“An inordinate fondness for beetles.” So J.B.S. Haldane famously quipped when asked what he thought could be deduced about God through the study of natural history. He had a point. There are 380,000 (give or take) species presently known to science – with untold thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, still undiscovered and not yet described.
The scene: England in the middle ages. King Arthur and his faithful servant Patsy have just clip-clopped by two men standing by the road. Large Man: Who’s that then? Dead Collector: I dunno. Must be a king. Large Man: Why? Dead Collector: He hasn’t got shit all over him. (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) […]
Despite the fact that the feces of humans is commonly of sufficient firmness to be picked up with one hand (gloved, of course) while that of cows is roughly the consistency of spoiled pudding, both contain – on average – the same percentage of water content. So why the significant difference in texture and consistency?