Droppings, poo, shit, faeces, excreta, stools, crap&

it's all quite natural

but if there are germs in it

then it pays to be clean.

No one I know has rats in her house.

But a few hundred years ago

most people had rats in their houses

as well as a lot of other unpleasant things.

People didn't know that you could get diseases from rats.

So if there were a lot of rat droppings about

(especially in people's food that the rats had got to)

then it could end up being eaten by people

and they would get sick.