A thought occurred to me. A modern diet is different than a medieval one. Therefore, bowel movements would be different. This would impact the use of the toilet paper alternatives, and provide me with a less accurate means to analyze them. So, I am electing to eat a medieval diet from each region and time period prior to using their appropriate means of cleansing after defecating. And while it may seem excessive, I am of the opinion that if I am going to do this, I am going to go all the way.
And therefore, it is necessary for me to revise my 8 week time period to include time to research and implement a medieval diet. The testing of each item (save one, which I will explain in detail below) is hereby waylaid until such time as this dietary change is implemented.
I received information to begin my research on cooking from Master Alexandre Lerot d’Avigne (Thanks Alexandre for the advise!) and have begun the process of learning what a medieval diet consisted of. I am starting with researching and eating a medieval European diet, as it serves the added benefit of helping me with a persona project I am doing concurrently with The Toilet Paper Project.
The amount of information I received from Alexandre is astounding, and it is taking me some time to sort through the resources he pointed me to. A separate blog post will be started as I begin to dive down this rabbit hole.
Before having come to the conclusion above, I did try using linen to cleanse. I believe that my impression based upon the usage of this implement helped to develop the thoughts leading to my dietary change for the purpose of this experiment. Using the linen rags were less unpleasant that I had anticipated. I was not left feeling as clean as after using paper, but it definitely did the job. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the least effective, and 10 being the most effective, I give it an 8. For reference, I view modern toilet paper as a 9 on the scale, and 10 being the cleanliness one feels after bathing. I will revisit linen based on my dietary changes.
While the above was churning in my head, I started to research Roman toilets themselves. I have begun a short passage on them in the revised paper, excerpts of which will be posted on this blog as I complete each region and time period. The Roman portion should be done in time for next week’s blog.