By the Bronze Age, beginning around 5,000 years ago, washing had become very important. Ancient Egyptian priests were fastidiously clean, but arguably the greatest washers were the Harappan people living in the Indus Valley, in modernday south-east Asia.
Excavations of the earliest city states of the Indus basin dating from 3000 BC found drainage and toilet structures. Burying the dead can also be thought of as early human hygiene behaviour (although there were probably further reasons for all of these practices, other than just instinctive disease avoidance).
For centuries, the only easily available disinfectant for splashing around was vinegar. It was ordering, tidying, dusting, polishing, rooting out bad smells, scenting, weekly laundry of linens and washing of hands and face that maintained the wholesome house and person. Disguising muck was routine.
Three individuals, Ignaz Semmelweis, John Snow, and Thomas Crapper, are attributed for initiating our daily lifestyle practices of handwashing, drinking clean water and toilet flushing.
The oldest accountable daily ritual of bathing can be traced to the ancient Indians. They used elaborate practices for personal hygiene with three daily baths and washing. These are recorded in the works called grihya sutras which date back to 500 BCE and are in practice today in some communities.
Cleanliness now and then
In the 1700s, most people in the upper class seldom, if ever, bathed. They occasionally washed their faces and hands, and kept themselves “clean” by changing the white linens under their clothing.
The fundamental problem is that the area used for releasing urine and faeces is compressed between thighs and buttocks, so we are more likely than other animals to foul ourselves. We also differ from other animals in our response to our waste, which we tend to regard with disgust.
Wiping thoroughly and washing your hands after a bowel movement are the two most important ways to prevent odor and the spread of pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria. For people who have solid bowel movements, this will mean wiping with toilet tissue.
Humans have much less hair over their skin than most other mammals, and much of that hair is in places which they cannot reach with their own mouth. The presence of sweat glands all over the human body makes licking as a cooling method unnecessary.
In the homes of the wealthy they bathed in copper tubs lined with linen. The poorer if they had a wooden barrel would bathe in them. Earlier in the nineteenth century the hands, feet and face were regularly washed as in previous centuries, and the rest of your body every few weeks or longer.
Instead, they cleaned their bodies with blocks of clay, sand, pumice and ashes, then anointed themselves with oil, and scraped off the oil axnd dirt with a metal instrument known as a strigil. They also used oil with ashes.
Before soap, many people around the world used plain ol' water, with sand and mud as occasional exfoliants. Depending on where you lived and your financial status, you may have had access to different scented waters or oils that would be applied to your body and then wiped off to remove dirt and cover smell.
In fact, pigs are some of the cleanest animals around, refusing to excrete anywhere near their living or eating areas when given a choice.
Fearful cats arch their backs and hiss to scare away the threat. Surprised pets dart out of the room or take cover under the couch. More complex emotions, such as embarrassment, shame, jealousy, disappointment, and compassion, are a little tougher to figure out when it comes to pets.
When you lick your lips, you're coating them in saliva. Not only does it evaporate very quickly to leave lips drier than before, your saliva is also full of enzymes that are too harsh for the delicate lip skin. These enzymes can remain on the lips and cause them to feel dry and uncomfortable.
Not much is known about how cavemen wiped their butts. But it stands to reason early humans used whatever was on hand. Leaves, sticks, moss, sand and water were common choices, depending on early humans' environment. Once we developed agriculture, we had options like hay and corn husks.
When excavating settlements from this period, usually many traces of pits are found, but in most cases it is impossible to see what exactly they were used for, for storage, garbage or something else. Perhaps when nature called, people simply went into the bushes, at some distance from the settlement.
The International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders recommends washing rather than wiping when you have anal discomfort. If you're at home, you can: Wash in the shower with lukewarm water, especially if you have a handheld showerhead. Soak in a sitz bath of warm water for just a minute or two.
Failure to wipe correctly could leave you vulnerable to a urinary tract infection or aggravate any existing rectal issues, like hemorrhoids or anal fissures. That's why Health turned to a gynecologist, a medical doctor specializing in the female reproductive tract. They get asked about wiping quite often.
However, a small minority will experience a mild case of stomach upset due to bacteria contained within the feces, resulting in symptoms such as a decreased appetite, stomach pain, and eventual vomiting.
Before the availability of mass produced toilet paper in the mid-1800s, humans had to resort to using what was free and available, even if it didn't provide the most effective (or comfortable) results. Options included rocks, leaves, grass, moss, animal fur, corn cobs, coconut husks, sticks, sand, and sea shells.
1800s-1900s
They used woven fabric or flannel to make homemade cloths to use during their menstrual cycle. Soon, people started having concerns about possible bacteria growth (duh!) from these homemade cloths since they were reused between each cycle and cleaning may not have been adequate.
The idea that medieval people never bathed? Time to leave that myth in, well, the Dark Ages. Medieval folks loved a bath, though it was a little more work than it is today with the marvels of modern plumbing. Laborers, who made up most of the population, probably used ewers and shallow washbasins.
Many doctors say a daily shower is fine for most people. (More than that could start to cause skin problems.) But for many people, two to three times a week is enough and may be even better to maintain good health. It depends in part on your lifestyle.
The cleanest thing in the world is a special clean room, with only about 100 germ particles per cubic foot. Your room probably has more like 500,000 to 1 million particles per cubic foot. Scientists use clean rooms to study things without contamination from bacteria or viruses.