If it weren’t for the Chinese, it wouldn’t be hanging in our bathrooms. A brief history of toilet paper

Toilet paper is one of those things we can’t do without, but we don’t mention them often. It belongs to the intimate sphere, which our culture does not expose. Only in times of crisis, it turns out how dear to us are the soft white rolls hanging in the bathroom, the origin of which we do not know.

1. So far, archaeologists have not found any surviving tersory with which the Romans were to rub
2. The ancient Greeks placed the names of their enemies on their pessoi
3. In medieval Europe, moss, sedge, hay and straw were used for hygienic purposes
4. The first mention of the use of paper in the toilet comes from Yen Chih-Thui, a Chinese scholar from the XNUMXth century
5. Mass production of toilet paper began in the USA in 1857
6. The stocking of toilet paper is not an invention of the coronavirus pandemic
7. More information can be found on the Onet homepage

Millions of people around the world still don’t use toilet paper. However, archaeologists have documented the fact that in the old days people did rubbing.

The hygienic tersory of the Romans and the pessoi of the vengeful Greeks

Perhaps while visiting the ancient ruins, you came across the remains of Roman latrines. After the end of the bowel movement, the tersory was used there. It is a stick consisting of a stick wrapped at one end with a sponge soaked in vinegar or salt water. Besides, the territory more than once appears in Roman literature. For example, in Seneca’s letter to the Roman official Lucilius, we find an excerpt about the suicide of a German gladiator. The unfortunate man preferred to shove a sponge-tipped stick “intended for the vilest purposes” down his throat than to fight wild animals.

Archaeologists speculate that the use of the tersory by the Romans influenced the shape of public toilets. Apparently, running water ran in the narrow gutters in the floor, and people using the toilet rinsed the tersoria in it. The proof of this thesis is the latrine found in Ephesus. Unfortunately, archaeologists have not been able to discover any preserved instrument so far.

– Or maybe the tersory was used to clean the latrine? Asked Dr. Jennifer Bates, an archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Museum.

While the destiny of the sponge on a stick is still dark, archaeologists discovered pessoi latrines, another ancient equivalent of toilet paper in Roman and Greek ruins. It consists of small oval or round pebbles or pieces of broken ceramics. We are 100% sure about its destination, because it was immortalized on a 2700-year-old wine goblet. There you can see a crouching man using a pessoi. He is also mentioned in the Talmud. In addition, the ancients liked to scratch the names of their enemies on the pessoi, and by making use of it, they symbolically demeaned their opponents.

1. See also: How to safely use public toilets during a pandemic?

From Chinese hygiene sticks to Rabelais’ gooseneck

Meanwhile, in 1992, in northwest China, other instruments were found to replace today’s toilet paper. Archaeologists dug them at the former Han military base, built on the Silk Road. It was the seven so-called hygienic sticks, i.e. bamboo or wooden spatulas wrapped in a cloth and intended to be rubbed off in a latrine. The fabric covering the 2000-year-old wood was stained with what appeared to be human faeces. Subsequent microscopic analysis confirmed that it was feces. It also turned out to contain parasites that inhabit the human intestines.

“The sticks were found next to the latrine and the parasites could only be human,” says Dr. Bates. – So we are sure that they were used in the latrine.

The purpose of the find is confirmed by texts from the era in which we can read that sticks and spatulas were used in ancient China and Japan.

In the XNUMXth century, in the Land of the Rising Sun, chuugi were the most popular pieces of wood. They were used to clean both the outside and inside of the anus (placed between the buttocks).

In medieval Europe, moss, sedge, hay and straw were popular. People used so much material that the French novelist François Rabelais in the XNUMXth century portrayed their habits in satire. He also mentioned the toilet paper, while concluding that it was ineffective. Rabelais concluded jokingly that a gooseneck would be better.

The evolution of the Chinese invention, i.e. from sheets to rolls

In the field of toilet hygiene, China outclasses the competition. Apparently, toilet paper was invented there in the XNUMXnd century BC The hemp paper found in the tomb of Emperor Wu Di in the 589nd century AD was too rough to write on, so researchers suggest that it was used for toilet purposes. However, the earliest record of this was found in the writings of Yen Chih-Thui, a XNUMXth-century Chinese scholar who had access to many redundant manuscripts. In XNUMX he wrote: “I do not dare to use paper with quotations from the Five Classics or the names of the wise men for toilet purposes.”

1. See also: Scientists: wearing masks in toilets should be compulsory

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Chinese produced toilet paper in the amount of 1. up to 10 sheets per year. And in 1393, thousands of perfumed sheets were produced from rice for the imperial family. In the Middle Kingdom, toilet paper became widely available in the XNUMXth century.

The Western world had to wait for its mass production until 1857. It was then that the inventor, Joseph Gayetty, listed his invention in a mailing catalog. He described it as “healing paper” and sold it in packs of 500 sheets for 50 cents. The Americans could finally move away from bits of newspaper, corncobs, and other improvised toilet articles. The first perforated rolls were introduced to the market in 1890, and in 1930 the production of “splinter free” toilet paper began.

The increased demand for toilet paper is our response to the crisis

In the 1973th century, the history of toilet paper was intertwined with our concerns about the future. In XNUMX, Japanese women began to line up in front of drugstores in long lines to buy a dozen or so rolls as a spare. It was an expression of the growing fear among middle-class Japanese that the peace, stability and economic prosperity achieved through so many austerities would be wiped out by inflation, environmental degradation and the oil crisis.

“For the first time since the late XNUMXs, the future didn’t seem to be better than the past,” explains Eiko Maruko Siniawer, a Williams College historian.

The behavior of the Japanese raised concerns in the United States, and a Wisconsin congressman issued a special statement that there would be no shortage of paper there. Contrary to his intentions, after Johnny Carson’s satirical program “The Tonight Show”, in which the comedian joked about the situation, panic broke out, thankfully short-lived. The Americans also wanted to stock up.

– Instead of laughing at the decisions made at the time, it is worth considering what caused them – says Eiko Siniawer. – The study of hygiene habits can shed new light not only on cultural differences, but also on issues of gender, finance and health.

“It’s worth an anthropological look at how toilet practices have influenced our past and present,” says Dr. Bates.

At the start of the COVID-19 crisis, toilet paper was one of the scarce commodities. People panicked and bought up the stocks of this basic necessity. As you can see, this is nothing new, and history knows many such cases.

We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to the problems of the perineum – a part of the body just like any other. And although it concerns all of us, it is still a taboo subject that we are often ashamed to talk about. What do hormonal changes and natural births change? How not to harm the pelvic floor muscles and how to care for them? How do we talk about perineal problems with our daughters? About this and many other aspects of the problem in a new episode of the podcast.

http://resetmedonet.libsyn.com/jak-zadba-o-minie-dna-miednicy-gosia-wodarczyk

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