Dysentery, typhoid, parasites, and other infections lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths every year, all because one in three people alive in 2017 don't have access to toilets and latrines.
After confessing that he did in fact have vital intelligence snaking its way through his GI tract, the Prussians chained him to a latrine until a box emerged 30 hours later.
In war-torn regions and areas affected by natural disasters toilets are among the most sought-after amenities, but apart from insufficient portable toilets and unhygienic latrines, there aren't too many options.
As Dr Langbein describes in Current Biology, this conundrum could be solved if free-roaming cows could be persuaded to voluntarily relieve themselves in a latrine.
All castles, meanwhile, offered all kinds of comforts to their occupants, including latrines, cisterns, wells, hearths, kitchens, ovens, and, of course, chapels.