"In some aristocratic households, the Herzog or Fürst would appoint a physician whose sole duty was to inspect the stools of the family members daily, making de

"In some aristocratic households, the Herzog or Fürst would appoint a physician whose sole duty was to inspect the stools of the family members daily, making detailed notes on consistency, form and appearance. He would recommend adjustments to the nobile diet accordingly. The specially shaped receptacles for the material to be inspected thus became intricately associated with nobility and wealth, and during the rapid industrialisation of the late 19th Century, middle class urban households adopted them in vast numbers" From the History of European Stool Inspections, Henry O.R. Scrap (Oxford 2003)