eli5: When people used wells for drinking water, how did they not get sick? Was there some type of filter or was the water just naturally clean?
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People absolutely did get sick. A huge cholera outbreak in London was caused by cesspits being too close to wells. This actually clued Dr. John Snow (yes, really) in to how cholera spread, which was unknown at the time. The story about his work is very interesting. There are tons of articles and videos about it, so I picked one: https://youtu.be/mP4bCHf8DDQ
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