How did humans live before the era of medicine? How come they didn't die out?
Sick and not very long, bottom line.
History shows us humans have been perilously close to dying out. We seem to make enough of us to squeak through the challenges we have faced so far.
Because they were exposed to many more things and they developed antibodies for them. We are so "clean" we don't develop our immune systems.
because most of them died at a young age
Dear Pea Nuts,
The article Rooster Cogburn has found is very good, things I learned from my mother, an RN trained in 1930. The infant/childhood mortality was very high; not uncommon for families to have 3- 4- or 5 children, and maybe raise only one. Mothers and fathers endured broken hearts.
Also, the twentieth century saw women living longer for the first time; they died from childbirth. Now, infant mortality and child-bearing are so much improved.
It's called evolution
