Hygiene in the 18th century

Bathing
-Just about no one took baths in the 18th century
-People believed that fully immersing yourself in water would let disease in your body
- Even if you were to take a bath you would not even consider taking your clothes off

Dentistry
-Rotten teeth were a very common thing from upper classes to lower classes because of high sugar diets and nothing to do about it
-While wealthy people could afford an official dentist lower classes normally had makeshift dentists which would normally be a blacksmith or somthing else
-The 18th century was a very monumental century for dentistry because the crown, filling, false teeth, and many more ideas were first used in the 18th century

Deodorants/Perfumes
-Deodorant was first invented in the 9th century but did not catch on until the late 19th century so it was not used in colonial times
-Instead of deodorant (because there really wasn't one) the rich would just cover themselves in perfume
-While the poor were just fine with smelling horrible

Using the bathroom
-houses normally smelled of urine and poop because one there was no plumbing and two was because it was normally right outside the window
-the pot in the back was what most people used until outhouses were made but these were sometimes still used
-to wipe most people would use a rag, leaf, or their hand
-Wealthy people would normally use linen

Surgery
-most people in the upper class would get their surgery's done at home because of comfort and a less likely chance of infection
-when at a hospital it was very likely to get an infection because of lack of room and not being clean
-when studying surgerys people would go to an operating theater and watch the surgery
-in many cases surgery was very painful and unreasonable compared to today
-Back then pain medication would have been wiskey

Mercury
-with so much lice everywhere people needed a way to get rid of their lice so they would pour mercury on their heads and rub it everywhere on their body to get rid of it
-because of this fad many people died

My reaction
I always thought that it would be fun to live during the colonial times because it seemed life was simpler and everything just seemed better back then but after learning about all their hygiene "ways" I feel like everything is sugar coated in the history books. They never say anything about people pouring mercury all over themselves just to get rid of lice for a week and then die, or how people would just throw their poop out of the window after they are done with their business. I also don't think I could live without taking a bath or shower for more than a week, or never brushing your teeth. So I guess I'm better off living in the 21st century...The End!

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