• @Badass_panda
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    131 year ago

    Fun fact… From the Roman era through the early modern era, the “four humors” theory of medicine led to an extraordinary focus on the quality, consistency and uh, frequency of feces in assessing people’s medical health – at least the people wealthy enough to have a doctor obsess over their poop.

    Now, here’s where it gets funny. Doctors were not generally nobility, or highly trusted … What if they deliberately treated the king poorly? Best to have an impartial observer, someone you really trusted, who could describe your poop to multiple doctors (so as to get a second opinion) and be trusted not to discuss your poop willy nilly (can’t have spurious rumors about the king’s health).

    Hence the introduction of a new title, the Groom of the Stool, whose job it was to… Well, to look at the king’s poop, and be present while the aforementioned poop was pooped to verify the uh, chain of custody.

    For hundreds of years, it was one of the most powerful positions at court, and formed the seed of what would later become the “privy counsel”. The Victorians gradually phased it out (because they were less enthusiastic about poop than their predecessors).

    Anyway I guess this picture made me think of three people sitting around watching each other poop, so … Now you know about that, I guess

    • @[email protected]OP
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      1 year ago

      A great history lesson! :D

      To add something to your wonderful story: In Germany many toilets had (maybe still have?) a poop shelf, for similar reasons, as far as I know. I haven’t seen them in ages, but I remember them when I was little.

      • @Badass_panda
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        21 year ago

        I heard about the mystical poop shelf, and was … Excited? Interested? To see it when I visited Germany for the first time a few years ago. Nary a poop shelf in sight, I felt cheated

    • @ickplant
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      21 year ago

      This is the best comment, thank you for the education.

    • @c2h6
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      21 year ago

      It’s just one square!

        • @c2h6
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          11 year ago

          I don’t have it.

  • @c2h6
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    81 year ago

    Atten…shun!

    Fall in!

    Remove… Pants!

    Sit!

    One, two, squeeze!

  • s6original
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    1 year ago

    Looks like they could trade one of those pizzas.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      91 year ago

      I found this in a small town in Germany, it was the public toilet of an event location, I think it was an old building. When the owner saw my irritated face he said: “Yeah, I know, we need to do something about this…”

  • Zerlyna
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    31 year ago

    Nope nope nope.