woodbutchmaster
Veteran
Interesting .
I agree that there were a lot of causes of death in those times . One wonders how we managed to be here ?I think that there may be some discrepancies in the way they age skeletons . There was a dentist who seemed to have a method of looking at I think it was the roots of teeth which become transparent with age . It seemed to suggest that people lived longer than people thought .
When it comes to numbers of the population I think they must be missing lots of people out . There needs to be a certain amount of people around to keep trackways open .If there isn't constant traffic using these trackways they will soon become overgrown and ceased to be used . If there wasn't movement of people then diseases wouldn't have spread so rapidly and throughout the country .
There have been some very interesting finds amongst some skeletons especially on old battlefields. I can remember one programme which discovered a knight which had his lower jaw cut through by a weapon but which had healed . This was found to have been treated with honey as an antiseptic. I think they discovered that there were some written records for how to treat wounds in the past .
My mother who's maternal family were romany always used honey as a healing agent on anything from sunburn to grazed knees. Mind you she also used to spit on minor injuries . Not sure if that was contempt or meant to help healing process. One thing l am sure of is that she never read this : Indeed, medicinal importance of honey has been documented in the world's oldest medical literatures, and since the ancient times, it has been known to possess antimicrobial property as well as wound-healing activity. The healing property of honey is due to the fact that it offers antibacterial activity, maintains a moist wound condition, and its high viscosity helps to provide a protective barrier to prevent infection. Its immunomodulatory property is relevant to wound repair too. The antimicrobial activity in most honeys is due to the enzymatic production of hydrogen peroxide. However, another kind of honey, called non-peroxide honey (viz., manuka honey), displays significant antibacterial effects even when the hydrogen peroxide activity is blocked. Its mechanism may be related to the low pH level of honey and its high sugar content (high osmolarity) that is enough to hinder the growth of microbes. The medical grade honeys have potent in vitro bactericidal activity against antibiotic-resistant bacteria causing several life-threatening infections to humans. But, there is a large variation in the antimicrobial activity of some natural honeys, which is due to spatial and temporal variation in sources of nectar. Thus, identification and characterization of the active principle(s) may provide valuable information on the quality and possible therapeutic potential of honeys (against several health disorders of humans), and hence we discussed the medicinal property of honeys with emphasis on their antibacterial activities.
Make of that what you will !!
