*Which *pre-modern ones, though? Because it’s been my experience that there’s a lot of ignorance about this particular aspect of history - for instance, the widespread idea that Medieval people didn’t bathe, or that Vikings were smelly & dirty - all *easily *overturned by contemporary accounts and physical evidence.
We like to think of the Romans as squeaky clean, but Roman bath houses might actually not have been all that hygienic. Bath water was changed only rarely, and the sick and the healthy would bathe together. Going to the baths might well have been a good way to pick up a disease, rather than avoiding one. And think about it: When visiting the latrines, would you really want to wipe your bottom with a communal sponge, the way the Romans apparently did? Personally, if I get access to a time machine and I’m allowed to choose one personal item to take with me, I’m bringing a pack of wet wipes. Maybe that’s just me, though.
BTW, on the subject of Romans and microbes, here’s a guy who was sort of on the right track: Marcus Terentius Varro. From De Re Rustica:
The Latin is “animalia quaedam minuta”. How did Varro know about tiny invisible creatures causing disease? Well, he almost certainly didn’t, as such, it’s not like he had a microscope. Was it some kind of lucky-ass guess? Probably. Did he take the idea any further? Nope, apparently there’s just that one quote.
I find this: MAKE Literary Productions, NFP | Review: Sin and Filth in Medieval Culture by Martha Bayless
Which reinforces stories I’ve heard about medieval times - for example, the denizens of Versailles regularly relieving themselves in the hallways; chamber pots emptied by tossing contents out the window; a story about a restoration-era wigmaker doing repairs on a noble’s wig, which had been regularly greased and powered - break it open to find it full of crawling “animaliculae”.
My point being, in a life where every use of water meant it had to be fetched from a well no matter what the weather, when running streams froze over, when water for baths had to be heated in a pot first, when central heating was scarce and so bathing in winter was not an enjoyable prospect, when laundry was a major chore and drying clothes afterwards could be worse depending on weather, when fresh fluffy clothes every day was not an option and clothing itself was very expensive, when cities were starting to aggregate to larger populations but still lacked the infrastructure for water and sewage - hygienic standards were not what they are today. The nobles may have had it fairly good at times, but the vast majority did not.
Europe had a bad experience with the “Black Death”, and, searching around for explanations, decided that exposure to things like public bathhouses was a bad idea. Bathing was seen as unhealthy until the society became rich enough to enjoy private bathing.
He was not the only one. Jain scriptures from nearly a millennium earlier claim the existence of very small unseen organisms floating in the air, which they called Nigoda. Later the Arab scientist Ibn Sina also postulated their existence.
My emphasis.
OK, I see the disconnect here - you literally have no idea what “medieval” actually means.