# Brown dirt and ... other stuff
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-dirt-and-other-stuff/1061
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [August 11, 1999, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-dirt-and-other-stuff/1061 "1999-08-11T16:18:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)
#### Post date: [August 11, 1999, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-dirt-and-other-stuff/1061/1 "1999-08-11T16:18:00Z")
[www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdirtbrown.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdirtbrown.html)
The last statement in the answer is at least misleading. The brown color of feces is largely due to certain pigmented compounds found in bile.
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### Author:  [@Eloise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eloise)
#### Post date: [August 11, 1999, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-dirt-and-other-stuff/1061/2 "1999-08-11T18:00:00Z")
… And the organic compounds, you’ve got to admit :-\>
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### Author:  [@mr\_john](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_john)
#### Post date: [August 11, 1999, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-dirt-and-other-stuff/1061/3 "1999-08-11T19:56:00Z")
Torq, it takes a lot of gall to make a statement like that.
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### Author:  [@MrMsty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMsty)
#### Post date: [August 12, 1999, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-dirt-and-other-stuff/1061/4 "1999-08-12T18:13:00Z")
I can confirm this. After my gall bladder was removed, I had a drain installed to suck up the bile that was leaking into my abdomen. That’s when I found that when all that bile escapes from your digestive tract, your poops turn pretty pale, close to white. Bile itself is a dark yellowish brown.
–MrMsty
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### Author:  [@mr\_john](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_john)
#### Post date: [August 12, 1999, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-dirt-and-other-stuff/1061/5 "1999-08-12T20:35:00Z")
10 points to MrMsty Had a drain installed! LMAO I knew barbers did surgery, but plumbers? Did you get the one with the removable p trap or the cleanout hole?
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### Author:  [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)
#### Post date: [August 12, 1999, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-dirt-and-other-stuff/1061/6 "1999-08-12T21:10:00Z")
O.K. MrMsty, I’m pretty new here, but that has GOT to be the furthest any SDMBer has gone to test a mailbag answer. If they have a Cecil loyalty award, you win.
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