Victorian Era
Okay, I'll post something. I'm reading this book called "Ghost Map" about the cholera epidemic in London in 1854. Cholera is a disease spread by drinking contaminated water, and in introducing the disease, the author mentions that the drinking of tea--which requires the boiling of water--actually significantly cut the incidence of some water-borne diseases when it became a tradition in England. Alcohol also kills bacteria, which is why the drinking of beer and wine became so common in places where large concentrations of people gathered together. Not that people understood that that's what was happening, but he surmises that people with a genetic or cultural predisposition to drink alcohol were more prone to live longer and have more children than people who didn't drink, so the customs grew.
Just in case you're writing an old-timey world and wondering about why people drink boiled drinks and alcohol, or thinking about the evolution of drinks in heavily populated areas. It's a fascinating book, by the way. I recommend it even if you're not writing in a Victorian-era world.
Just in case you're writing an old-timey world and wondering about why people drink boiled drinks and alcohol, or thinking about the evolution of drinks in heavily populated areas. It's a fascinating book, by the way. I recommend it even if you're not writing in a Victorian-era world.