What is the purpose of excreta?

Answer 1

"A toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement. Flush toilets, which are common in many parts of the world, may be connected to a nearby septic tank or more commonly in urban areas via a sewerage system to a more distant sewage treatment plant; chemical toilets are used in mobile and many temporary situations where there is no access to sewerage, dry toilets, including pit toilets and composting toiletrequire no or little water with excreta being removed manually or composted in situ. The word toilet may also be used, especially in British English to describe the room containing the fixture for which euphemisms such asrestroom or bathroom are used in American English. Prior to the introduction of modern flush toilets, most human waste disposal took place outdoors in outhouses or latrines. Pail closets were introduced in England and France in an attempt to reduce disease in rapidly expanding cities.

Ancient civilisations which used toilets attached to sewage systems included those of the Indus Valley Civilization, e.g., Harappa[1]and Mohenjo-daro[2]which are located in present day India and Pakistan[3]and also the Romans and Egyptians.[4]Although a precursor to the modern flush toilet system was designed in 1596 byJohn Harington,[5]such systems did not come into widespread use until the late nineteenth century.[6]

Diseases, including cholera which affects some 3 million people each year can be largely prevented when effective sanitation stops fecal matter getting into waterways, groundwater and drinking water supplies.[7]There have been five main cholera outbreaks and pandemics since 1825, during one of which in which 10,000 people died in London alone a physician named John Snow proved that deaths were being caused by people drinking water from a source that had been contaminated by a nearby cesspit; the London sewer system of the time had not reached crowded Soho and many houses had cellars (basements) with overflowing cesspools underneath their floorboards.

According to The Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 by the World Health Organization, 40% of the global population does not have access to 'excreta disposal facilities', mostly in Asia and Africa and there are efforts being made to design simple effective toilets for these people.[8]"

1. ^ Mohenjo-daro, Sindh. "Bathing Area".
2. ^ Anurag Yadav (April 2004.). "Loo and Behold!- A Toilet Museum!".the-south-asian.com.
3. ^ Kaivot Ja Käymälät: Johdatus Historiaan Esimerkkinä Suomi (A Brief History of Wells and Toilets - The Case of Finland), Petri S. Juuti and Katri J. Wallenius, Tampere University Press, ePublications, Tampere, 2005.
4. ^ Who invented the toilet
5. ^ A History of the flush toilet
6. ^ Poop Culture: How America is Shaped by its Grossest National Product, Dave Praeger, ISBN 1-932595-21-X
7. ^ "Cholera vaccines. A brief summary of the March 2010 position paper"(PDF). World Health Organization.
8. ^ "?".
9. ^ a b Kira A. The Bathroom. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976, revised edition, pp.115,116.
10. ^ Van Der Leeden, F., F. L. Troise, and D. K. Todd. The Water Encyclopedia. Lewis Publishers, Inc. Second Edition, 1990, ISBN 0-87371-120-3, table 5-25
11. ^ "Tucson lawmaker wants tax credits for water-conserving toilets". Cronkite News Service. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
12. ^ Environmental History of Water, p.40
13. ^ a b Whitaker, Mark. 30 June 2007. "Why Uganda hates the plastic bag."BBC News via news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 28 September 2007.
14. ^ "?".
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 6th edition, under headword penny: "Phrases: ... spend a penny visit a lavatory, urinate (with allus. to the former price of admission to public lavatories)"
16. ^ "?".
17. ^ Geere, Duncan. (6 January 2011). Sega Installs "'Toylet' Games in Japan's Urinals". Wired UK. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
18. ^ See Egerton op cit
19. ^ National Gallery Catalogues (new series): The British School, Judy Egerton, p. 167, 1998, ISBN 1-85709-170-1, describing the famous Hogarth painting The Toilette from the Marriage A-la-Mode series.
20. ^ All OED (1st edn) for "toilet". The sequence of recorded first use may not exactly match the sequence in which they actually came into use
21. ^ The original OED regards the use for a room including washing, bathing and/or lavatory facilities as "in U.S. esp."(ecially), and does not produce a quotation for the restricted sense as a lavatory, referring to Funk's Standard Dictionary. OED Ist Edn "Toilet"
22. ^ "Lavatorium: a communal wash area, sometimes a dedicated outbuilding, or facility, such as a basin or trough, used by monks". English Heritage Online Thesaurus
23. ^ A dictionary of slang and unconventional English,by Eric Partridge et. al., 8th edition, 2002, p. 185
24. ^ Why Do We Say? (1987) by Nigel Rees
25. ^ Chippindale, Christopher: Stonehenge Complete, 2004 (Thames & Hudson), p130
26. ^ dunny - Definitions from Dictionary.com
27. ^ Netty
28. ^ Ward Bucher (1996) Dictionary of Building Preservation, ISBN 0-471-14413-4
29. ^ The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, Richard Griffin (1892) p. 245
30. ^ Teresi et al. 2002
31. ^ Mohenjo-Daro Early Latrines and Plumbing
32. ^ A History of Technology, Vol.IV: The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850. (C. Singer, E Holmyard, A Hall, T. Williams eds) Oxford Clarendon Press, pps. 507-508, 1958
33. ^ Shu'aib, Tajuddin B., "Qadaahul Haajah (Relieving Oneself)", The Prescribed Prayer Made Simple (MSA West Compendium of Muslim Texts), retrieved 2009-03-10
34. ^ Niamh Horan (April 08 2007), "Surgeons perform delicate operation for Muslims", Irish Independent

Answer 2

Excreta is essentially waste matter excreted from the human body - it includes feces, urine, and perspiration.

Answer 3

Sewage is the left over products from waste. There is no purpose other than it needs sot be disposed of in a safe environment.

Answer 4

poo and wee