In many ways, Joseph Goldberger's filth parties were pretty tame.

These get-togethers took place in medical clinics with no booze or music and just a handful of guests.

But the appetizers?

Well, those definitely lived up to the name of filth parties.

Goldberger was a tall doctor from New York City with a firm jaw and wavy red hair.

In 1916, he was studying a mysterious disease called Pelagra, which caused skin rashes and diarrhea.

During his research, he'd scrapes scabs off his patient's skin

to study them, as well as collect urine and stool samples, Pretty standard stuff. But what happened next violated every

rule of hygiene imaginable. Before each filth party, Goldberger took the scabs and urine in feces and mixed each ingredient

with some flour.

He proceeded to knead the mass into small bites. Then, with a sigh or a prayer, every guest at the party had to

choke these appetizers down. In fact, calling this a filth party seems like an understatement.

So what on Earth would possess someone to do this?

Well, science, for one thing. Goldberger was trying to prove that, unlike most

epidemic diseases, Palagra was not caused by germs and was therefore not contagious. But deeper than that, Goldberger was also

motivated by anger. Politicians had been attacking him for his research,

calling him a fool and a liar. Even worse, the attacks prevented patients from getting help, delays

that led to death. Swallowing scabs and feces may sound extreme, but to a crusader like Joseph Goldberger,

it was the only reasonable thing to do.

Hi, I'm Sam Keene, and you're listening to the and you're listening to the disappearing spoon,

a topsy-turvy, sciencey history podcast, where footnotes become the real story. Goldberger worked for a government agency called the Public Health Service or PHS

and he was famous or notorious for his obsessive focus.

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