ABSTRACT
The inflammable character of marsh gas or methane—the hydrocarbon CH4—is well known, although less so than the similar quality inherent in colonic gas, giving rise to a torch singeing with which every schoolboy is familiar. The explosive quality of bowel gas is, in fact, due partly to its methane content, which, with hydrogen, predominates in patients on leguminous and milky diets. Since both hydrogen and methane are odourless it is obvious that other constituents are included in the orthodox composition of the winds that inhabit the nether regions. Nitrogen is ordinarily the chief of these fabrics of flatulence; carbon dioxide is alleged to constitute 10% and oxygen less than 1% of the whole.
