re: #57 wheat-dogg, raker of forests, master of steam

Likewise, they were slow in adopting the habit of *washing their hands* before delivering babies or conducting surgeries, thereby carelessly infecting their patients with dog-knows-what the doc had last put his hands into. Many mothers died of infection soon after giving birth, because their attending physician (or nurse or midwife) had failed to wash up first.

This is where Jewish doctors first got their reputation, why even today people who wouldn’t want Jews at their club and wouldn’t want their daughter to marry one will still prefer to have a Jewish doctor.

Because part of our religious/cultural practice is LOTS of hand washing. (last thing before you go to bed, and first thing when you get up. Before and after cooking or eating, before and after touching bodily orifices or open wounds or anything that might have any bodily fluids on it. And just for the heck of it before most prayers.)

Kosher practices are also why we got accused of poisoning wells during the plague years — our part of town had less of it than the neighborhood down the road, because pre-Passover home preparation rituals results in a house than mice and rats will avoid.