Weird Histories 8 | Bum Wiping and other Toilet Practices

Introduction

The rise of superbugs, presence of MRSA and E Coli and our knowledge of it gave adults a timely reminder of the importance of toilet hygiene and hand washing. Children aren’t interested in such matters and concerned adults usually resort to nagging their children to “wash your hands!” This article suggests that you don’t nag children but you teach them lessons from history instead. Let children see for themselves the importance of and cleverness of personal hygiene by relating stories about people from history who didn’t enjoy our modern facilities or knowledge.

Weird Histories – Number 8: A History of Bum Wiping, Hand Washing and Toilet Behaviour from Ancient to Modern Times

Our Ancestors on the Toilet

Let’s face it most of us aren’t and most of our ancestors weren’t rich. Not for us and them the luxuries of specially constructed toilets, squatting areas, wiping and washing materials. For us it was the river or a communal pit we used as a toilet and this would have been the case in ancient, medieval and modern times – right up until the end of the nineteenth century in rural parts, in most parts of north America and Europe.

Our Ancestors’ Toilet Paper

What toilet paper?! Us lot, the average people, didn’t have toilet paper right up until the 1920s. Perforated toilet paper on a roll wasn’t invented until the 1890s and it was nothing like the soft, aloe vera infused, absorbent tissue we prefer today – the first types of toilet paper actually contained splinters. Imagine that! Ouch! So what did we do before toilet paper? Well that depended on where you lived.

We thought we’d find that our ancestors used leaves and moss – and some indeed did – but others used materials we simply did not expect. Corncobs and maize husks and shells were among these. Ancient Greeks used stones. Ancient Romans went for a piece of sponge. (In their public toilets – see Weird History 1 – they used a piece of sponge attached to a stick – after use the sponge was put into a bucket of salted water – ready for the next person – YUK!). In later times, thanks to the invention of the printing press (1500ish) and newspapers (from 1600s but loads after about 1820) we used old newspapers and magazines. At least one magazine the Farmer’s Almanac (published in the USA) had a hole in its centre so you could attach it to a hook near your loo.

Our Ancestors’ Toilets

There were some public toilets. The Romans had more public toilets per head than many modern cities do nowadays. They made money charging entry and – not only that - they made a profit from the contents of their latrines by selling urine to tanners – as urine was/is used in the process of making leather from animal hides.

In medieval Europe town dwellers used “pysse pots” (pronounced peas) – the predecessor ofpotties. They emptied the contents of these onto the midden nearest their house. In London, one of these middens took several men, three weeks to move a mountainous midden! (YUK)

Our Posh Ancestors’ Toilet Paper and Toilets

Rich people normally get material luxuries before anyone else and toilet paper was no exception. Some rich people in China already had toilet paper by the 6th century AD (lucky them). In Medieval Europe rich people would use wool and hemp on their more precious bums. Castle dwellers had special rooms built on to the side of their castles called “garder-robes” for their toilets. No more than stone seats with a hole directly over the castle moat but when it was discovered that moths were put off going into these – they started to store their clothes in them too. So, it could and should be argued, rich people ponged like dung in the Middle Ages! Strange to think that the thing we call our “wardrobe” was once a toilet.

Henry VIII had The Great Room of Easement”. A toilet for groups of 28 at one time to sit down together, socialise and toilet (weird eh?) built at Hampton Court Palace for exclusive use of his couriers. King Henry himself preferred to use his own private Close Stool – a combination of a Commode and a throne. He didn’t have a bidet but his Groom of the Stool was always there with a hand to wipe, wash and dry the Royal bum.

The Wipe or Wash Debate

While some of our posh ancestors took the option to wipe their bottoms at the end of their toilet visit others saw no alternative to washing with water. An Arab businessman, visiting China a 1,000 years ago, would have been appalled by the use of toilet paper in preference to washing! Still in Europe opinion is still split but continental Europe see bidets as essential in bathrooms whereas UK citizens largely do not. Indeed we came across several UK citizens who used bidets to wash their feet.

The History of Washing Your Hands

Although it seems obvious to us nowadays that washing your hands regularly and always after you’ve been to the toilet prevents the spread of illness and disease this is quite a modern development! Nobody bothered washing their hands in Victorian times.

Take the daily life of a typical housemaid in Victorian London. She’d work hard all day from dawn to dusk. She’d wash clothes, clean hearths, polish silver, prepare food, clean out the commodes and use one herself but never wash her hands in between any of chores and ablutions. Not only was she unimaginably busy she also spread a unimaginable amount of germs and ensured all sorts of cross contamination. Imagine, she empties the commodes and then slices the cold meat for lunch… YUK!

Further Activities

1) Go camping in your garden and dig a pit to use as a toilet. Have the children gather suitable leaves and other natural materials to use as toilet paper. You could also set them to work cutting up your daily newspaper into squares for the same use.

TIP: You don’t have to use the constructed facilities – just threatening it is sufficient in most cases to make a memorable history lesson

2) Read more about the history of toilets and toilet paper online.

3) If at all possible visit Hampton Court Palace and take a look at the Close Stool where once the great king of England sat and pooed, attended by his own personal bum wiper.