Romans make children puke

Sounds as if this is taking historic re-enactment a bit far:

Four pupils were overcome by the smell - called 'Flatulence' - when they visited the museum in Chester.

The smell was coming from an AD 90 Roman 'latrine' feature at the Dewa Roman Experience.

But even after the man-made aroma was toned down by its manufacturers, a further two pupils threw up after smelling it [I think "synthetic" might have been a better choice of words; what was being mimicked, after all, is also "man-made", though admittedly the process of production isn't usually called "manufacture" -- D].

Museum staff insist the smell's strength is now healthy, if not pleasant.

Christine Turner, from the museum, said: "The company that makes our smells for us told us that they had a new smell come in, called 'Flatulence'.

"Obviously we were tempted to use this smell for our latrine.

"We used it on the Friday, it was incredibly powerful, but we assumed that over the weekend it would get more diluted with the air coming into the centre.

"However on the Monday when we had a couple of classes of schoolchildren visit the centre the smell was still so overpowering that unfortunately four children vomited."

The smells are used to make the museum more realistic and bring Roman Britain back to life.

They are made by mixing a cocktail of harmless chemicals.

And no, we aren't going to tell you where you can get 'Flatulence'.

Posted by David on January 10, 2003 8:00 PM