Even after the hardships of the war years, peacetime life is not easy. Food spoils quickly. The only refrigeration comes from springhouses, small buildings cooled by underground springs of water. Doctors know little about the causes of illness. The treatment for fevers, coughs or other ailments is bloodletting: A doctor will drain up to a pint of blood from a person who is ill. It will be many years before physicians will discover that bloodletting does no good and often harms a patient.