Sheldon Watts

“...those who live in the West or in middle-class urban enclaves in the Non-west […] have to make a determined effort to grasp the grimness of past reality for most of humankind. In non-privileged, non-modern societies, most people in times past were malnourished, inadequately clothed against the elements, unwashed and filthy, living with insect parasites in overcrowded hovels. […] In these circumstances, “ill-health” […] very often simply meant that one was too incapacitated to carry on working in the fields or in the shop. It did not mean that one woke up feeling slightly off-color […] in the world we have lost, feeling somewhat off-color (or worse) was the standard condition.”
― Sheldon Watts, Disease and Medicine in World History