Hygiene Timeline

Prehistory - Surviving with experience

It is difficult to assess hygiene in these distant times but we can presume that everything was based on experience. Survivors drew conclusions that helped protect them and, presumably, knew not to eat everything that came into their hands - a kind of primitive form of food hygiene. As for other types of hygiene, they were to appear very much later.

Ancient times - Baths, ointments, voluptuousness

Bathing, water at controlled temperature, massages, fragrant ointments and finger bowls - for the Greeks and Romans, hygiene meant purification but also a voluptuous pastime. Body care was important in Antiquity and the Romans spent a lot of time in public baths, under the auspices of the goddess of health, Hygeia (from where the word "hygiene" derives). These customs stretched to the Far East, such as Turkish baths - combining religious purification rituals with pleasure and hygiene - that are still popular today.

Middle ages - Personal cleanliness, never mind about the street

The chamber pot, which first appeared with the Romans, was still widely used, sometimes even in public! Bathing was popular in towns, where personal hygiene was important. Public baths or steam rooms allowed people to meet and to relax in pleasant surroundings. In 1292, Paris had 25 such establishments for 250,000 inhabitants; baths and latrines, vestiges of the Roman presence, were fashionable throughout Europe. Later, they gradually became places where shady people met. Townsfolk wore fragrance, did their hair and had their laundry done. Hygiene was less apparent in the street however, since everything was thrown there! Sewage ran in channels down the middle of the road.

Renaissance - Bodies shielded beneath the grime

Hygiene took a step backwards, mainly because of a new perception of the body as taboo. Serious diseases such as syphilis appeared and spread unchecked without science being able to explain why. People believed that water made them ill by penetrating the body through the pores in the skin. With the plague decimating the West, it was thought that a layer of filth gave protection from illnesses. Personal hygiene had to be dry and towels were only used to rub the areas of the body that were visible! Clothes were seen as hygienic: the richer you were the more frequently you changed clothes. A white garment that had turned black was considered good, since it took away the dirt and meant there was no need to wash... These developments seemed to have occurred throughout the West. Paradoxically, water was used therapeutically with plants, either for bathing or as a decoction.
During the 18th century, toilets reappeared in homes, and laws were passed to curb the common practice of throwing excrement out of the window. Town dwellers were urged to dispose of their refuse in carts designed for the purpose. At the same time, chemistry progressed: in 1774, the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered chlorine. Scientists later found that, mixed with water, it can be used for bleaching (Claude Berthollet) and mixed with a sodium solution, for disinfecting (Antoine Labarraque). Bleach had arrived.

19th century - Urbanism and science at work

Hygiene is back on the agenda:
- Town planning and development meant that new buildings had to have septic tanks, with a drainage system to carry away wastewater to the sewers. Main drains were being built.
- Nitrogen-rich wastewater was spread as fertilizer, a process which also served to decontaminate the water (nitrification).
- While the British WC (water-closet) was being adopted all over Europe, the first exhibitions on hygiene were opening their doors.

Science was making great progress, with research and experiments like those of Louis Pasteur discarding old beliefs such as "spontaneous generation". The discovery of more and more bacteria and their key role in known infections highlighted the fact that it was possible for people to be protected against them.

Awareness of hygienic practices was beginning to emerge, such as washing hands and using soap and water daily. Congresses were organized, where doctors and politicians of the time strived to get the message across on an international scale. An essential objective was to defeat contagious disease e.g. plague, cholera, typhoid, typhus or yellow fever. Quarantines were introduced. Doctors and other influential people were monitoring people's behaviour as well as facilities such as markets, abattoirs and drainage, and putting forward ways of improving hygiene. In 1847, Ignac Semmelweiss realized that better hygiene could reduce mortality rates from postnatal puerperal fever , and the Scot Joseph Lister, inspired by the work of Pasteur, used antiseptic during surgery. Hygiene is seen to mean prevention - through cleanliness and vaccination.

20th century - The link between behaviour and hygiene

Following international conferences at the end of the 19th century, an international office for public hygiene is established in Paris in 1907. It was to become the WHO (World Health Organization) in 1946. - a cooperation to tackle infectious diseases.

The concept of hygiene was slowly becoming anchored in people's minds, particularly because of its introduction into schools. It then permeated throughout all sectors of society.

Change is slow for it is hard to combat habits and beliefs of what is considered clean or dirty.
Progress in biology has allowed us to understand the mechanics of contamination and infection. Although customs vary from country to country, hygiene is gaining ground everywhere. There is still progress to be made though, since washing hands after using the toilet is not always the norm... In addition, even if hygiene measures have curbed the incidence of terrible things such as syphilis, plague, cholera or tuberculosis, today we are experiencing a resurgence of old diseases including tuberculosis, and new ones like Aids.
Hygiene awareness and hygienic behaviour, whether renewed or in a new form, have still to be implemented in the 21st century.