320 of the laws of 1830, the Legislature of that year having arrived at the conclusion that owing to the delicate nature of the marital relation and the complications growing out of it, the common law rule had better be allowed to stand.”
[37] "Common Law Marriages", New York Divorce and Family Law
“Infancy was also an impediment to marriage. Children below the age of seven were incapable of marrying. After the age of seven they might marry, but the marriage was voidable until they were able to consummate the marriage, which the law presumed to be at age fourteen for boys and twelve for girls. Beyond those ages the marriages were valid, even though the parties were under the age of twenty-one and did not have their parents' consent. Later statutes imposed the requirement of parents' consent.”
[38] DC Almanac, Marriage
"MICHAEL WASSERMAN, DC HISTORY NET - Based on my review of the statute applicable between 1901 and 1925...Sections 1283 and 1284 specify which marriages are absolutely void or merely voidable after judicial decree....The fourth paragraph of section 1284 (added in 1902) specifically declares the age of consent to marriage to be 16 for males and 14 for females, and makes marriages in which one party is under age voidable at the suit of the party."
[39] "Issuance of marriage license to persons under 18", Joslyn Wilson, Assistant Attorney General
“At common law, a male was deemed competent to contract a valid marriage at 14 years of age; for females the age of consent was 12 years. Green v. Green, supra; 55 C.J.S. Marriage s. 11. Any marriage, however, occurring between the age of 7 years and the age of consent was merely voidable, but a marriage where one or both of the parties were under the age of 7 years was void and without legal significance. 55 C.J.S. Marriage s. 11. A marriage by one above the age of consent but below the age of contract generally is fully valid. 55 C.J.S. Marriage s. 11 at p. 823; also see Hunt v. Hunt, 161 So. 119, 122 (Miss. 1935). Although not required at common law, the state may require the consent of the parents or guardian as a preliminary to the marriage of minors. 55 C.J.S. Marriage s. 23.”
[40] "Silent Partners", Legal Assistance for Military Personnel
“Voidable marriages are those where insufficient age, fraud, duress, sham ceremony, physical disability (disease or incurable impotence), or mental disability taint what appears to be an otherwise valid marriage. If a marriage is voidable, then it must be "avoided" (or challenged in court) by the one whose disability causes the problem at some point in time before the listing of the disability. Otherwise, avoidable marriage may "cure" into a valid marriage...A different kind of common law marriage is represented by the situation where a valid marriage is formed from an invalid marriage after the impediment is lifted. For example, a party might be underage at the time of the marriage. Continued cohabitation as husband and wife after the underage party attains majority, however, results in the marriage ripening into validity where this form of common law marriage is recognized.”
[41] “re In The Marriage of J.M.H. and Rouse”, COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS, Judge James Hartmann, June 15, 2006
AND/OR
Colorado Court of Appeals -- June 15, 2006
AND/OR
“re In The Marriage of J.M.H. and Rouse”, COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS, Judge James Hartmann, June 15, 2006
"...The Uniform Marriage Act (UMA)...provides that “[n]othing in this section shall be deemed to repeal or render invalid any otherwise valid common law marriage between one man and one woman." Section 142104(3),C.R.S. 2005...The jurisdictions that recognized common law marriage are Alabama, Colorado, District of Columbia, Idaho*, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas**, and Utah...Similarly, the United States Supreme Court has held that common law marriages are valid, notwithstanding statutes that require ceremonial marriages to be solemnized by a minister or a magistrate, if no specific provision to the contrary exists... Common law, not the UMA, governs the existence of a common law marriage...Regarding the age of consent for common law marriage specifically, courts in other jurisdictions have uniformly declared that the common law age of consent applies to common law marriages, even when statutes otherwise require parental or judicial approval for persons under a specified age, unless those statutes expressly modify or abrogate the common law...The common law marriage of a person is valid, regardless of whether the person has reached the age of competency as established by statute, if the person is competent under the common law...Under English common law, children below the age of seven were incapable of marrying. After that age they could marry, but the marriage was voidable until they became able to consummate it... which the law presumed to be at age fourteen for males and twelve for females...Accordingly, several jurisdictions have adopted those ages as the common law ages of consent for marriage "
[*] only before 1997
[**] minimum 13
[42] Marriage Laws of the Fifty States, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, Cornell Law School
Alabama, Iowa, Montana, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Washington DC
[43] "Common Law Marriage", National Conference of State Legislatures
"The United States Constitution requires every state to accord ‘Full Faith and Credit’ to the laws of its sister states. Thus, a common-law marriage that is validly contracted in a state where such marriages are legal will be valid even in states where such marriages cannot be contracted and may be contrary to public policy."
[44] ”Age of reason (canon law)”, Amazines
The age of reason, also called the age of discretion, is the age at which children become capable of moral responsibility. On completion of the seventh year a minor is presumed to have the use of reason (canon 97 §2 of the Code of Canon Law), but mental retardation or insanity could prevent some individuals from ever reaching it. Children under the age of reason and the mentally handicapped are sometimes called "innocents" because of their inability to commit sins even if their actions are objectively sinful, they lack capacity for subjective guilt.
While in the Eastern Churches Confirmation (also known as Chrismation) and Eucharist are bestowed on the infant who has just been baptized, in Latin Rite Catholicism, Confirmation (except in danger of death) may be lawfully conferred only on a person who has the use of reason (canon 889 §2), and Holy Communion may be administered to children only if "they have sufficient knowledge and (are) accurately prepared, so that according to their capacity they understand what the mystery of Christ means, and are able to receive the Body of the Lord with faith and devotion.”
[45] CHAPTER IV : MATRIMONIAL CONSENT, Code of Canon Law
“Can. 1095 The following are incapable of contracting marriage:
1° those who lack sufficient use of reason;
Can. 1096 §1 For matrimonial consent to exist, it is necessary that the contracting parties be at least not ignorant of the fact that marriage is a permanent partnership between a man and a woman, ordered to the procreation of children through some form of sexual cooperation.
§2 This ignorance is not presumed after puberty.
Can. 1107 Even if a marriage has been entered into invalidly by reason of an impediment or defect of form, the consent given is presumed to persist until its withdrawal has been established.”
[46] "Agnes-Anna of France,wife of Alexius II and Andronicus I of the Comneni Dynasty", An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors, Lynda Garland, Andrew Stone
“Agnes was only eight on her arrival at Constantinople... Agnes was born... in 1172... The ceremonies took place in the palace on 2 March 1180...Child brides, whether Byzantines or foreign princesses, were the norm rather than the exception, especially from the late twelfth century. Irene Ducaena, wife of Alexius I Comnenus, was twelve at her marriage, and empress before she was fifteen; the Byzantine princess Theodora, Manuel's niece, was in her thirteenth year when she married Baldwin III of Jerusalem; and Margaret-Maria of Hungary married Isaac II Angelus at the age of nine. Agnes's age, then, was not unusual, especially as it was customary for young engaged couples in Constantinople to be brought up together in the house of the socially superior partner.”
[47] "Saga Background: Women", Theban Tribunal Sourcebook
“For most girls in Byzantium, childhood came to an abrupt end with the onset of puberty, which was usually soon followed by betrothal and marriage. Early marriage and procreation of children was the norm in Byzantium...”
[48] "History of Marriage in Western Civilization", Magnus Hirshfeld Archive for Sexology
“Marriage in Medieval Europe...On the average, however, males married in their mid-twenties, and females in their early teens (i.e., soon after their first menstruation).”
[49] "History of Marriage in Western Civilization", Magnus Hirshfeld Archive for Sexology
“Marriage in Ancient Greece and Rome...As Demosthenes, the orator, explained it: 'We ...wives to bear us lawful offspring'...Marriage in Ancient Israel...The main purpose of marriage was procreation and the perpetuation of a man's name...Marriage in Medieval Europe...On the average, however, males married in their mid-twenties, and females in their early teens (i.e., soon after their first menstruation).
[50] “The Household and the Making of History: a Subversive View of the Western Past”, Hartman, Mary S., Rutgers University, Cambridge University Press, 2004
"This book argues that a unique late marriage pattern, discovered in the 1960s but originating in the Middle Ages, explains the continuing puzzle of why western Europe was the site of changes that...when the peasants in northwestern Europe began to marry their daughters almost as late as their sons. The appearance of this late marriage system, with its unstable nuclear household form"
[51] “Shari'ah”, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008
“A legal capacity to transact belongs to any person “of prudent judgment” (rashid), a quality that is normally deemed to arrive with physical maturity or puberty. There is an irrebuttable presumption of law (1) that boys below the age of 12 and girls below the age of 9 have not attained puberty, and (2) that puberty has been attained by the age of 15 for both sexes. Persons who are not rashid, on account of minority, mental deficiency, simplicity, or prodigality, are placed under interdiction: their affairs are managed by a guardian and they cannot transact effectively without the guardian's consent.”
[52] “Evolution, development and timing of puberty.” Hanson, Gluckman Trends in Endocrinology & ****bolism, Volume 17, Issue 1, January 2006, Pages 7-12
“...there is ample evidence of delayed puberty being associated with poorer childhood nutrition...”
[53] ”New research shows how evolution explains age of puberty”, From the University of Southampton
“Disease and poor nutrition became more common as humans settled, causing puberty to be delayed. Modern hygiene, nutrition and medicine have allowed the age of menarche to fall to its original range.“
[54] International Variability of Ages at Menarche and Menopause: Patterns and Main Determinants, Human Biology 73.2 (2001) 271-290
“Vegetable calorie consumption per person and per day has a small, but significant, influence on age at menarche, supporting the idea that good [End Page 282] nutritional conditions favor early menarche (Frisch 1982, 1985; Warren 1983; Haq 1984)....In fact, age at menarche seems to be closely related to extrinsic factors such as living conditions and, especially, the energy balance allocated to individuals.”
[55] Evolutionary Aspects of Nutrition and Health, Book Review
“...insulin resistance was once advantageous for humans, who were eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, but once the diet shifted to a highly refined carbohydrate diet, hyperinsulinemia was no longer beneficial and it now causes diseases such as NIDDM, coronary heart disease, and hypertension. They also point out that beyond the Agricultural Revolution and its radical change to the human diet, we must also consider the profound effects of the Industrial Revolution and the Post-Industrial diet with the proliferation of highly refined carbohydrates in the last centuries.”
[56] Disease during the Industrial Revolution
“Disease was a constant threat during the Industrial Revolution. Changes in the way that people lived and the conditions in which they worked led to disease being able to spread much more rapidly, and new forms of disease emerged that were as deadly as any killer that had been before.
Towns grew very quickly as factories led to migrations from the countryside and immigration from different parts of Europe and the empire. As the demand for housing increased so rapidly the quality of homes constructed was low. Housing for the worker was cramped in, built quickly and built with little regard for hygiene. In many cities the result was that large slums appeared.
These slums were areas where houses were small, roads narrow and services such as rubbish collection, sewage works and basic washing facilities nonexistent. In this type of climate bacteria grow quickly, the water supply is likely to become infected and weaker people are likely to fall ill much more rapidly.
Water was often the problem. Factories would dump waste into streams and rivers. The same streams and rivers were used to supply homes with water for washing and *****ng. Soon people’s health was endangered. In many slums the same water supply was infected with human sewage as toilet facilities were often inadequate and sometimes consisted of a toilet block that was emptied irregularly: meaning that when it rained, the waste may overflow into the gutter and therefore into the rivers and streams.
The result of this is the spread of disease.
One of the main killers of the industrial age was Cholera. This deadly disease was water borne and spread through filthy cities with ease, killing thousands. Typhoid also took a hold in some areas and aain made great use of the poor sewage provisions to take a hold of many areas.
Diseases such as Cholera and Typhoid are now fairly easily prevented. Basic cleanliness, underground sewage pipes and regularly cleaned and controlled water supplies doing most of the work to prevent any re-occurrence of this form of disease.”
[57] Medieval diets 'far more healthy', BBC News
Their low-fat, vegetable-rich diet - washed down by weak ale - was far better for the heart than today's starchy, processed foods, one GP says.
And while they consumed more they burnt off calories in a workout of 12 hours' labour, Dr Roger Henderson concludes.
But the Shropshire GP accepts that life for even prosperous peasants was tough.
But after examining the available records, Dr Henderson suggests that medieval meals were perhaps even better than the much touted "Mediterranean" diet enjoyed by the Romans.
While this would have involved fish, fruit, whole grains and olive oil - as well as red wine - the rich often overindulged, while the poor may not always have been able to obtain them.
The average medieval peasant however would have eaten nearly two loaves of bread each day, and 8oz of meat or fish, the size of an average steak.
This would have been accompanied by liberal quantities of vegetables, including beans, turnips and parsnips, and washed down by three pints of ale.
Crucially, there was little refined sugar in their food, while modern eating habits are dominated by biscuits, cake and sweets.
"If you put this together with the incre
le work load, medieval man was at much less risk of coronary heart disease and diabetes than we are today," said Dr Henderson
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