This document describes some of the worst jobs in history, including gong farmers who removed human excrement, resurrectionists who stole corpses for medical study, Roman fullers who cleaned togas in human urine, Victorian sewer-hunters who scavenged sewers, the groom of the stool who helped the king with bodily functions, whipping boys who were punished in place of princes, Egyptian mummifiers who removed organs from corpses, and leech collectors who gathered leeches from marshes often suffering injuries. Many of these jobs involved disgusting, dangerous, or demeaning tasks.

1. THE WORST
JOBS IN
HISTORY

3. GONG FARMER

4. Someone who removed human
excrement from privies

5. Gong farmers were heavy
smokers to disguise the
odours

7. Resurrectionist

8. Resurrectionists snatched fresh
corpses for medical study

9. They were well paid. By the 1800s a set
of teeth alone was worth £1

11. Roman Fuller

12. 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.

13. Roman public toilets

14. The ammonia in urine helped with
cleaning

16. Victorian
Sewer-Hunter

17. Sewer-Hunters walked through
London´s sewerage networks
looking for coins, nails or rope
to sell

18. It was a risky job,
they could be
trapped by high
tides

20. Groom of
The
Stool

21. To be a “groom of the stool” was one of
the highest honours at the Tudor court.

22. The job consisted in helping the king with
his bodily functions and washing

23. 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

25. Whipping boy

26. A royal prince always had a “whipping boy”

27. 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.

29. Egyptian mummifier

30. After the dead, Egyptian mummifiers
removed and washed the internal
organs of the corpse

31. They destroyed the brain by poking a
hook up the nose and pulling out
the remains.

32. To add insult to injury, many mummifiers were
ostracized from their local communities.

34. Leech collector

35. Until the 19th century, these small
animals were important for Western
medicine.

36. A leech collector would catch
dozens each day by getting into
leech-infested marshes for hours

37. Traditionally a female job, workers often
suffered dangerous blood-loss and
infections.

38. The end