[The following takes place in 1702, when Dr. Charles Goodall was playing a game of Bowls with friends in Tunbridge Wells. A friend of his, Anthony Grey, the 11th Earl of Kent (aged 57) suddenly collapsed, likely of a stroke or aneurism, and his friends tried everything they knew to revive him.]
It sounds as if the poor man had died within minutes of his original collapse. Nevertheless, the earl’s corpse (presumably) was propped up in a coach and taken to his own lodgings. Even now the treatments continued:
As soon as his Lordship was put into his warm bed we ordered several pipes of tobacco thoroughly lighted to be blown up the anus, which we thought might be of use, when we could not have the advantage of tobacco glysters.
A “glister” is an enema. A liquid preparation of tobacco, which was known to be a stimulant, was routinely injected through the anus to treat a variety of conditions. On this occasion, however, they did not have any enema paraphernalia to hand, so instead resorted to blowing smoke up the dead man’s bottom. Though this may sound an eccentric thing to do, it was a standard resuscitation technique, often employed in case of drowning.
Author’s Note:
Those who administered the tobacco enema without due care and attention were liable to get a mouthful of the patient’s rectal contents, a frightful possibility that made it a hazardous undertaking – not to mention an altruistic one. This is the origin of the expression “to blow smoke up someone’s ass,” meaning to behave in an ingratiating fashion.
Source:
Morris, Thomas. “Dubious Remedies.” The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth: and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine. Dutton, An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018. 106-7. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Samuel Auguste David Tissot (ed. John Wesley), Advices, with Respect to Health. Extracted from a Late Author (Bristol: W. Pine, 1769), 150-153.
Further Reading:
Anthony Grey, 11th Earl of Kent
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