They were more than twice as likely to die of disease than in battle. Soldiers fought in muddy ditches and slept in filthy, garbage-filled camps. Then came the Civil War-a long, brutal struggle between the Northern and Southern parts of the U.S. A French scientist had come up with a way to make it more easily, with salt instead of ashes. By then, bath soap had become a lot cheaper. It wasn’t until nearly 100 years later, in the 1860s, that America started to get less grimy. (Famous athletes sometimes put this goopy mixture in jars and sold it to their fans.)
The Greeks and Romans coated their sweaty bodies with oil and sand, then scraped everything off with a curved metal tool. Many Native Americans made cleansers out of crushed-up plants. So how did people keep clean in ancient times if they didn’t use soap? Bathers in Japan soaked in rice water. They used it for pretty much everything except washing their bodies: scrubbing floors, doing laundry, cleaning tools, treating wounds, and even styling their hair. Not surprisingly, most ancient peoples didn’t bathe with it. Humans began making soap this way nearly 5,000 years ago. (Actually, it sounds pretty gross.) But when the two ingredients are boiled together, they create a slippery new material that can help pick up dirt and wash it away. You’re probably thinking: A mixture of fat and ashes? That doesn’t sound very clean.
