Poo sticks on the Silk Road

[Duncan Head]

Remember we had a thread about Roman lavatory sponge-sticks (http://soa.org.uk/sm/index.php?topic=1403.0)? Well, meanwhile far across the continent...

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jul/22/ancient-bottom-wipers-yield-evidence-of-diseases-silk-road-chinese-liver-fluke

[Imperial Dave]

For a moment I thought that AA Milne had been travelling whilst writing!

Interesting article which confirms suspicions but as it says nice to have some proof

[Patrick Waterson]

It looks as if they are getting to the bottom of disease transmission from east to west.

[Imperial Dave]

(groans)

[Tim]

I am afraid to open the link for fear of what sort of crappy article I might find...

[Justin Swanton]

I'm hoping it written in clean English and not the verbal diarrhoea so many of these articles contain....

(BTW I spelled 'diarrhoea' without looking it up  )

[Imperial Dave]

what a cesspit of opinions!

[Patrick Waterson]

 

Coprology has become a highly respected academic field, so in future we can expect cesspits of opinions to be replaced by opinions on cesspits, which some might consider a definite advance.

Meanwhile we might note that the oriental method does keep the fingers clean.  This was presumably an important consideration in cross-desert trips when water availability, especially for washing, was at a premium.

That said, a really frugal expedition would have used the day's output of used cloth sticks to help fuel the campfire.  This find may have been an unusually lucky one resulting from exceptional circumstances.