June 3 - Nineteenth-Century Health:
The Good Old Days Were Terrible-1

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Jer. 8:22, NASB.

C. P. Snow once wrote that "no one in his senses would choose to have been born in a previous age unless he could be certain that he would have been born into a prosperous family, that he would have enjoyed extremely good health, and that he could have accepted stoically the death of the majority of his children."

To put it bluntly the good old days weren't nearly as wonderful as nostalgia would make them. Average life expectancy at birth was 32 in 1800, 41 by 1850, 50, by 1900, and 67 by 1950. Currently life expectancy for women in the United States is about 80, even though it is somewhat lower for men.

Why the change? you might be thinking. The answer is fairly straightforward-better health habits, sanitation, and medical care.

The health habits of nearly everyone in the early nineteenth century left much to be desired. Not only did those with money gobble down large quantities of food at a rapid rate, but much of what they ate was unhealthful. Fruits and vegetables were largely avoided by many who believed that the deadly cholerepidemic of 1832 had been brought about by fruit. And many had suspicions that fruits and vegetables especially harmed children. The basic facts of nutrition were unknown. In addition, even good food was generally in poor condition because of unsanitary processing and lack of refrigeration.

Diet, of course, was merely a part of the personal health problem. Bathing habits, for example, also were unsatisfactory. Most people seldom took a bath, and some authorities claim that average Americans of the 1830s never took a bath during their entire life. Even as late as 1855 New York City had only 1,361 bathtubs for its 629,904 residents. And in 1882 only an estimated 2 percent of the homes in New York had water connections.

Advocacy of the Saturday night bath was no joke. In 1872 when Ellen White recommended that "persons in health" should "bathe as often as twice a week"(3T 70) she was on the cutting edge of an aspect of personal health care.

Most people today have no idea how unhealthy life was in the mid-nineteenth century. When we read the writings of Ellen White and other health reformers of her day, we need to evaluate them against the times of ignorance, sickness, and death in which they lived.

When it comes to health, we can praise the Lord that we live in a better day.