I still like to know the historical evidence of them in past putting wine in water to make it safe to drink
I'd like to know if that would even work.
Does adding an ounce of wine to 10 ounces of contaminated water make it safe to drink?
I'm sorry, but that sounds stupid to me.
I'm not gonna try it.
I was going to comment about this earlier today when I read it but I was at work and didn't have the time.
I doubt that adding such a small amount of ethanol would have any anti-bacterial action. The alcohol and the other products in the wine would more than likely feed the bacteria and make the problem worse than it was before.
If possible, boiling the water would be better and likely 100% effective. If possible the collection of clean rain water would be a better option.
In a survival situation and the possibility of the water being infected with something like cholera and if I couldn't boil the water or collect rain water then I would just drink the wine until I could establish a safe supply of drinking water. Being intoxicated would be better than having a severe bacterial infection and feeling very ill along with fluid and body salt losing diarrhoea.