Q 01/05

The word 'hygiene' derives from which Greek goddess, the personification of health?

A) Hygieia

B) Panacea

C) Hestia

D) Athena

Answer · why

A) Hygieia

She was a daughter of Asclepius, the god of medicine; the word entered English in 1676 via French.

Q 02/05

The World Health Organization recommends scrubbing your hands with soap for at least how long?

A) 10 seconds

B) 20 seconds

C) 45 seconds

D) 60 seconds

Answer · why

B) 20 seconds

The CDC says the same, and adds that water temperature makes no difference; the friction is what removes germs.

Q 03/05

Which Hungarian 'saviour of mothers' introduced hand disinfection in Vienna's obstetric clinics in 1847?

A) Joseph Lister

B) Robert Koch

C) Ignaz Semmelweis

D) Rudolf Virchow

Answer · why

C) Ignaz Semmelweis

He could not explain why it cut deaths from childbed fever, and colleagues mocked him for suggesting doctors' hands were unclean.

Q 04/05

Evidence of soap-like materials being made dates back to around 2800 BC in which ancient civilisation?

A) Egypt

B) The Indus Valley

C) Minoan Crete

D) Babylon

Answer · why

D) Babylon

Modern soap is made by saponification: fats or oils reacting with an alkali such as lye, which frees glycerin as a by-product.

Q 05/05

The first modern-style toothbrush, from Tang-dynasty China, used which animal's bristles?

A) Horse

B) Badger

C) Goat

D) Hog

Answer · why

D) Hog

Bristles came from hogs in Siberia and northern China because cold weather made them firmer; handles were bamboo or bone.