Dirty Dishes	Dirty Dishes Archive

The science of modern psychology has blessed us with the knowledge that the root of virtually every social ill can be traced to early childhood sexual trauma. But in the previous century, doctors and sociologists labored under the now-laughable delusion that crime, suicide, nervous exhaustion, insomnia, headaches, bad skin, gum disease, cancer, and spinsterhood were all caused by poor bowel hygiene.

Dawn has been intrigued by the recently released Inner Hygiene by Dr. James C. Wharton. Dr. Wharton traces late-Victorian fascination with our intestines and the paranoid abhorrence of constipation and its perceived evils.

View our poll archive

Ignoring the biological reality that all of us, healthy and infirm alike, are literally full of shit, Victorians felt peristalsis inadequate, and sought to give Mother Nature an additional push with laxatives, mountainous amounts of roughage, gut-pounding massages, abdominal vibrating machines, and a menacing array of "internal bath" machines. Credited with leading the crusade against constipation was Dr. William Arbuthnot Lane of London, who managed to convince the public that virtually everyone's bowels were blocked and in need of professional attention.

For anyone interested in shit, Dawn heartily recommends Inner Hygiene.