What did people wipe/wash with before toilet paper.

Factual Questions
21

medstar wrote: "
… it doesn’t specifically allow flushing"

I have been flushing these wipes for a long enough time to determine that the manufacturers are just playing it safe. But then, that depends on your plumbing and grequency of wipe usage.

22

I heard doctor Dean ODay, on his radio program, tell people how unsantitary, unclean, toilet paper really is.

“Washing” was a common method in the old day, if you had access to water.

Anyways, the good doctor then asked the listeners, hypothetically, if they were in a park, and fell down, and their hands landed in a bunch of poop,

Would they prefer?

  1. to wipe their hands with toilet paper, and that is it, you can wipe as good as you want, but you can only “wipe” your hands with dry tp.

  2. wash their hands with water, soap and water, etc.
    Which is the cleanest method for any cleanup?

23

The older people in my family tell me that that is exactly what indian women did as far as peeing goes. A woman would stop, squat, get up, and walk away, leaving a puddle, even in town. Near as I can guess, up until ww1 time period or so. I didnt really have a problem with what the indian women did.

I am not going to say that the indian women were not as cultured or as smart as today’s college educated soccer moms who will wait in line at a womans restroom for 35 minutes or more(while watching the men go in and out of the mens restroom every 2 minutes).

24

Baby wipes are good, especially if they come in a little packet to carry in your pocket. Or you can take a few and put 'em in a baggy to take to work and such. That Brand of Cottonelle toilet paper also makes wipes that flush. I use the generic “equate” kind that you can flush. I’m having a healthy sex life and i want my parts to be clean and fresh. This stuff will wipe your ass CLEAN. that is all.

25

The History of Toilet Paper:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WolfFiles/wolffiles156.html

&

http://www.scottbrand.com/history/

" Mussel shells were very popular in coastal regions prior to toilet paper’s popularity (approx. 1900). "

"Islamic tradition prescribes that you should wipe with stones or clods of earth, rinse with water, and finally dry with linen cloth. Pious men actually carry clods of earth in their turbans and carry small pitchers of water solely for this purpose. These men traditionally blot the end of their penis with pebbles or clods of earth. "
“In ancient Rome, all public toilets had a sponge attached to the end of a stick which soaked in a bucket of brine (salty water). The rich used wool and rosewater.”
http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/toilet_paper/

26

Mussel shells

Aha! The three sea shells…

27

I know of one outdoor ed instrctor who advocates using the end of a stick.

28

I’m sure the soap and water is the better of the two, but it’s sorta different, seeing as I don’t put my butt into my mouth. No exceptions!

I’m quite content with the current state of affairs.

29

Thank you God for toilet paper.

30

Of course, it wouldn’t be a COB if the kernels weren’t removed! :wink:

My grandfather once presented everyone in the family with an electric corncob. Hilarity ensued. I was ten, I didn’t get it.

Now I do and I’m having myself a good laugh.

Ahhh…the pleasure of the delayed reaction. 23 years delayed.

L

31

three seashells.
o.O

32

You know, this is one of Cecil’s more pathetic efforts, and the reason this question keeps getting asked again and again is because no one has answered it with any satisfaction. Cecil only covers about 200 years of history. What did humans do for the other 100,000+ years?