Talk:Tobacco smoke enema

Header
Are you sure that you're not just making this stuff up, Wikipedia? -- Brian Boyko, 3/29/2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.114.147.88 (talk) 09:13, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, but you can check for yourself by reading the references provided in the article.  Sandstein   11:39, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Is this where the phase "Blow smoke up someone's ass" came from? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.47.164.98 (talk) 22:10, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Sources, or lack thereof
Although I don't have much trouble buying the premise of this article, sources which can't be viewed in their entirety (or viewed without subscription) are of very limited value as sources. Also, when you try to research this topic on the internet, many of the search engine results point right back to the Wikipedia article, a red flag if there ever was one for quality research and sourcing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.199.57.3 (talk) 10:42, 3 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I suggest you visit a library. They're quite wonderful, although you need to use your legs to get there. Parrot of Doom (talk) 22:08, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Sources seem to load just fine. The Lancet was the only source requiring registration, but the registration was free. Lloydsargent (talk) 23:06, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Blowing smoke etymology
The source cited (Eric Burns's book) does not actually attribute the etymology of "blowing smoke" to the book. His exact words on page 6 of the introduction is "To blow smoke up one's ass. Today it mean to compliment in a crude and obvious manner; in the past it meant to cure a manner even more crude."

Since this is not a work of linguistic study or a text in that field, and the author makes no claim that it is, I feel attributing that "fact" to that book is specious reasoning at best. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.175.8.88 (talk) 01:44, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Addition: The etymology for "ass" in its current meaning dates to the 1930's, far after this practice fell out of vogue. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ass —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.175.8.88 (talk) 23:42, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

tobacco clyster
Dear all, I just read an article on this facinating advancement of modern medicine. The date of 1811 was mentioned as the beginning of the end of said practice. In the Netherlands, this is incorrect. A decree in 1840 specified its use (preferably for those who suffered from drowning, along with other usefull measures such as bloodletting and "bodily heat".

Please see the source http://www.engelfriet.net/Alie/Hans/tabaksklisteer.htm which is in dutch (translate using google) and has some nice pictures and a scan of several newspaper clippings. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.173.212.103 (talk) 10:47, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Plain ol' Tobacco enemas
Title	Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization Author	Iain Gately Edition	reprint Publisher	Grove Press, 2003 ISBN 0802139604, 9780802139603 Length	416 pages

gives a couple of examples of liquid Tobacco (tea) enemas. p. 8 Columbian shaman's clyster in his A.D. 500 tomb, medicinal and spiritual South American example, etc.

and p. 162 (briefly) cure for hemeriods in 1820's soon after nicotine was discovered.

A search of Google books for "tobacco enema" gives 850 results, mostly full view old medical journals, which I suspect are mostly about liquid enemas. Any interest in just changing this to Tobacco enema (link comes back to this article)? Smallbones (talk) 17:44, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Scope
Great expansions, but we should now rethink the scope of the article. Much of it is now about tobacco as a medicine generally, or as a liquid enema (as also noted above). The general medicinal use especially would seem to belong in a more general article (see sidebox), but does not seem to be covered in any existing article. Maybe we could repurpose this whole article as "tobacco in medicine"?  Sandstein  06:01, 1 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I've no problem with any of this being copied to such an article, but the uses of tobacco as a medicine seem to be quite far-ranging. If we were to write in detail about each use, as I've (mostly) done here, I think we'd have an article with about 100k of prose.  The early use of tobacco is intended to give an idea as to why people used tobacco, and not just any smoke.  I'm still finding material to add. Parrot of Doom 08:08, 1 July 2010 (UTC)