Modern science has only recently found that there are compounds in crocodile dung that can act as contraceptives. But the ancient Egyptians knew of this in the year 2000 BC. How did they make this discovery?
There are only three possibilities that I can think of-
They had access to technology that was several millennia ahead of their time.
They made the discovery serendipitously through some perverse sexual practices.
Someone just made a very lucky guess.
So, which is it?
Thanks.
Could you cite, please?
I’m guessing, just off the top of my head, that crocodile dung might be acidic, which would make is slightly effective, but no more or less than citris juice or a few dozen other things… (for some ick reason, human vomit springs to mind - forgive me!)
And does “only recently found” mean “only recently bothered to mention”?
I wonder if the substances also exist in the crocodile flesh (which is more likely to be willingly eaten).
Could you also provide a citation for this discovery?
If there is a contraceptive ability in crocodile dung (I’d also be interested in testing it out), it’s probably a coincidence. It’s much more likely they thought of crocodile dung because of a mythological reason (e.g., the old belief that a crocodile mother eats her children) than by any testing.
It appears that the effect is due to the acidity of the dung. However, the cite I found also list several other ‘primitive’ contraception methods whose effectiveness was later scientifically verified-
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_02.20.03/city/contraception.html
Things were very boring while everyone was sitting around waiting for radio to be invented.
:eek:
I know this is different for some people but speaking personally, any kind of dung turns me off. So croc-shit would work a treat in preventing pregnancies, as far as I’m concerned.
I have also wondered about this. I saw a show on parrots that live in Peru, that spend their days eating clay off a cliff, because it provides a nutrient they can’t get anywhere else.
There are humans who do it too, even to this day, when the appropriate food is running short.
Also similar to some kinds of food that are highly toxic unless prepared in a certain way. How did they figure that out?
“Oh, Jimbo died. Let’s make those mussels again, but this time boil them for two hours longer than last time.”
I imagine it worked something like this. Assume you’re in deep prehistory, before the advent of writing. The year is 500 BM (before mussels).
500 BM: “Ooo, Thag eat mussels and die. No eat mussels.”
495 BM: “People! Great Sun God speak to me! Say eating mussels is bad! Mussels are armored worms from heart of Night Demon! No eat mussels!”
300 BM: “Nice to meet you, Tribe From Other Side Of Canyon, but you eat mussels. We not trust you. Go away.”
200 BM: “Tribe From Other Side Of Canyon not so bad. Gave us water when drought made our well dry up. Still weird that they eat mussels. Must be evil. Not let them marry our daughters.”
100 BM: “Hey, Vang, leader of Other Tribe, we got to ask. Why you eat mussels? Our Great Sun God says we will be punished. No, I not want to try one. Maybe later.”
95 BM: “Everyone! We can eat mussels! Vang show me! Look, I boil them for… ow, not throw rocks! ow! not heretic! okay, okay, I’m leaving! I go live with Other Tribe.”
50 BM: “Hey, Mok, this tasty! What is? Mussels? No! I die now!”
49 BM: “Hey, I not dead.”
1 BM: “People! Great Sun God speak to me! We can eat mussels if they are boiled for two hours to drive out Night Demon’s spirit!”
100 AM (after mussels): “Yum! Mussels! Pass curry.”
501970 AM: Mok’s great[sup]20,000[/sup] grandson opens ethnic seafood restaurant in Reseda.
Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man:
‘Did someone wake up one morning and say, hey, here’s an idea, I’ll just turn someone into a zombie, all I’ll need is some rare fish liver and a piece of root, it’s just a matter of finding the right one? You can see the queue outside the hut, can’t you? No. 94, Red Stripefish liver and Maniac root . . . didn’t work. No. 95, Spikefish liver and Dum-dum root . . . didn’t work. No. 96 -’
Sometimes “because it sounded sort of convincing at the time” is as good a reason as you’re going to get.
You’ve got to remember, the Egyptians believed all sots of rubbish. Most of it was absolute tripe. With so much information floating around some of it had to be right simply be chance.
The trouble is that you choose to believe that the Egyptians had a good reason for believing that crocodile shit mixed with honey is a contraceptive.
At the same time you are choosing to believe that their other beliefs concerning shit as a medicine are baseless superstition
The Egyptians also believed that human shit was a good poultice for a wound, that jackal shit taken orally was a good cure for broken bones, that donkey shit mixed with worms drew out splinters, that hippopotamus shit could be taken with senna pods as a cure for headaches, that eating cat’s shit was just the shot for curing fevers.
That’s just a small portion of Egyptian beliefs on the use of shit as medicine. The thing is that dung itself was considered somewhat sacred in Egypt because of its association with the scarab. Dung balls were a representation of the sun. The Egyptians used dung for everything: food, medicine, poison, make-up, worship. Part of the spirit of the animal was thought to be excreted in the dung, and could be recaptured by using the dung.
I’m assuming no one places any credence on the dozens of other ‘medicinal’ uses of dung subscribed to by the Egyptians. So why does anyone believe that they got the bit about crocodile shit as a contraceptive right based on anything but pure blind chance?
Interesting post, Blake.
While many Ancient Egyptian beliefs could be seen as rubbish by modern eyes, their knowledge of herbology, anatomy, cosmetics, medicine and surgery provides the basis of knowledge for modern medicine. Most herbal remedies used thousands of years ago are still effective today. Given the laudable and impressive list of cures that still survive on medical papari from that era, I wouldn’t call these ad hoc discoveries “pure blind chance.”
Besides, you can never divorce cultural expectations and superstitious beliefs from the effectiveness of remedies on the sick and dying. The body itself has an awesome self-healing ability that science has yet to fully tap, but a person’s absolute inconviction in a cure is often attributed to miraculous cures. I’m sure this is this case of the dung-smearing Egyptians of yore and the leech-bleeding paitients of a century ago. One day students of modern medicine might shake their heads at 21st century medicine and wonder why we were so damned gung-ho about chemotheraphy and elective body surgery.
But NONE of the animal-dung remedies you mentioned in your post were used alone, to my knowledge. Dung, along with urine and civet musk traded from the east – was mixed with herbs, wines, vinegars, spices and oils in poultices, teas or lotions. Very often they were boiled, heated or dried and crushed into powdered form before use. This was a desert environ.
Besides, the Egyptians aren’t alone in ascribing healing properties to crocodile, elephant, camel and cow dung. Ayurvedic (Aryan) medicine calls for elephant urine, goat dung and cow urine, among others for such varied uses as surgucal cauterization and an antidoe for obesity – a handy fact you might want to mention to your neighborhood White Supremecist. I recall a neighbor who grew up in Appalachia country in and around Tennessee who used cow dung to draw out disease – who explained that ‘all cows eat are grass’. Despite our cultural uneasiness with these methods, the fact remains there are substantive advantages to using them.
Minor quibble: You kept saying ‘shit’ in your post, but shit is an Saxon word for human and animal excrement of various looseness and soluability, with all the pejorative negative connotations it enjoys today. Dung is almost exclusively used for animals and frequently the excrement of herbivores like Egypt’s camels and cows. All dung is shit, but all shit ain’t dung.
And where did you get the weird idea that Egyptians ATE human shit for FOOD?? Cite, please!
What?! Shit and dung are both equally valid terms for that which comes out the poop-chute. Period. Full stop. End of story.
If you want cites Askia - how 'bout one for this:" the fact remains there are substantive advantages to using them."
And let me know when you meet an oncologist who is “gung-ho” about radiation and chemo therapy - unless by gung-ho you mean, instead of unrestrained enthusiasm, grateful for the effectiveness of these crude methods.
Cervaise, that’s one of the coolest posts I’ve seen for some time. Heh. Thanks. 
The origins of crocodile dung as a contraceptive dates back many millennia. One source says that the first recorded instance came about when a young Egyptian man was out in his chariot one starry night with a young Egyptian woman. He pulled over to a deserted spot on the road where romantic young couples often lingered. He claimed his horse was out of oats, and by the way, wouldn’t she be cooler on such a hot night if she loosened her clothes a bit? They kissed, and as their passion grew, the woman stopped him and said, “Wait, what if I get pregnant?”
The young man looked around, saw a pile of crocodile dung by the riverbank, and said, “Don’t worry, darling, we can use crocodile dung.”
“What?” she said, pulling her robes back into place.
“Don’t worry, it’s an ancient method of contraception,” he said. “I love you, baby. I’d never lie to you.”
So they used the crocodile dung and did the deed.
Nine months later, she delivered a healthy baby. And that was how the phrase was born: “Everything men tell you is a croc of shit.”
Got any independent evidence of that? Most of the thousand year old herbal remedies I’ve seen are superstitious nonsense similar to that I listed above. I can’t believe that the same people who thought that a turd poultice was a good way to treat a knife wound, or that ground tiger penis is a great cure for impotence had any more success with cures involving weeds.
Where did you get he idea that I ever said that?
Haha, well said Andy Licious
If you made that up yourself you are a genius.
CROIKEY![sub]Yes, I’m the first to say this. . .[/sub]
Actually, I’ve read this too, IIRC in the Reader’s Digest Book of Facts (or something similarly titled). They used crocodile dung as a spermicide, as well as hollowed out lemon halves as a makeshift diaphragm. I’ll try to track down a cite, but I know I’ve read it too. . .
Tripler
Me make out using croc-poop? No thanks.