The gas we pass

Benjamin Franklin once wrote that “it is universally known that in digesting our common food there is produced in the bowels of human creatures a great quantity of wind.” As escaping gas is offensive because of its smell, and retained gas causes pain and disease, he wished one would discover a drug that “shall render the natural discharges of wind from our bodies, not only inoffensive, but agreeable as perfumes.”

Alas, no such …