Incredible as it may seem, back in the 1870’s, an article in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine proposed that taking a charcoal based supplement would cure farting.   I love the way they refer to “farting” as “the not unimportant subject of flatulency”.  Now, I don’t know who would ever want to cure (or even do anything at all to inhibit) farting….but, I guess the Quakers, Puritans, Pilgrims, and Spartans back in the 1870’s were pretty uptight about this kind of stuff?

Not sure if it’s coincidence or not, but the previous month’s issue of the magazine contained an article introducing this new technology called “fire” that was taking the world by storm.   And, the month after the fart-cure article, there was a report on “how to safely light your farts, without your toga catching fire”.  Useful stuff, back in the day, I guess…