For a long time, scientists and doctors were clueless about germs. They were basically guessing when they came up with ”cures.”
For example, George Washington got sick with a sore throat and a fever on December 14, 1799. So his doctors did what they always did—they drained two quarts of blood from him and had him swallow potions. One was vinegar mixed with tea. These “remedies” probably helped kill him later that day.
Yet even back then, science was finding ways to beat germs. Today, the average person lives 40 years longer than the average person did in 1799.
