Hygiene Throughout History

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In The History Of Hygiene Is Not Everything Clear

The history of personal hygiene - it is the history of different countries, peoples, ages, religions. It is a fascinating story of how under the influence of different climatic, biological, religious, medical factors changed the way people think about the care of their own bodies.
Ancient East.
Usually there are two main components of the sanitary traditions of the peoples and countries of the Ancient East: the use of incense, perfumes and procedures - ablutions with varying frequency and purpose. Jasmine water for washing, which was used Nefertiti, perfume "recipes" of the Old Testament, the smell of incense in the tomb of Tutankhamen, excavated in 1922 .
In ancient times, medicine and
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Instructs linen and clothes, a morning swim, skin care and nail, nail clippers and beard.
Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.
A characteristic feature of ancient Greek culture was a lot of attention to the human body, the Greeks gave the world physical culture and sports. In ancient Greece, there was even a separate cult of the goddess of health - Hygeia, taking into account that, as in many nations there was a cult of the god-healer - Asclepius.
Palestra and the gymnasium, where there were gymnastics, were usually on the banks of a stream or pond in order to accept water procedures. In daily use, used pouring, rubbing and massage. Theophrastus testified that the Greeks believed advantage to have white teeth and clean them often. Since ancient times, the Greeks not only swam in the sea and rivers, but also take a cold bath. Over time, spread hot tubs. Later in the Palestra, gymnasium and large houses in ancient Greece were terms - baths, which in the Hellenistic period enjoyed the entire population of the city. The Romans adopted the custom. With the development of cities in Greece appear first public sanitation facilities beyond the limits of personal hygiene: urban water supply and sewage removal, public
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Over the next nearly a thousand years in Europe there is extremely reduced hygiene practices and rules. And the common people very rarely cared about general hygiene, years do not take a bath. So it was in the VI century, it was in the XIII century, it was at the end of the XVIII century BC! "Happy is your nose, do not smell the smell of Germans", - said at the end of the V century BC Gallo-Roman aristocracy Sidonius Apollinaris. The French philosopher Montaigne (XVI century) stated the fact that his compatriots do not take a bath. In the middle of the XIX century, Balzac wrote about "a terrible stench and filth" of Parisian streets, homes and themselves Parisians. Nonetheless, the neglect of hygiene was not caused by unavailability of water or detergent. Developed soap production existed in Marseilles, in Venice, in the cities of Germany and England. Instead of soap people could use lye, pumice, barley leaven, bean flour and clay. European "hygienic decline" was due to the fact that under the new religious tradition, which spread in the European region, taking care of body called sinful. Over the centuries, the same religious position is determined medical and hygienic tradition, whose motto became Latin maxim «Saepe manus, raro pedes, nunquam caput» («Hands - often, legs - rare, head

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