Taking a Bath Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rome

The Romans were fanatical about bathing; many went to the baths every day. Rome was a very large city, even by modern standards; its population may have approached a million people at its height. That required a lot of baths. A document dating from 354 AD shows there were 952 public baths in the city.

The ruins of some of these magnificent baths can still be seen today. But these ancient baths may not have been very hygienic. Many ancient sources complain that the water wasn't changed often enough, and the large number of people at the baths may actually have helped spread disease.

Answer: Olive oil

After bathing, the Romans would go into a room something like a sauna to work up a sweat. Then they would be rubbed down with olive oil, which slaves would scrape off with an instrument called a "strigil." This would remove the dirt, and probably a little skin as well. The quality of the olive oil varied by what one could afford to pay; the olive oil might be reused several times. Doesn't sound like a procedure I'd like to undergo. Presumably they took a dip after the scraping to wash off any leftover oil.

Answer: The Celts

The ancient Babylonians and Egyptians knew what soap was, and so did the Romans. But the Romans regarded soap as a medicine or a kind of hair pomade. The first people to use soap on a widespread scale during bathing seem to be the Celtic tribes of ancient Gaul.

The Roman philosopher, Pliny the Elder, writing in the 1st century AD, refers to the use of soap by the Gauls and thought it effeminate. The Romans did start using soap eventually, but it took a while for the practice to catch on. Soap is made by treating plant or animal fats with lye obtained from wood ashes.

Answer: The Black Death

After the fall of the Roman Empire, many of the public baths fell into disrepair. But bath houses still remained in most major cities. There was some religious criticism of bathing, particularly mixed bathing among men and women, but the main reason bathing fell out of fashion seems to have been the Black Death.

The Black Death entered Europe in 1347, and may have killed as much as 50% of the population. No one knew the disease was spread by fleas from infected rats, but many other theories sprang up. One of the more popular was that it was caused by a "miasma," or bad air. Bathing was thought to open the body's pores and allow the miasma to enter the body more easily. No one wanted to catch the Black death by taking a bath, so bathing became less popular.

Answer: Once or twice a year

During the Dark Ages, and for many centuries afterwards, people bathed only once or twice a year. Interestingly, the lower classes seem to have bathed more often than their royal and noble overlords. It's not that people were altogether filthy; they washed their hands and faces often, and took what we might call "sponge baths," but immersing one's self in a tub was a rare event.

It is often said that King Louis XIV bathed only three times in his entire life (and he lived to be almost 77). This may or may not be true, but once when he was changing his socks, one of his toes fell off. Almost everyone was infested with lice, fleas and other vermin, even kings and queens.

The people must have smelled awful as well.

Answer: Beau Brummell

George Bryan "Beau" Brummell (1778 - 1840) was born into a middle class family, but became friends with the Prince of Wales (the future George IV) and soon set the standard for all matters of fashion in Regency England. He was said to spend five hours a day getting dressed.

Moreover, he took a bath every single day, and insisted in bathing in warm water. Since everyone followed Beau Brummell's example, many others of the upper classes began bathing regularly. But it would be another hundred years before indoor plumbing became commonplace in working class homes and the poor could begin to enjoy the luxury of daily bathing.

Answer: Hindi

The word shampoo is derived from a Hindi word, champo, which means to knead or massage. It did not take on its modern meaning until the middle of the 19th century.

One's hair is more difficult to clean than the skin because it contains natural oils that tend to cause dirt, skin flakes, pollutants, etc., to build up on the hair. Washing with ordinary soap strips the hair of too much of its natural oils and leaves it dry and unmanageable. Special soaps began to be made that contained herbs, perfumes and other additives designed to leave the hair shiny and smelling good. The first shampoos were in bar form like ordinary soap. Believe it or not, the first commercial liquid shampoo did not appear until 1927.

Modern shampoos often contain synthetic detergents and surfactants, as well as other chemicals designed for special purposes. One can buy extra gentle baby shampoo, anti-dandruff shampoo, shampoo for color-treated hair - the list goes on and on.

Answer: United States

Showers have been around since ancient times but really never caught on in a big way until the end of the 19th century. The earliest modern showers were often enclosed in a wooden cabinet. They became popular in athletic clubs as a quick way of washing down after exercise and eventually found their way into the homes of the wealthy. For some reason, Americans took to showers sooner than other nationalities.

By the the 1920s, many new homes were being built with showers as well as baths. Today most American homes have both a bathtub and a shower and some new homes are being built with showers only. Showers have some advantages over bathtubs: they take up less space, use less water, and it's easier to wash and rinse one's hair. However, sometimes it just feels good to lie in a tub of warm, sudsy water!

Answer: Falls

All of these are possible, of course, but the biggest risk is falling; even a large percentage of drowning deaths in the bathtub occur because of falls. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, over 235,000 people are seen each year in hospital emergency rooms because of falls in the bathroom and the great majority of the falls are related to bathing. Let's face it, bathtubs and showers are slippery places. You may also get water on your bathroom floor making it wet and slippery. Four times as many people are injured getting out of the bathtub as getting in it.

The very young and the very old are at the greatest risk, and, for some reason, women are 72% more likely to be injured from falling in the bathtub than men. Perhaps they just bathe more often.

Answer: No

While our ancestors may not have bathed often enough, modern humans may have erred in the opposite direction. Most dermatologists do not recommend bathing every day, since doing so strips essential oils and friendly bacteria from the skin. It can also aggravate many skin conditions, such as eczema.

A bath or shower every other day, or even twice a week, is sufficient to maintain good hygiene for most people. But habits are hard to break. The experts say that if you simply must bathe daily, you should use warm, not hot, water and a mild soap that contains a moisturizer and is not antibacterial.