Good ol’ days of fartin’ med humor
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Loading ...I was looking up something regarding ulcerative colitis and treatment in the Merck Manual while studying pathology (was convinced it was caused by C. difficile; I was quickly corrected as C. diff causes pseudomembranous colitis) and poking around, I found this link on intestinal gas. I admit; I clicked with a twinge of juvenile expecation. I was skimming through when I saw this at the bottom of the page (emphases mine):
The following piece appeared in the Gastrointestinal section of past editions of The Merck Manual, and is being reprinted here because of reader demand.
Flatulence, which can cause great psychosocial distress, is unofficially described according to its salient characteristics: (1) the “slider” (crowded elevator type), which is released slowly and noiselessly, sometimes with devastating effect; (2) the open sphincter, or “pooh” type, which is said to be of higher temperature and more aromatic; (3) the staccato or drumbeat type, pleasantly passed in privacy; and (4) the “bark” type (described in a personal communication) is characterized by a sharp exclamatory eruption that effectively interrupts (and often concludes) conversation. Aromaticity is not a prominent feature. Rarely, this usually distressing symptom has been turned to advantage, as with a Frenchman referred to as “Le Petomane,” who became affluent as an effluent performer who played tunes with the gas from his rectum on the Moulin Rouge stage.
Really, there’s no need for this. I can see where this was taken out (hopefully many editions ago) but the fact that it was brought back by reader demand is, uh, scary. “Affluent/effluent” — how clever this author thought he was. “Personal communication?” That was the bar I guess back then for standards of systematic classification. Then again, at least it’s not DSM-style, or else there would be exhaustive (pun!) criteria pages long to determine exactly how each can be labeled. No thanks.
Ok, that’s your time wastage for the day. Happy to have provided a mindless diversion or sorry to have totally ruined your snack-while-blog-reading, whichever is the case.
'Net Finds, Humor, Medical and Health | enrico | 
May 3, 2006 8:19 pm
By Gold Star M.S., May 14, 2006 @ 2:49 pm
Ah yes, the Slider, with devastating effects. I can certainly relate.