Traditional Disease Prevention (Antebellum America)

Let this set the tone of the thread: The southern belle would recline in worry in her chateau waiting for her husband to return

When yellow fever ravaged America, they tried many things to help ward off evil. People burned tar outside their doors. They lit bonfires on the streets. And many guns and cannons were being fired day and night. These things were believed to have warded the noxious air (coming from organic matter), which were the causes of disease and illness. There were also people who would cover their faces with handkerchiefs soaked in vinegar and camphor to help prevent the inhalation of noxious airs.

Today doctors and governmental institutions recommend hand-washing and not touching your face. Which is surely effective.


However, I write this because many people still believe this, to this day, especially on this forum. I thought you would enjoy this historical tidbit.

During these times, workers rode down streets with the expectation to collect dead bodies. Bodies were collected from homes wheeled off to be buried. A writer wrote that there was great panic that not enough coffins could be made and not enough bodies could be buried. Another writer noted that due to the lack of space, where were over a hundred exposed coffins, piled up in stacks of ten or twelve, some split open for their contents to be exposed. Many people fled to the country side to escape from the city.

These truly were dark times.

Bunraku said:

When yellow fever ravaged America, they tried many things to help ward off evil. People burned tar outside their doors. They lit bonfires on the streets. And many guns and cannons were being fired day and night. These things were believed to have warded the noxious air (coming from organic matter), which were the causes of disease and illness. There were also people who would cover their faces with handkerchiefs soaked in vinegar and camphor to help prevent the inhalation of noxious airs.

Today doctors and governmental institutions recommend hand-washing and not touching your face. Which is surely effective.

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And in the future, "wash your hands and don't touch your face" might sound as superstitious as burning tar and bonfires.

In fact, bonfires and burning tar do a little bit to repel mosquitos, which are the real vectors for yellow fever. Vinegar and camphor are also mosquito repellants. It's not really a baseless superstition.

Similarly, we know that a virus causes this disease, and we know that handwashing does something to prevent the spread of viruses. But it's not 100% effective. Just like bonfires and burning tar weren't 100% effective against mosquito-borne disease.