24. The Ancients Swore by the Healing Properties of Poop
Dung might be disgusting, but it is also widely available. At some point, some ancients decided to use it as a medicine. Whether for better or for worse, the exact details of how somebody first arrived at that brainstorm are lost in the mists of history, but it must have been an interesting tale. However it came about, by the time civilization arose, poop was frequently used in treating maladies.
For example, the ancient Egyptians swore by the healing properties of dog, donkey, gazelle, and fly dung, and the ability of those animals’ droppings to ward off evil spirits. They also used animal poop to heal their wounds. On the one hand, applying poop to wounds probably caused tetanus and other infections on occasion. On the other hand, the microflora in some animal dung contains antibiotics, so the remedy might actually have worked every now and then.