This video was made possible by WIX. If you are ready to create a website, head
over to wix.com/go/infographics to try out one of their premium plans right now. Everyone remembers at least one job in their
life they absolutely hated, for most people that's one of the many terrible jobs they
get immediately after leaving home and striking it out on their own for the first time. But throughout history some people have not
only worked, but made careers out of occupations that are disgusting, disturbing, or outright
dangerous and painful. Hello and welcome to another episode of The
Infographics Show- today we're taking a look at the worst jobs that have ever existed. 12. Leech collector. During the 18thand 19thcentury a craze for
leeches hit Europe. Fueled by the practice of bloodletting, or
the draining of blood from the human body for supposed health benefits, leeches were
in demand by doctors across the continent to treat their ailing patients. Thought to help remove bad 'humours' from
the body, dozens of leeches were attached to a patient who was then sucked on by the
hungry little parasites. But someone had to provide all those slimy
little blood suckers, and for a long time that was the work of poor peasant women. Wading into swampy water and baring their
legs, the leeches would latch on to their bodies and then later be collected by the
dozens. Not a physically tough job, 'leeching' was
still extremely dangerous as the leeches could drain a fair amount of blood and possibly
pass on dangerous infections. Surprisingly leeches are being used once again
in modern medicine to help patients heal from certain surgeries, but they are valued today
for their ability to let blood flow freely rather than to suck it up. Oh, and they are also grown in laboratories
and don't require anyone to wade into disgusting water naked from the waist down. 11. Whipping Boy Medieval Europeans believed that royals were
appointed by God himself, so therefore if a young royal prince began to act up, who
could possibly punish him but his father, the King- no doubt busily managing the kingdom-
or God himself- no doubt busily managing creation? Enter the practice of the whipping boy. In lieu of striking his holyness' royal bottom,
a child was reared up alongside young princes who was then punished in their stead. It was hoped that the pain was vicariously
felt and the lesson learnt, but judging from the behavior of some of history's monarchs,
we're pretty sure a great deal of princes cared not a whit what their poor whipping
boys suffered. Still, some were handsomely compensated for
their childhood pains, such as William Murray, whipping boy to Charles I, who was made into
an Earl for his diligent sufferings. Regardless, taking the heat for some spoiled
noble child has to no doubt have been one of the worst jobs in history. 10. Fuller Wool is a waterproof material that mankind
has been spinning into a variety of clothing items for millenia, yet the process of weaving
it results in a material that is coarse with a wide mesh and is easily frayed. This is due to the natural oil and grease
on a sheep's skin, which has to be removed to make the cloth soft and fluffy. This was the job of a Fuller- a job so terrible
that in ancient Roman times it was relegated to slaves. In order to degrease wool, it would be draped
in a large empty tub which was then filled with urine- an alkaline solution that degrades
fats and oils. Filling the tub with several gallons of urine
from who knows how many people, the Fuller then had to climb in and stomp on it with
their bare feet. Oh, and the second worst part of this job? Having to go out and physically collect the
urine from public toilets and private homes. 9. Groom of the Stool As we've seen previously, Europe held monarchs
in pretty high esteem, though given the long, long history of crazy kings and pointless
wars, it's a little hard to imagine why. Well, given their status as wielders of divine
right granted unto them by God himself, Kings were of course far too important to wipe their
own behinds. This was instead the job of the Groom of the
Stool- an assistant to the king responsible for fetching the king's toilet chair, wiping
his rear clean, and collecting the stool for examination and monitoring of the monarch's
health. Believe it or not, this was considered a position
of privilege amongst European nobility, so next time someone calls you a kiss-ass just
remind them you're only one spot away from the revered position of being a wipe-ass instead. 8. Rat Catcher Prior to the creation of modern rat traps,
rats would often be dealt with in a much more questionable way. Responding to rat infestations, rat catchers
would rub oils of aniseed and thyme into their hands and clothing to attract the hungry rodents,
and then try to catch them with his bare hands. As harbingers of all manners of disease, this
made rat catching an extremely dangerous occupation, but live rats could be sold for a tidy profit
to less-than-reputable food vendors and as meal for some livestock. 7. Match Girl Before the advent of the lighter, mankind
relied exclusively on matches to light candles, cigars and heating fires. While the process of actually making a match
wasn't particularly difficult or disgusting, it was the result of years spent dipping pieces
of wood into a highly toxic phosphorus solution that made this a horrible job to work at. Inhalation of the phosphorus used in the match
head caused an ailment known as “phossy jaw”, a horrific affliction of the lower
jaw which eroded the gums and caused them to give off a foul-smelling discharge. After years the jaws would begin to give off
an eerie glow, and the only known treatment was complete removal of part of the jawbone. Next time someone argues with you about government
over-regulations, have them google a picture of phossy jaw. 6. Bone Grubber It turns out that despite its explosion in
popularity, recycling has been around for millenia. In Victorian cities, professional bone grubbers
would scavenge rotting bones from butchers, garbage piles, and stockyards and sell them
to manufacturers. The scavenged bones would be made into toothbrush
handles, children's teething rings, and various other personal items, and what wasn't sold
was ground down into fertilizer or boiled up for soapmaking. With the popularity of corpse robbing in Victorian
England, we can't help but wonder how many family relatives ended up household goods. In a way we suppose it's true that our loved
ones are with us long after they're gone- specially if one of their femurs makes up
the toothbrush you use every night! 5. Mudlark Scavenging was a huge economy in Victorian
England, with nearly everything imaginable being recycled and renewed into something
else- modern hippies would surely have been impressed. But at the bottom of the scavenger hierarchy
was the Mudlark who cruised trash dumps and river banks looking for absolutely anything
overlooked by other scavengers. The poorest of the poor, these destitute souls
wandered freezing water full of human excrement, rotting fish, and the not-so-occasional human
body to find bits of metal, bone or cloth to sell. 4. Tanner Without a doubt one of the most disgusting
and dangerous jobs of all time, tanners were regardless one of the most important occupations
in the history of mankind. Tasked with the essential work of preserving
animal hides for their use in clothing and goods, tanners employed a disgusting and potentially
dangerous process to prepare hides. First the hides were soaked in giant pits
of lime to soften hair and excess tissues. The hair and excess fat would then be scraped
off by hand, but accidental exposure to lime was not only dangerous to breathe in but resulted
in nasty chemical burns on exposed flesh. A cleaned hide was then re-immersed into a
pit of water and feces to further clean and soften it- typically this would be animal
feces from livestock or dogs, but could just as well have been from public toilets. These massive pits of watery poo would ferment,
and Victorian era tanneries were beyond a shadow of a doubt the most disgusting places
one could ever work in. 3. Gong Farmer Most farmers grow crops or livestock, but
in Medieval Europe the Gong Farmer harvested the end result of a proper farmer's hard work:
poop, lots and lots of it. As cities exploded in size and with even rudimentary
sewage systems still centuries away, cities across Europe needed a solution to the mounting
poop crisis. With people simply tossing their waste onto
the street or into holes behind their houses, the greatest cities of Europe smelled just
awful, and were a daily nightmare of disease and infection. That's when some enterprising lad must have
gotten a very bright idea. Tasked with collecting all the waste produced
by the city's residents, Gong Farmers had to dig human waste out of pits and collect
it from privies to be recycled as fertilizer or used as building materials. Despite being in incredibly high demand, Gong
Farmers were not surprisingly looked down on by the rest of society and often forced
to live away from the general population in their own small communities. Liable to succumb to various diseases and
ostracized for doing a critical job in Medieval Europe, Gong Farmers were truly the unsung,
smelly heroes of human civilization. 2. River Pig Lumberjacks provide us with the wood we need
to build everything from homes to furniture, but before the creation of the internal combustion
engine, most of that wood was delivered to lumber mills via rivers. Dumped into a river, floating logs would cruise
along with the current in the hundreds, but given their numbers logjams (is that were
the word possibly comes from?) were inevitable. These were the responsibility of the River
Pig, a hapless worker who would ride the logs down the river and jump between them while
trying to free them from jams with a long steel pike. An absolutely dangerous job that required
incredible dexterity and balance, river pigs were routinely killed as they fell off logs
and crushed between them in the river's current, an occurrence so frequent that work was hardly
ever stopped on their account. 1. Sin Eater Devoutly religious Medieval Europe had some
funny ideas about spirituality and who was too holy or not to wipe their own rear ends. It's no surprise then that Medieval Europeans
would be the ones to invent one of the most peculiar jobs on this list. The Sin-Eater was an individual called upon
during times of death. After a loved one died it was tradition to
place a loaf of bread or other food items along with a cup of beer on the corpse's chest,
with the belief that any lingering sin would be absorbed by the food. The Sin-Eater would then come along and eat
the spiritually tainted food, taking the sin into themselves and leaving the deceased person's
spirit to to enter the after life free of any foodborne sins. Paid a small stipend for their services, Sin-Eaters
literally got a free lunch out of the deal, but because it was widely believed that the
practice corrupted their own souls, were often extreme social outcasts that nobody wanted
to be around. If you think one of the worst jobs to ever
exist is designing websites, then Wix has your back. With over 500 fully customizable templates
and robust design tools that are as simple to use as drag-and-drop, Wix has everything
you need to get started building a stunning website today. And if you get in over your head, their live
technical assistance is always available to help you keep your site looking great. Click the link in the description or go to
wix.com/go/infographics and check out how Wix can help you make the website of your
dreams! We've all worked our fair share of terrible
jobs, but whatever your worst job ever has been we're willing to be it beats the pants
off wiping a noble's behind for a living. What was the worst job you ever worked? Let us know in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other video:
10 Surprisingly High Paying Jobs. Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t
forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time. http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/leechcolle
