This was the grim reality for most of the world's population until not too long ago. We like to romanticize these bygone days as being "simpler times" the "good old days", but the truth was that there was massive suffering on a daily basis. People, especially children, were disposable. Regulatory bodies for safety and well being did not exsist as we know them today. Add that with the lack of modern medicine and the general lack of knowledge on harmful substances and you end up with a world that would be downright terrifying to anyone from a developed nation today.

I love history and consider myself to be a fairly rational person, but I still find myself fantasizing about being a long hunter like Daniel Boone...until I think about all the times I would have died simply because I couldn't run to cvs and pick up some amoxicillin.