On Wednesday, August 8, 2012 9:20:09 PM UTC+1, Tim Streater wrote:

Personally I find the whole concept disgusting.

It is/was a German thing, probably evolved from eating a lot of pork and inspecting the stools for signs of tapeworms;
less disgusting than tapeworms.

Certainly a major culture shock on first encountering one. Less os than the French squat crappers.