Edit - History Stack Exchange

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

Rev

9

It absolutely answers the question. Note that referring to rainwater he says "such waters are naturally the best. But..." I think we can safely infer that water which is less good (ie not the best) also should be boiled.
– Adam Hyland
Commented Jun 10 at 16:42
4

On how people might have discovered this without germ theory: Many harmful contaminants are easily perceptible by sight, taste, or smell, and it’s easy to discover (by accident or guesswork) that filtering and boiling can perceptibly improve these. (Anyone who’s been wild-camping can confirm this.) It’s a natural guess (under most theories of the mechanism, or just as trial and error) then that the boiling will also improve water that’s bad in less-obvious ways.
– Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine
Commented Jun 11 at 11:57
6

In general, foul taste is associated with harmful effects, because our senses of taste and smell evolved to help us distinguish good foods from bad. So it was natural for them to associate the improved taste of purified water with health benfits.
– Barmar
Commented Jun 11 at 14:29
Neither filtering nor boiling will remove the salt from seawater. That Aristotle guy would have been a lot smarter if he'd just googled that.
– user121330
Commented Jun 12 at 16:41
There's definitely a lot Aristotle got wrong. Logic will only take you so far if you've built your case on bad premises.
– cmw
Commented Jun 12 at 17:04

| Show 1 more comment

Correct minor typos or mistakes
Clarify meaning without changing it
Add related resources or links
Always respect the author’s intent
Don’t use edits to reply to the author

create code fences with backticks ` or tildes ~
```
like so
```
add language identifier to highlight code
```python
def function(foo):
print(foo)
```
put returns between paragraphs
for linebreak add 2 spaces at end
_italic_ or **bold**
quote by placing > at start of line
to make links (use https whenever possible)
<https://example.com>
[example](https://example.com)
<a href="https://example.com">example</a>

formatting help »
answering help »