Blowing Smoke . . .

I have been feeling very uninspired as of late and have found it difficult to come up with a post theme. This device, however, is so ludicrously bizarre that it has encouraged me to dust of my keyboard.

It appears that, during the 17th century, attempts were made to revive victims of drowning by sticking a hose into their rear end and blowing tobacco smoke into their rectums. Faith in this practice was so widespread that tabacco enema rescue units were stationed along the Thames.

The theory was apparently passed on from North American Indians to colonists, and made its way into the medical mainstream. I have an alternative theory, though, and can just imagine the laughs this hoax created in the dwellings of the indigeneous population at the expense of the gullible Europeans.