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