Wikipedia: Flatulence/Talk

Cabbage, too, right? ;-) --LMS

Would like to know what kinds of gases are emitted. Is it really methane, or is that a myth? --RjLesch

: A simple experiment with baked beans and a match should convince you that it's methane :) --Robert Merkel

: The explosive component may be methane, but the offensive part for most carivores and omnivores's output spells like Hydrogen Sulphide, H₂S.

It's so sad that Wikipedia's article isn't on the first few pages of the "flatulence" search results! :-) --LMS

Flatulence has SFA (Sweet Fuck-All, do we need that too?) to do with the nature, chemical composition, or sniffability of gasses released.

I humbly suggest:

Gas released from the latter end of a consumptive's alimentary canal.

: Putting on my (dusty) medical doctor's cap - I disagree. The gas released is of significance, it says a lot about the diet of the animal involved and in humans can be a diagnostic aspect in certain gastro-intestinal disorders. Plus the gas involved is a direct consequence of the microbiology of the GIT, so it relates to bacteriology. We had an entire lecture on it during second year physiology (!) (If I could remember anything I'd write the article myself) - MMGB

: I just wish I could track down the New Scientist news article from 25 or more years ago where someone's excessive flatulence problem was solved when they analysed the gases. It was mostly CO2, from which, by a chain of reasoning I don't recall, they concluded he should cut down on dairy products. The report said it worked...

Plus of course "consumptive" means "infected with tuberculosis". --Paul Drye

: My handy dandy dictionary would say that you're being too exclusive: consumptive - tending to consume, destructive, wasteful. Just for fun, btw, consumptive in your sense specifically means tuberculosis that affects the lungs. --Colin dellow