Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Manning Bartlett (talk | contribs) at 08:20, 13 December 2001 (gas analysis defended). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=flatulence

It's so sad that Misplaced Pages'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