Feces, also known as poop or stools, is something that people and animals pass out of their bodies after digestion. Poop plays an important role in health by removing waste and undigested material from the body. But who first discovered this smelly but vital substance? Let’s take a look at the history of how humans came to understand poop.
When did humans first notice poop?
Humans have likely been aware of poop since the very beginning of our existence as a species. Even our early hominid ancestors who lived millions of years ago would have encountered and smelled their own feces. However, they probably did not have much understanding of what it was made of or its role in health.
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the first scientific discoveries about poop occurred. This is because early humans did not keep written records of their observations. However, we can make some educated guesses about when key realizations about poop emerged:
- Hunter-gatherers likely noticed that poop attracts flies and gives off a foul odor if left out in the open. This probably led them to bury feces, especially around camps and living areas, for cleanliness.
- Groups who lived in the same location for long periods of time, such as some Native American tribes, created designated areas for defecation away from dwellings.
- The development of agriculture in civilizations like ancient Egypt and China necessitated management of both human and animal feces to use as fertilizer.
- Ancient Roman and Greek physicians made observations about stool appearance and consistency in health and disease.
So while humans have been familiar with poop since our earliest days, scientific understanding emerged gradually over thousands of years alongside advancements in agriculture, sanitation, medicine and other fields.
When did scientists first study poop systematically?
One of the first methodical scientific undertakings to understand feces and its role in health was conducted in the 1700s by an Italian biologist named Lazzaro Spallanzani. Spallanzani experimented by sealing urine and feces in containers for long periods of time. He showed that specimens of urine eventually became free of bacteria and did not decay further, while fecal specimens continued decomposing.
This pioneering work demonstrated that feces harbored additional microscopic organisms and substances that urine did not. Spallanzani had discovered the bacteria responsible for decaying poop into simpler organic compounds! While he did not identify specific microbes, his meticulous approach using sealed containers laid the groundwork for later milestones in microbiology and clinical studies of feces.
When were different components of poop identified?
In the 1800s and 1900s, several key discoveries were made to identify the specific contents of human feces:
- 1815 – English chemist William Prout identifies the presence of digested fat in the form of fatty acids and glycerol.
- 1824 – English chemist William Prout identifies the presence of digested carbohydrates in the form of sugar molecules.
- 1844 – German chemist Friedrich Miescher identifies the presence of DNA molecules shed from the intestine.
- 1861 – French chemist Louis Pasteur discovers bacteria and yeast cells in feces.
- 1895 – British bacteriologist Henry Tovey isolates the bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) from stool specimens.
By the early 1900s, scientists had identified most of the major components of poop, including undigested food, bacteria, fatty acids, sugars, and DNA from intestinal cells. Later work expanded on techniques to identify the thousands of unique bacterial species that inhabit the human gut.
When was the digestive process elucidated?
Understanding what raw materials went into poop was an important first step. But scientists also wanted to understand how those materials were produced by digestion within the body. Key advances included:
- 1833 – American physician William Beaumont publishes findings from a patient with a stomach wound that allowed direct observation of digestion.
- 1839 – German physiologist Theodor Schwann proposes that digestion relies on chemicals secreted by the stomach and intestine.
- 1876 – German physiologist Wilhelm Kühne isolates the digestive enzyme pepsin from gastric juices.
- 1929 – English physiologist Sir Arthur Hurst publishes conclusive evidence that the appendix has no role in digestion.
Research by many scientists over the course of the 1800s elucidated how mechanical and chemical processes break down food step-by-step as it passes through the gut. This established the link between food, digestion and the components of feces.
When did clinical poop analysis begin?
Once scientists understood what comprised feces and how it was produced, the next step was studying how poop related to health and illness. Key developments in the clinical aspects of poop analysis included:
- Ancient Greece – Writings from Hippocrates describe inspecting the color, consistency and smell of stool to diagnose disease.
- 4th century CE – Chinese doctor Ge Hong records differences in stool findings between healthy individuals and those with diarrhea or constipation.
- 16th century – European physicians begin systematically correlating stool form and qualities with specific illnesses.
- 1902 – Austrian physician Hermann Boas publishes studies correlating dyspepsia and gastrointestinal pathology with irregular stool form.
- 1967 – American physician William Whitehead proposes formal criteria for diagnosing irritable bowel syndrome based on bowel habits.
By the 20th century, extensive clinical work allowed detailed categorization of stool qualities, consistencies, and frequencies associated with different healthy and disease states of the digestive tract. This remains a vital diagnostic tool for gastroenterologists.
Conclusion
While poop has likely been part of the human experience since our earliest days, scientific understanding of feces emerged gradually over thousands of years. Early civilizations developed sanitation systems that recognized theimportance of waste disposal. Beginning in the 1700s, scientific discoveries identified the unique components of poop arising from digestion by systematically studying feces. Clinical correlations of stool properties with health expanded on this fundamental work. So while it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly who first discovered poop, we owe much of our knowledge about this smelly but important substance to incremental research by many scientists across different eras investigating the science behind number 2!