Smoke Enemas. Really?

[12pups]

Okay. Those damnable hyperlinks you discover while looking up something else. I just *had* to click on it.
From the late 1600s till about 1811, having borrowed the technique from some Native American tribe, medical society considered tobacco smoke enemas one of the best ways to revive drowning victims.
I have scratched a bald spot on my noggin over this: What in the world leads someone to think that blowing smoke up someone's butt makes their lungs work better?
But now I know the origin of one of my dad's favorite expressions: "Someone's blowing smoke up your a**."
You can read about it in the Wikipedia, but the practice declined after 1811 when someone demonstrated that nicotine was poisonous and affected the heart.
I see soooo many distracting paths for this thread to take. But... did you know of this? One guy in my office actually did know of this.

 

[12pups]

Definitely calls for aromatics. Definitely.

 

[phred]

I giggled for 15 minutes the first time I read about this. It still makes me grin... :D

 

[jah76]

Oh yes. And long before that the indigenous South American tribes did the same.

 

[12pups]

"Warmth and stimulation" was the goal. You know what? You could probably bring me back from the dead if you did that to me. Who needs those electric paddle things?

 

[loneredtree]

I saw an apparatus for administering smoke in that manner in a gold rush museum in Folsom, California. So the good doctors were blowing smoke in California in 1849.
:evil:

 

[rangerearthpig]

I saw an apparatus for administering smoke in that manner in a gold rush museum in Folsom, California. So the good doctors were blowing smoke in California in 1849.

I hope it a resembled church warden more than a nose warmer!! 8O

 

[crazypipe]

 

[cobguy]

I saw the thread title and my first thought was ... that would require a loooong drying time! lol
People today are still trying odd enemas ... have you heard of the "coffee enema"?
In medicine they are starting to re-introduce normal bacteria by pushing "donor feces" via enema.
At least with the smoke technique they moved on to the ears in the form of "Candling".

 

[jazz]

According to a popular TV show here in the UK called QI (Quite Interesting). Where they now have rubber rings along rivers they use to have a type of bellows for the very purpose of blowing smoke up somones arse.
The mind truly boggles as to what they were thinking with this idea but I find comfort in the fact medicine has moved on.
Anyhow, must dash. Time for my evening leeches before bed.
James

 

[acutabovebriar]

DEEP relaxation!!

 

[mso489]

The smoke enema was only the first step. It was the pipe cleaners that were intended to

tickle the victim awake.

 

[salmonfisher]

I would hope its not hot smoke, freshens memory to joining the blue flame club :rofl:

 

[12pups]

Wonder if they used three-step loading for the orifice filling technique. And... the tamper must have been quite the interesting tool.

 

[12pups]

Then there's that country song that is now disturbing to me: We're just blowing smoke.

 

[12pups]

Used to be just medicinal. Judging by some bills introduced to Congress, it's now strictly a political procedure.

 

[kcvet67]

The smoke enema was only the first step. It was the pipe cleaners that were intended to

tickle the victim awake.

I hope those weren't bristle cleaners. :lol:

 

[zekest]

NBC said that people who don't do it live an "Alternative Lifestyle".

 

[riskybusiness]

I believe the linguistic derivation of the term "a** hole" derives from this early medical practice. Back then the nether orifice was called the "ash hole". A semantic shift took place over the years and changed it to the phrase we use today.

 

[oldmannk]

I prefer to have something else blown but not my ass. Perhaps my pipe you think....