Ahhh, good ol Benjamin Franklin. The founding father known for his wisdom, wit, and scientific discoveries.
But here's something you probably didn't know about him. He also had a rather...pungent sense of humor. Testament to that is his essay titled "A Letter to a Royal Academy," an essay proposing the scientific study of farts 💨 😂
Yes you read that right, I shit you not!
In his letter he proposed scientists to examine what causes the rise of different fart smells, develop methods to improve odor and even the development of drugs that could make farts smell better lmao 😂
The letter was addressed to the Royal Society of Brussels, a prestigious scientific institution of the time and essentially requested the institute to allocate valuable resources towards the science of flatulence.
Of course the letter was intended to be a joke with plenty of satirical and absurd points. The reason he wrote it was his belief that the various academic societies of Europe were increasingly pretentious and concerned with the impractical.
Here's a segment of the essay
Permit me then humbly to propose one of that sort for your consideration, and through you, if you approve it, for the serious Enquiry of learned Physicians, Chemists, &c. of this enlightened Age. It is universally well known, that in digesting our common food, there is created or produced in the bowels of human creatures, a great quantity of wind. That the permitting this air to escape and mix with the atmosphere, is usually offensive to the company, from the fetid smell that accompanies it. That all well-bred people therefore, to avoid giving such offence, forcibly restrain the efforts of nature to discharge that wind.
So next time you face the consequences of a rather unpleasant fart, remember... Benjamin tried to have your back :D
P.S Tagging @epic-fail since he is an actual fart scientist.
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