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Excreting
Illustration by Jack Keely of the colon and
rectum from Grossology
Here is an example of the colorful and
informative descriptions found in Grossology:
The Science of Really Gross Things by Sylvia Branzei
and published by Addison Wesley.
The putty-like waste you deposit contains undigested
food mateials from the previous day, water, salts, skin
cells, little living creatures called bacteria, bacteria
wastes and coloring or pigment.
Plant fibers in vegetables will end
up in the toilet. Your body takes out the nutrients from
the vegetables when the food passes through your gut tube,
the small intestine. The stuff your body can't use pushes
on to the large intestine, another wider tube, then out
of your body.
Bacteria make up about half of the
material in human feces. Billions of these tiny creatures
live in the part of your intestine called the colon. They
gobble up bits of remaining food. In doing so, they create
gases and the chemicals "indole" and "skatole."
These chemicals help create the familiar "dookie"
smell that attracts flies and curious dogs.
The gases created by bacteria build
up and are released as farts (flatulence). Farting and pooping
often go together. As the undigested stuff passes through
the coon, the "pre-caca" clumps together. The
globs of "poop" (fecal material) are separated
by space that can fill with gas. If it doesn't escape ahead
of time, the gas exits with the poop. So you can toot when
you poop.
Learn
more about flatulence at this site full of links, explanations
in the form of Q &A.
The color of "poo" comes
from a substance in bile. Bile is yellow, olive-green or
brownish. The bile pigment results from the breakdown of
old red blood cells. Bacteria in the coon decompose the
bile pigments to create a brown color.
Here
is the "poop" thesaurus for an extensive list
of words relating to feces and defacating.
Learn
more about feces and defacating in this website dedicated
to the subject.
Caganer (Defecater)
A Caganer is a little statue unique to
Catalonia, and neighbouring areas with Catalan culture such
as Andorra.
In Catalonia, as in most of Spain, the
traditional Christmas decoration is a large model of the
city of Bethlehem, similar to American Nativity scenes that
encompasses the entire city rather than just the typical
manger scene. The Catalans have added an extra character
that is not found in the manger scenes of any other culture.
In addition to Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Shepherds and company,
Catalans have the character known as the Caganer. This extra
little character is often tucked away in some corner of
the model, typically nowhere near the manger scene, where
he is not easily noticed. There is a good reason for his
obscure position in the display, for "caganer"
translates from Catalan to English as "defecator",
and that is exactly what this little statue is doing —
defecating.
The reasons for placing a man who is in
the act of excreting solid waste from his posterior in a
scene which is widely considered holy are as follows:
--Just tradition.
--Scatological humor.
--Finding the Caganer is a fun game, especially for children.
--The Caganer, by creating feces, is fertilizing the Earth.
However, this is probably an a posteriori explanation, and
nobody would say they put the Caganer on the Nativity scene
for this reason.
The exact origin of the Caganer is lost,
but the tradition has existed since the 18th century. Originally,
the Caganer was portrayed as a Catalan peasant wearing a
traditional hat called a barretina — a red stocking
hat with a black band.
Clockwise from upper right: traditional red knit capped
"caganer;" shopping for "caganer" for
the holidays in Barcelona; another holiday display; Association
of Friends of the Caganer (tradition).
Old couple "caganers" from Murcia,
Spain
A defecating gentleman clay coin bank,
origin unknown.
Learn
more about "caganer" traditions here.
Read
about the tradition transplanted to Belgium
Urine
Image credits: bladder
diagram; Brussels'
"Manneken Pis"; human
fluids chart
Urine
is liquid produced by an animal's or human's kidney, collected
in the bladder and excreted through the urethra. Urine is
used to extract excess minerals or vitamins as well as corpuscles
from the body. A range of other substances, including alcohol
and artificial sweeteners, are also extracted through the
bladder.
Healthy urine is a clear aqueous solution,
varying in colour from dark yellow to colourless, depending
on the dilution. The main constituent besides water is urea;
urochrome is the pigment that gives urine its color. Urea
is one of the three nitrogenous waste products. The other
two are creatinine and uric acid. Urine also contains various
inorganic ions, including sodium and chloride. Lighter urine
indicates higher water consumption.
Hortus sanitatis (Mainz: Jacob Meydenbach, 23 June 1491)
image
source
The Hortus santitatis [Garden of Health] was a popular compendium
of plant and herb lore during the Middle Ages. This is the
first Latin edition, and twenty others were printed in Latin
before 1547 attesting to its popularity. In addition to
botanical information, it contains tracts on fish, birds,
and other animals; mining and gemstones; and a work on the
analysis of urine. Purchased for the Boston Medical Library,
1934
Series of Flagons for Urine Analysis, from "Tractatus
De Pestilencia" by M. Albik, date unknown
Depiction of urine examination, Seventeenth Century. Print,
"Le Medecin Empyrique," by David Teniers, II,
1610-1690, NLM collection; image
source
Seventeenth century medical researchers
used analyzed samples of body fluids to understand ill patients.
As a replacement for the works of the ancients, Paracelsus
and his followers consciously sought a new world system
based upon the macrocosm-microcosm analogy. Chemistry was
to be a key to this new philosophy which man was to uncover
through new observations and the search for the divine signatures.
Learn
more about the medical chemistry of the Paracelsians here.
Sign encouraging men to sit while urinating, to save soiling
toilet rim?
Image source unknown
When a Woman has Said "Put The Lid Down"
One Too Many Times (image
credit)
The Pisser (1887), by James Ensor image
source
(read more about this artwork)
"Piss
- Hergetova cihelna" 2004 - prague - kampa
Two bronze sculptures pee into their oddly-shaped
enclosure. While they are peeing, the two figures move realistically.
An electric mechanism driven by a couple of microproccesors
swivels the upper part of the body, while the penis goes
up and down. The stream of water writes quotes from famous
Prague residents. Visitors can interupt them by sending
SMS message from mobile phone to a number, displayed next
to the sculptures. The living statue then ‘writes’
the text of the message, before carrying on as before.
More
about this unusual fountain in the Czech Republic including
several videos showing how it operates.
Toilet History
Toilets from left to right: 1920's
Canadian child's potty; toilet
costume, USA 21st century;
Claes
Oldenberg soft sculpture toilet
A toilet is a plumbing fixture and a disposal
system primarily intended for the disposal of the bodily
wastes; urine, fecal matter, vomit and menses. Toilets additionally
accept a paper product known as toilet paper.
The word toilet can be used to refer to
the fixture itself or the room containing it; the latter
predominates mainly in British and Commonwealth usage. In
North American English the word toilet refers solely to
the fixture itself and not to the room that contains it,
thus asking for the "toilet" would seem indecent.
Instead, the terms bathroom, rest room, washroom or men's
room/ladies room are preferred.
Toilets appeared as early as the year 2500
BCE. The people of Harappa in Pakistan had water borne toilets
in each house that were linked with drains covered with
burnt clay bricks. There were also toilets in ancient Egypt,
Persia and China.
Roman
toilet at Ostia
In Roman civilization, toilets were sometimes
part of public bath houses where men and women were together
in mixed company. Toilets can be connected unto a septic
tank and/or a city sewer depending upon the nature of your
residence.
Read
more about toilets and toilet history here.
Most humans until recent times and still
in many parts of the world relieve themselves without the
privacy of a toilet room. As public toilets become more
available, anti-defecation signs are posted to encourage
people to use them. Image
credit
Jennings "water closet" circa 1900 (working model)
There was a noble origin to the water
closet in its earliest days. Sir John Harrington, godson
to Queen Elizabeth I, set about making a "necessary"
for his godmother and himself in 1596. A rather accomplished
inventor, Harrington ended his career with this invention,
for he was ridiculed by his peers for this absurd device.
He never built another one, though he and his godmother
both used theirs.
Two hundred years passed before another
tinker, Alexander Cummings, would reinvent Harrington's
water closet. Cummings invented the S-trap, a sliding valve
between the bowl and the trap. It was the first of its kind.
However, it didn't take long for others
to follow Cummings lead. Two years later in 1777, Samuel
Prosser applied for and received a patent for a plunger
closet. On his heels came Joseph Bramah, only one year later.
His closet had a valve at the bottom of the bowl that worked
on a hinge---a predecessor to the modern ballcock. Himself
a bit of a sailor, Bramah's closet was used extensively
on ships and boats of the era.
The master toilet maker among the Englishmen
would emerge in the next decade. Thomas Twyford revolutionized
the water closet business in 1885 when he built the first
trapless toilet in a one-piece, all china design. A preeminent
potter, Twyford competed against other notable companies
in the pottery plumbing business including Wedgwood and
Doulton.
Twyford's design was unique in that it was of china, rather
than the more common metal and wood contraptions. The internal
workings of his water closet were the work of one of the
first pioneers of the "sanitary science." J. G.
Jennings patented a washout closet in 1852. This unit had
a shallow basin with a dished tray and water seal. The flush
water drove the contents into the pan and then through the
S-trap. It was a design the Twyford would refine and promote
for the rest of the decade.
Read more about the origin of the modern toilet here.
Illustrated
History of Public Toilets here.
Humor
"Geek" toilet (image
source)
"Did you hear that someone broke
into our local police station and stole the toilet?
Right now the cops have nothing to go on....."
- from Duncan Prahl, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
More
plumbing/toilet related jokes.
Illustrated
history of toilet paper.
Grossology
exhibit at Fernbank Museum of Natural History
Image credits (from left): Digestive
System path; Vesalius
anatomy lesson;
woman with her alimentary canal ; The
Food Museum collection;
The Quest to Digest
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