THE WORST JOBS IN HISTORY
THE WORST JOBS IN HISTORY
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GONG FARMER
Someone who removed human excrement from privies
Gong farmers were heavy smokers to disguise the odours
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Resurrectionist
Resurrectionists snatched fresh corpses for medical study
They were well paid. By the 1800s a set of teeth alone was worth £1
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Roman Fuller
Doing the laundry was always disgusting in Ancient Rome.
Fullers soaked the white togas and tunics in human urine which was collected from
public toilets.
Roman public toilets
The ammonia in urine helped with cleaning
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Victorian Sewer-Hunter
Sewer-Hunters walked through London´s sewerage networks
looking for coins, nails or rope to sell
It was a risky job, they could be
trapped by high tides
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Groom ofThe
Stool
To be a “groom of the stool” was one of the highest honours at the Tudor court.
The job consisted in helping the king with his bodily functions and washing
The most famous “Groom of the Stool” was Sir Henry Norris, who was not only intimate with King Henry´s private areas, but also those of the King´s second wife, Anne Boleyn.
Both were beheaded
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Whipping boy
A royal prince always had a “whipping boy”
The only person who could punish a king´s son was the king, but as kings were rarely around, tutors had to punish the “whipping boy” when the prince misbehaved.
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Egyptian mummifier
After the dead, Egyptian mummifiers removed and washed the internal
organs of the corpse
They destroyed the brain by poking a hook up the nose and pulling out the remains.
To add insult to injury, many mummifiers were ostracized from their local communities.
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Leech collector
Until the 19th century, these small animals were important for Western
medicine.
A leech collector would catch dozens each day by getting into leech-infested marshes for hours
Traditionally a female job, workers often suffered dangerous blood-loss and
infections.
The end