First Aid in the Roman Army

[Caratacus]

Someone mentioned the use of honey to sterilise wounds. When you think about it, this is quite logical. Bacteria cannot survive in high concentrations of dissolved solutes. In honey this would be sugar (although salt would work just as well). Do we not preserve fruits by boiling them in sugar, when jam is made? We also preserve vegetables or meat in salt. I think I read somewhere that this is due to the phenomenon of osmosis - as the solution outside the cell is much stronger than that inside the cell membrane, so water passes from inside the cell to the outside, which results in the bacterium shrivelling up and dying. Well, that's my story anyway. It's the sort of simple observation that people could have made, even if they don't know about the reason behind why it works.

Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)