Posted on 08/20/2005 9:03:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Found the above Googling, though I can't speak for its authenticity. I sometimes wonder about old life expectancy averages since there are some well known folks from those days who lived fairly long, Titian, Leonardo and Rembrandt among them.
Kind Sir, I truly believe that the Tankards need to commence
in anticipation of the mutton.
Sheesh... Didn't anyone read TFA? This was a group of archiologists/historians whatever, that left the comforts of their modern offices or classrooms, to get a real feel for life in the 17th century.
To learn and understand from a whole different perspective.
I find it interesting.
That book also notes that much of the "odd histories" of nursery rhymes stem from a single book written by what would have been called a tinfoil hat guy today, except it was a woman, IIRC some time in the late 19th century. She found arcane meanings, like King Charles's head, everywhere.
There have been many shows on the Discovery and History channels, that say there was indeed cancer found in Egyptian mummies and GOOGLE lists more than a dozen pages of studies, some of which agree with your position, most of which agrees with mine, done by Eygptologist medical researchers.
Food was cooked over a hearth, in those days. You just kept the embers raked, every now and again, and whatever you were cooking, cooked slowly.
Death from falls from horse back were common but at least the victims weren't turned into the pink pulp which an auto or motorcycle accident can cause and probably didn't number in the tens of thousands (I read once that one in four Frenchmen die in auto accidents - if you've ever driven in France you'll believe it).
On the other hand, ailments which we can now survive with anti-biotics such as infections and pneumonia, or which are rare because of much improved public hygiene such as typhoid and cholera did make survival much past "three score and ten" the exception. Now it's practically the rule.
One real misery I would also not try to experience is an intractable dental problem. A feller with a toothache isn't altogether pleasant to be around. "What cannot be cured must be endured" has a whole new meaning when there isn't any aspirin.
Which would explain the popularity of laudanum.
But didn't people have the trick of boiling up and decocting extract of willow-bark (genus Salix) for its salicylates?
Keep posting all the old time pain remedies and the libertarian Freepers will start to take notes. Our ancestors were a helluva lot smarter (and higher) than they're generally given credit for.
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