Dr. W: Believe it or not, the term "blood in the stools" dates back to the seventeen hundreds
and the work of classical composer George Frederic Handel. One of his orchestra violin players was
a prankster and got a kick out of putting thumb tacks on the stool where Handel sat when he played
piano with the orchestra. Oddly enough, Handel never felt the pinches, ruining the joke, but, when
he was done playing piano for the night, resulted in leaving blood on his piano stool. The prankster
tried to use longer tacks and more of them but Handel never felt a one, over and over ruining
expensive piano stools, which he denied had been stained with his blood. Also, Handel eventually
died from a heart attack, which doctors in those days did not know could be forecast from finding
blood in his feces. Blood in the feces, or stools, could also be signs of an Anisakisasis infection,
Japanese Encephalitis, Diamond Blackfan Anemia, Onchocerciasis and sometimes Pertussis. There are
other diseases related to the occurence but we have no room left to answer this question.
|