On 01/08/2013 13:38, Chris Dickinson wrote: > Martin Brown wrote: > > >> I have a few like this in a family of brewers - who perhaps lived longer >> because they *didn't* drink the water! It has to be partly genetic since >> it seems to be that extreme longevity runs in families. > > > Though you could also argue that a family of brewers was likely to live in a place that had access to clean water. > > > <snip> >> ISTR they had a daily beer allowance of 12 pints for hot working >> at the furnace hearth (OK it was watery beer). > > > We should really, as genealogists and historians, be more aware that a large proportion of our ancestors were probably pissed or stoned most of the time. > > The beer they drank was small beer, about 1%ABV, just enough to kill the germs. Modern beers are in the 3.5% to 6% range. -- Graeme Wall This account not read, substitute trains for rail. Railway Miscellany at <http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail>